JOURNEY FROM RAMESHWARAM TO RASHTRAPATHY
It is really a difficult journey from a small island Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu to the Rashtrapathy Bhavan in New Delhi. Especially, it is very difficult for a son whose father is just a boatman. Unlike other great scientists, he was neither educated abroad nor in any leading institution. His family was economically backward and his family situations made him do odd jobs like hawking newspapers. At the initial stage, he was educated in Schwartz high school in Ramanathapuram. Later he did his B.Sc. degree in St. Joseph’s college, Trichy. He was more interested in engineering and followed it up with an engineering course in Chennai, in the year 1954. By that time, he wanted to become a pilot. After that, he joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as a trainee in the year 1958. In the following year, he had the opportunity of applying...