Anne Sullivan Macy

The book I chose to read is called The Touch of Magic written by Lorena A. Hickok.  The story was about Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller's  wonderful teacher.  I had never heard of Anne before I read this book, but while looking in the library my mom explained to me who she was and she seemed like she would be an interesting person to do it on.  I was right.

Anne Sullivan Macy was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts.  At the age of nine she was taken to the outskirts of Tewksbury, Massachusetts with her three year old brother Jimmie.  There, they were sent to the Massachusetts State Infirmary.  Not because they were mentally sick or anything, but because they had nowhere else to go.

Their mother had died of tuberculosis and their father had left them.  None of their relatives wanted them because Annie was nearly blind and Jimmie had something wrong with his hip and had to walk with a crutch.  Annie's one year old sister was taken right away by her aunt and uncle because she was darling.  Nobody knew where to send them so that's how she ended up at the infirmary.

A few months after they had arrived, Jimmie got deathly ill.  The doctor's couldn't do anything for him and unfortunately he past away.  Annie took this unbelievably hard for she had realized that Jimmie was the only thing she had ever loved.  

Annie's attitude then worsened even more because she felt she had nothing left.  She would throw hissy fits at the nurses and kick and scream.  Believe it or not, this is one of the character traits that I most admire about Miss Macy.  She was aggressive and didn't let anyone tell her what to do.  Even though she could hardly see, she lived her own life in her own little world.

Another trait that I admire about her is that she was a dreamer.  I know I am a big dreamer and can get lost in my thoughts sometimes, but her dreams weren't like mine.  Annie dreamt of being able to see, but most often dreamt of going to school.  Annie wanted to learn but had no one to teach her.

One day, about a year after Jimmie's death, the State Board of Charities came by to look around.  Annie was so excited because she heard they might be able to send her to school.  When they were leaving she jumped in front of them and yelled out that she wanted to go to school.  The men asked her what was wrong with her and she explained to them that she was nearly blind.

A few days later, after Annie thought she had blown her chance of ever going to school, a girl from the ward came saying that Annie was to go to school.  Annie was ecstatic and couldn't wait to go.  This is the first major event that I think led to Annie's success.

The day finally came and Annie arrived at the Perkins Institution for the Blind in South Boston around noon.  She didn't like it at first but later became quite popular.  While the other girls stayed in nice cottages, Annie stayed in an old cottage with fifty year old Laura Bridgman.  Laura was blind, deaf, and dumb.

Laura Bridgman had gone to that school forty some years earlier and was taught the manual alphabet.  This is where you communicate by spelling words on each other's palms and then feel an object to know that the word spelled is the word felt.

Annie was simply fascinated with this way of communicating that she learned the manual alphabet. That's why I think Laura was the person who had the greatest influence on Annie.  Annie would spend hours "talking" with Laura.  She would tell Laura what was going on in school and things around them and Laura would share her thoughts and feelings back to Annie.

Annie was good in school and her teachers saw that.  She had a hard time with Braille but after a lot of hard work, she got it.  I think that is another admirable trait about Annie.  Her eagerness and willingness to learn.  an education was what she wanted all her life and her dream finally came true.  After she learned Braille, Annie would search the library for books.  She loved to read.

Summer quickly came and all the girls, even Laura, left for home.  The teachers refused to send Annie back to Tewksbury so one of them was able to find her a job doing little work at a rooming house.

One of the roomers, a young man, really took to Annie and felt sorry for her.  One day he told her that he thought he knew of someone who could help her eyes.  Annie agreed to go see Dr. Bradford at the Carney Catholic Hospital.  He insisted on operating even though she explained to him that she had already had two unsuccessful operations.  He convinced her and started work later that summer.

He first cut away the scabs on the insides of her eyelids.  This would stop the scabs from scratching her eyeballs.  He said that he would treat her for a few months and then in a year operate again.

A year passed and Annie, now sixteen, was back.  Dr. Bradford felt good and hopeful that the operation would be successful.  After many days of being bandaged up, the bandages were removed.  Afraid to open her eyes, Annie finally did and was able to see.  Not one hundred percent mind you, but she could see detail and the doctor was smiling.  Being able to see is another thing I think that led up to Annie's success.

Now that Annie could see she had no reason to go back to school.  She had nowhere to go, so the teachers let her stay and help with the younger kids.  She still attended classes and became so popular that she was voted Valedictorian in her sixth and final year of school.

The day was so special, but all Annie could think about was what she would do after school.  Annie had no idea what she wanted, but a couple of teachers said that they might be able to find her a job.  Annie didn't want to think about it so left for the summer.

During a summer day, a letter came for Annie.  It was from her principal asking her to read the enclosed letter.  The letter was from a man from Alabama asking the Perkins Institute if they could recommend a good teacher for his six year old daughter.  She was deaf, blind, and dumb, her name was Helen Keller.Twenty year old Annie decided to go.  On March 5, 1887 Annie headed out to Alabama.  This, I think would have to be the third event that led up to Annie's success.

At first Annie thought she could get through to Helen, but later found that it wouldn't be that easy.  Helen was a dangerous child, like an animal, but what do you expect if you can't hear or see?  After a few days Annie tried to get through to her by being gentle, but during one of Helen's rages she knocked out Annie's two front teeth.

Annie decided to take the initiative and tried disciplining Helen.  Something of which her parents never did.  She thought it would be best if she could be alone with Helen so they moved into their own little cottage a few minutes away from Helen's parents.

Annie started teaching Helen the manual alphabet that she had learned from Laura Bridgman.  Helen was able spell things back, but still they had no meaning to her.  About a month after Annie's arrival, Helen finally figured out that the word Annie was spelling was 

the word of the object she held in her hand.  Soon after this Helen starting writing in Braille.  A lot of it didn't make sense, but as she was learning sentences it got better.

After about a year of working with Helen, Annie decided to take her to Boston.  They didn't spend long there, but Helen soon became a celebrity.  Everyone was interested in Helen, who wouldn't be?

During their long time of fame, Helen and Annie met a lot of neat, interesting people including a very nice young man named John Macy.  He worked for a magazine and was one of the greatest supporters Helen and Annie ever had.  When Helen grew up, John decided that he would ask Annie to marry him.  Annie at first wasn't sure because he was eleven years younger than her.  She finally said yes and they were married on May 2, 1905.  Annie was now thirty-nine and John was twenty-eight.

The marriage only lasted eight years before John decided to sail to Europe.  It wasn't a divorce, but more of a separation.  Annie knew that she could count on him if she needed anything, so it wasn't like they hated each other, it just didn't work out.

Annie and Helen spent the rest of their lives together touring the United States and parts of Canada, talking to people and doing presentations.  Annie off and on during these years, got sick.  Sometimes really bad and sometimes just little colds.  On October 19, 1936, it was different.  A couple of days before, Annie had seemed happy and was laughing and smiling just like her old self.  On that night though, she slipped into a coma 

and never woke up again.  She had quietly past away, but lived a good, long life of seventy years.  Helen was fifty-six.

I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes an interesting true story.  The book taught me a lot about the blind and deaf and how they cope with their unfortunate handicap.  It taught me that even though you might have a handicap nothing is impossible.  As long as you put your mind to it you can do anything.  Anyone who likes an inspirational novel would love this book.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, best known for his pioneering achievements in the automobile industry.  From humble beginnings he was able to create a company that would rank as one of the giants of American and World industry long after his death.  There is no doubt that Henry Ford was a successful business man.  The Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford's legacy, has left its mark on every continent in the world.  However, Ford didn't gain his success solely on his innovation in the automobile industry.  He was a friend to the middle class public as well as the workers in his factories.  For this he was rewarded with financial success by the same people he looked out for.  Moreover, he repeatedly gave back to society through donations, philanthropic foundations, and the creation of organizations that would help to educate and benefit the people. Henry Ford was a man who gained world-wide business success through his innovative ideas, brilliant management skills, and down-to-earth tactics.

         Henry Ford was born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, and educated in district schools. He became a machinist's apprentice in Detroit at the age of 16. From 1888 to 1899 he was a mechanical engineer, and later chief engineer, with the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1893, after experimenting for several years in his leisure hours, he completed the construction of his first gasoline engine.  His first automobile was completed in 1896.  The body was a small crude wooden box, it had a single seat, a steering tiller, bicycle wheels, and an electric bell on the front.  In 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company.

         At first, like his competitors, he made cars that only the wealthy could afford.  But later he came to believe that every man, no matter what his income, should own a car.  This resulted in the inexpensive "Model T" in 1908.  It brought great financial success to his company.  The Model T was in production until 1927 when it was discontinued in favor of a more up-to-date model.  While in production the company sold over 15 million cars. In 1913 Ford began using standardized interchangeable parts and assembly-line techniques in his plant. Although Ford neither originated nor was the first to employ such practices, he was chiefly responsible for their general adoption and for the consequent great expansion of American industry and the raising of the American standard of living. By early 1914 this innovation, although greatly increasing productivity, had resulted in a monthly labor turnover of 40 to 60 percent in his factory, largely because of the unpleasant monotony of assembly-line work and repeated increases in the production quotas assigned to workers.  Ford met this difficulty by doubling the daily wage then standard in the industry, raising it from about $2.50 to $5. The net result was increased stability in his labor force and a substantial reduction in operating costs.  These factors, coupled with the enormous increase in output made possible by new technological methods, led to an increase in company profits from $30 million in 1914 to $60 million in 1916.

        Ford believed that most of the profits should be used to increase the size of the company's factories.  This was an unusual practice at the time. The other stockholders wanted to split the profits among themselves in the form of dividends. Ford  didn't like opposition in his company so he bought out all the other stockholders in 1919.  Within the ensuing few years, however, Ford's preeminence as the largest producer and seller of automobiles in the nation was gradually lost to his competitors, largely because he was slow to adopt the practice of introducing a new model of automobile each year, which had become standard in the industry. During the 1930s Ford adopted the policy of the yearly changeover, but his company was unable to regain the position it had formerly held. 

       In the period from 1937 to 1941, the Ford company became the only major manufacturer of automobiles in the Detroit area that had not recognized any labor union as the collective bargaining representative of employees. At hearings before the National Labor Relations Board, Henry Ford was found guilty of repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The findings against him were upheld on appeal to the federal courts. Ford was constrained to negotiate a standard labor contract after a successful strike by the workers at his main plant at River Rouge, Michigan, in April 1941.     Early in 1941 Ford was granted government contracts whereby he was, at first, to manufacture parts for bombers and, later, the entire airplane. He thereupon launched the construction of a huge plant at Willow Run, Michigan, where production was begun in May 1942.  It was said the plant could produce a bomber an hour. Despite certain technical difficulties, by the end of World War II (1945) this plant had manufactured more than 8000 B-24 Liberator Bombers and other military planes.    Ford was active in several other fields besides those of automobile and airplane manufacturing.  He was nominated for the office of U.S. senator from Michigan in 1918 but was defeated in the election. In the following year he erected the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit at a cost of $7.5 million. He established the Greenfield Village which is a group of American Historical buildings and landmarks and he created the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn which exhibits man's progress in many fields.  Also, he donated large amounts of money to the philanthropic Ford Foundation which is currently one of the world's largest.  In 1919 he became the publisher of the Dearborn Independent, a weekly journal, which at first published anti-Semitic material. After considerable public protest, Ford directed that publication of such articles be discontinued and that a public apology be made to the Jewish people.    Advancing age obliged Ford to retire from the active direction of his gigantic enterprises in 1945. He died on April 7, 1947, in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford left a personal fortune estimated at $500 to $700 million, bequeathing the largest share of his holdings in the Ford Motor Company to the Ford Foundation. Ford revolutionized American and consequently World industry with his pioneering use of the assembly line production method.  He turned a small local car company into one of the world's largest industrial companies.  Henry Ford was a great businessman and a great human being.  He proved that success cannot simply be attained with a good product.  He accomplished what many aspire to, but few actually achieve.  He was able to combine his technological know-how, and innovative ideas with brilliant managerial practices and respect for his workers and customers.  Adding in his philanthropic tendencies, it is obvious that Henry Ford is a perfect model of how to be successful in business and in life.  

George Lucas

George Lucas is one of the most influential film makers in Hollywood history.  He is also the guiding force behind Star Wars and its sequels.  The Star Wars movies tell the story of the rebels Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo as they battle the evil imperial forces of Darth Vader.  These films became some the most popular motion pictures in history.

Lucas was born in Modesto, California, and educated at Modesto Junior College and the University of Southern California, graduating from the university in 1966.  His first love was auto-racing, but a near fatal accident forced him out of the sport and into film making.  His career began with his prize-winning student film THX-1138, a science fiction story that he reworked as his feature-directing debut in 1971. The film was produced by American Zoetrope.  In 1971, Lucas formed his own film company, Lucasfilm Ltd., in San Rafael, California.  With the backing of American film producer Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas then made American Graffiti which returned $50 for every dollar spent on production and distribution, a staggering ration in the movie business.  The film is considered one of the biggest successes of low-budget film making.  It made George Lucas a millionaire before the age of thirty.  It also launched the film careers of Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and Harrison Ford.  The film won the Golden globe, the New York Film Critics' and National Society of Film Critics' awards, and also won five Academy Award nominations and over grossed $145 million dollars.  Lucas was now a major Hollywood director, and was given support for his next project because of it.

Lucas's next film, Star Wars, revolutionized the commercial film industry.  Lucas wrote and directed the science-fiction adventure that almost every studio in Hollywood had turned down, Star Wars took popular culture by storm and redefined the nature of the movies.  The film was a gigantic, unprecedented undertaking, and though he tried to maintain fath that it would be at least a modest success, he went through times of terrible doubt.  Shooting took months of eighteen-hour days, with Lucas overseeing the tiniest details until, at one point, he was hospitalized for hypertension.  Lucas thought that the film would bomb at the box office, but a friend called him and told him what a success it was.  People got out of the movie, and then got in line again.  Star Wars grossed over $400 million dollars on it's initial run alone.  It also created a giant merchandise business.  The stress of directing Star Wars led Lucas to hire Irvin Kershner to direct the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.  After Star Wars, Lucas retired from directing and instead focused on producing films and overseeing Industrial Light & Magic, a company he founded in 1975 to create special audio and visual effects for movies and television.  He served as Exec. Producer for the Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

In 1980, he was the executive producer of Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg, which won five Academy Awards.  He was also the co-executive producer and creator of the story for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  The film, released in 1984, earned two Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar for its visual effects.

Lucas' next project was the adventure-fantasy film Willow. Based on an original story by Lucas, the film was directed by Ron Howard and executive-produced by Lucas.  Willow was released in 1988 and received three Academy Award nominations.

Also in 1988, Lucas executive-produced Tucker: The Man and His Dream.  The film, directed b Francis Coppola, got three Academy Award nominations.  In the following year, Lucas served as executive-producer for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, earned an Oscar for Best Sound Design, and became the number one worldwide box office hit for 1989.

Lucas also created and produced films and series for television, including The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series.  In 1995, his novel Shadow Moon was published, intended as the first installment in a trilogy called Chronicles of the Shadow War.  In 1996, he formed Lucas Learning Ltd., a multimedia publishing company focusing on releasing education CD-ROM's.

In 1997, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were rereleased.  The new versions featured new, digitally enhanced special effects and new scenes that had proved too difficult to include in the original releases.  In 1999, Lucas released Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, the prequel to the Star Wars movies.  The Phantom Menace tells the story of Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker's father.

Lucasfilm, has today evolved into five Lucas companies.  The Lucas group of companies include Lucasfilm Ltd., LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, Lucas Licensing Ltd. and Lucas Learning Ltd.  Lucasfilm includes all of Lucas' feature film and televison productions as well as the business activities of the THX group which is dedicated to ensuring excellent film presentation quality in theaters and homes through a series of specialized services.

Lucas is living proof that a film maker can grab a large audience with life-affirming material.  In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Lucas the Irving G. Thalberg Award for maintaining an exceptionally high standard of film making.  "I've always tried to be aware of what I say in my films," he said in his acceptance speech, "because all of us who make motion pictures are teachers; teachers with very loud voices."

Thomas Fitzsimons

         

     Thomas Fitzsimons, or Fitzsimmons as his last name was sometimes spelled, was born during 1741 and died on August 26, 1811.

Originally from Ireland, as young man he immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to start a career as a merchant.  On November 23, 1761,

he married Catharine Meade.  A few months later, with his brother-in- law, he formed an extensive mercantile and commercial business which

traded chiefly with the West India Islands.  In 1782 Fitzsimons was elected to the congress created by the Articles of Confederation.

      In 1787, Fitzsimons served as a member to the Constitutional Convention, where he took an active role.  While there he argued for a strong national government, stiff restrictions on voting qualifications and office-holding, against slavery, giving Congress the power to tax imports and exports, and granting the House of Representatives and the Senate equal power in making treaties.  He was elected, in 1789, to the first national House of Representatives for the state of  Pennsylvania.  Fitzsimons is counted among the ranks of Alexander

Hamilton's Federalists.  Fitzsimons was a congress man until his defeat in 1794, after which he returned to private life. 

APJ Abdul Kalam Cont.

In the service of the country

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who masterminded India's successful missile programme, has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
-BY ANAND PARTHASARATHY

THE call usually came late in the evening. "Kalam here," it always began, followed by the standard question, "What's happening?" One never knew how to respond, for a day's work at the missile-test bed, on the periphery of Hyderabad, meant a hectic 10 hours with everything seeming to go wrong. After preliminary queries came the real business: a key report had to be sent to the Government the next day. "Eat your dinner in peace and come after you have finished," Kalam always hastened to add. He himself had not yet left the laboratory for the day.

This was how Kalam rounded up the "usual suspects", an informal group of scientists and engineers, when some crucial work was at hand. It might be a no-holds-barred session to thrash out some issues of navigation and guidance before a CCPA (Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs) paper emerged, or to solve a problem dogging the elaborate quality assurance testing cycle to which a key missile component was being subjected.
The sessions were always held at a small round table - a table without a head, for protocol-free discussion. Sometimes the sessions would last till the next morning. For discussions during earthly hours, there was a bigger room across the corridor. But here too, failure to reach a decision was not a recognised option.

RAJEEV BHATT

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Kalam attracted fierce loyalties from all those who came into contact with him. He was able to instil a sense of participation at every level, from the shop floor to the high-tech laboratory. His legion of admirers include some children to whose lives he added a special touch. For nine-year-old Swarna, a polio victim from birth, the Composites Production Centre of the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) designed an ultra lightweight, prosthetic foot support. A primary school student whose model of the Prithvi missile won the first prize in a contest in Secunderabad was taken to DRDL in Kalam's staff car so that he could see the real Prithvi being assembled.
A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM, who was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, on November 25, was born on October 15, 1931 in the temple town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. Kalam went to the Schwartz High School, Ramanathapuram. After graduating in science from St. Joseph's College, Tiruchi, he took a diploma in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology in the mid-1950s. The then Director of MIT, Prof. K.A.V. Pandalai (whom Kalam acknowledged recently as one of his valued teachers, the other being his schoolteacher, Siva Subramani Iyer), gave fascinating details about this phase in Kalam's life in a letter to The Hindu (March 15, 1994).

Kalam joined the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1958 and served as a senior scientific assistant, heading a small team that developed a prototype hovercraft. Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon rode in India's first indigenous hovercraft with Kalam at the controls. But for reasons never explained, the project, which would have been a considerable international achievement in those days, was not encouraged. This was probably one of the reasons why he moved out of DRDO in 1962 and joined the Indian space programme.

At the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Kalam initiated Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) activities; after a stint with the aerodynamics and design group, he joined the satellite launch vehicle team at Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram, and soon became Project Director for SLV-3. The SLV-3 project culminated in putting the scientific satellite Rohini into orbit in July 1980. He was honoured with a Padma Bhushan in 1981.

Kalam was something of a curiosity at Thumba. A bachelor, his spartan lifestyle as a vegetarian and teetotaller who lived in a single room in a lodge in Thiruvananthapuram earned him the nickname Kalam Iyer.
Kalam then moved back into the Defence Research Complex at Kanchanbagh, on the periphery of Hyderabad's Old City, as Director of DRDL. He came to Hyderabad at a time when morale was low at the laboratory as a result of the foreclosure of its ambitious missile project, codenamed 'Devil'. He brought a whiff of ISRO informality to a laboratory that was used to an Army atmosphere. He refused to move into the bungalow allotted to the Director, preferring to stay in one of the eight suites in the Defence Labs Mess. The suite, with a small study and a tiny bedroom, was his home for the next decade.

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile, blasts off from the Interim Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea.

Kalam was instrumental in the re-emergence of the DRDL. This was made possible, as Kalam and the then Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Dr. V.S. Arunachalam (who brought him back to defence research), have always acknowledged, by the crucial role played by R. Venkataraman, who was Defence Minister. Kalam was asked to prepare a blueprint to make India a missile nation. After working with DRDL veterans for over six months, followed by consultations with Arunachalam, Kalam gave a proposal to Venkataraman. It was a staggered scheme under which five missile development programmes were to be taken up one after the other. "Take it back!" said Venkataraman who, though unfamiliar with the technical nitty gritty, had an instinctive feel for larger strategic issues. The Minister suggested that Kalam and Arunachalam recast the plan in such a way as to develop all five missile types under one programme. They did it, as they now admit, by adding "zeroes all over the place."

Kalam's immediate concern was that he would have to tell his colleagues back in Hyderabad that he had committed them to five formidable tasks instead of one. And the time-frame was 10 years.

Out of this audacious initiative was born the guided missile programme, India's most successful military research task to date. Kalam's codenames for the programme's five components were: Prithvi, a surface-to-surface battlefield missile; Nag, an anti-tank missile (ATM); Akash, a swift, medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM); Trishul, a quick-reaction SAM with a shorter range; and Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile, the mightiest of them all. Trishul has the unique distinction of being capable of serving all three services.

From his SLV-3 experience, Kalam had learned the advantages of team work and of sharing the tasks with partners in private and public sector industries. In the new management structure of the Missile Programme, Kalam, as the Chairman of the Programme Management Board, delegated almost all executive and financial powers to five carefully selected Project Directors and kept himself free to address the core technology issues. His task was to inspire and monitor over 20 institutions and partners outside - ranging from large public and private sector suppliers to small specialist firms that needed seed money to take up the precision tasks.

Kalam's contribution in this scheme has been acknowledged by all who worked with him. He set for himself a gruelling schedule. The first half hour of the day was reserved for what was called the morning meeting, where administrative heads met him to take decisions on routine functions. During this period any employee could walk in and discuss administrative problems, which were usually sorted out the same day. The rest of the day was devoted to hands-on interaction with project teams working on a campus spread over 40 hectares.
The missiles went up more or less on schedule: Trishul in 1985, Prithvi in 1988, Agni in 1989 and the others in 1990. And the Kalam legend had grown. He is well-versed in Tamil and has written poetry. Seventeen of his poems were translated into English by Manidarshi, and published as a book titled My Journey in 1994.
The establishment of the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a campus 8 km from DRDL, in 1988 was perhaps the most satisfying achievement for Kalam during the missile years. He received generous funding from the Government to build the futuristic centre, which is totally geared for work in advanced missile technologies. Its state-of-the-art facilities are set in a unique ambience and the level of comfort accorded to the individual worker is matched by few R&D institutions. And Kalam's interest in the environment saw Imarat emerge as an oasis in a rocky wasteland. It has a small orchard and a farm that meets the food requirements of those who stay in the RCI quarters.

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Scientists greet Abdul Kalam after the successful launch of Agni on May 22, 1989.

Kalam was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1990. After 10 years in DRDL, he went to Delhi to take over from Arunachalam as Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister - reluctantly, many in DRDL felt. But the system created by Kalam had taken a firm hold in that decade and the missile programme passed on smoothly into its final phase of production and induction. In Delhi, Kalam as head of the DRDO had to "deliver" other prestigious projects, such as the Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) projects. While management practices he adopted for the missile programme have inevitably rubbed off on these projects, there are no miracles to be had in strategic development areas. There have been technical problems. Even within the missile programme, work on the SAMs and the ATM is slower than anticipated. But the recent multiple flights of Trishul demonstrate that the system Kalam put in place has inherent strengths. As Arunachalam put it, "We are now mature: we learn from mistakes and push on ahead."

"Strength respects strength." This is Kalam's usual response to the question why India needs its own missiles or a battle tank or a combat aircraft. But Kalam is a technocrat. Although there are suggestions that he should use his status, which has been enhanced by the award of Bharat Ratna, to push for the active induction of Agni, it would be uncharacteristic of him to press his view too much in geopolitical matters.

He is the happiest at the drawing board, in discussion with his scientists on how their dreams for the next millennium can be fulfilled. The projects envisaged include: a terminal guidance system for Agni so that it can be precision-targeted; an "air breathing" hyperplane spacecraft that draws oxygen from the atmosphere rather than carry it all the way from the ground; "reusable" missiles; and stealth technology. Kalam has shown that with adequate funding, freedom from procedural holdups and a people-oriented management, India can make products of internationally acceptable technical standards in a demanding arena like defence.

Kalam is no miracle man. As the head of a vast network of laboratories - whose products include avalanche-controlling structures in Kashmir, water desalination kits for the Thar desert; a world class "Sonar" submarine finder for the new warship INS Delhi, and infra-red night vision goggles for the Army - Kalam's attention is necessarily a bit diffused. His self-effacing persona cloaks a formidable catalyst who can make people work.

APJ Abdul Kalam

Born - 15 October 1931

Achievements - This eminent scientist and engineer has also served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. APJ Abdul Kalam is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country. He firmly believes that India needs to play a more assertive role in international relations.

Apart from being a notable scientist and engineer, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India from the period 2002 to 2007. He is a man of vision, who is always full of ideas aimed at the development of the country and is also often also referred to as the Missile Man of India. People loved and respected Dr APJ Abdul Kalam so much during his tenure as President that was popularly called the People's President. Read more about the biography of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam here.

APJ Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 at the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and received honorary doctorates from about 30 universities globally. In the year 1981, the Government of India presented him the nation's highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan and then again, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and the Bharat Ratna in 1997. Before Kalam, there have been only two presidents - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain - to have received the Bharat Ratna before bring appointed to the highest office in India.

Read on about the life history of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who's also the first scientist and bachelor to occupy the seat of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. His perspectives on important topics have been enunciated by him in the book 'India 2020'. It highlights the action plans that will help develop the country into a knowledge superpower by the time 2020. One thing for which he received ample kudos is his unambiguous statement that India needs to play a more assertive role in international relations.

And Dr APJ Abdul Kalam regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower. Even during his tenure as President, APJ Kalam took avid interest in the spheres of India's science and technology. He has even put forward a project plan for establishing bio-implants. He is also an ardent advocate of open source software over proprietary solutions to churn out more profits in the field of information technology in India. 

Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate

             Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?

 These questions have been asked frequently: Was the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee too narrow? Were the committee members unable to appreciate the struggle for freedom among non-European peoples?" Or were the Norwegian committee members perhaps afraid to make a prize award which might be detrimental to the relationship between their own country and Great Britain?

When still alive, Mohandas Gandhi had many admirers, both in India and abroad. But his martyrdom in 1948 made him an even greater symbol of peace. Twenty-one years later, he was commemorated on this double-sized United Kingdom postage stamp.

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee; when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". However, the committee has never commented on the speculations as to why Gandhi was not awarded the prize, and until recently the sources which might shed some light on the matter were unavailable.

Mahatma Gandhi – Who Was He?

Mohandas Karamchand – known as Mahatma or "Great-Souled" – Gandhi was born in Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in what is today the state of Gujarat in Western India, where his father was prime minister. His mother was a profoundly religious Hindu. She and the rest of the Gandhi family belonged to a branch of Hinduism in which non-violence and tolerance between religious groups were considered very important. His family background has later been seen as a very important explanation of why Mohandas Gandhi was able to achieve the position he held in Indian society. In the second half of the 1880s, Mohandas went to London where he studied law. After having finished his studies, he first went back to India to work as a barrister, and then, in 1893, to Natal in South Africa, where he was employed by an Indian trading company.

In South Africa Gandhi worked to improve living conditions for the Indian minority. This work, which was especially directed against increasingly racist legislation, made him develop a strong Indian and religious commitment, and a will to self-sacrifice. With a great deal of success he introduced a method of non-violence in the Indian struggle for basic human rights. The method, satyagraha – "truth force" – was highly idealistic; without rejecting the rule of law as a principle, the Indians should break those laws which were unreasonable or suppressive. Each individual would have to accept punishment for having violated the law. However, he should, calmly, yet with determination, reject the legitimacy of the law in question. This would, hopefully, make the adversaries – first the South African authorities, later the British in India – recognise the unlawfulness of their legislation.

When Gandhi came back to India in 1915, news of his achievements in South Africa had already spread to his home country. In only a few years, during the First World War, he became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress. Through the interwar period he initiated a series of non-violent campaigns against the British authorities. At the same time he made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians, and struggled for the emancipation of the 'untouchables' in Hindu society. While many of his fellow Indian nationalists preferred the use of non-violent methods against the British primarily for tactical reasons, Gandhi's non-violence was a matter of principle. His firmness on that point made people respect him regardless of their attitude towards Indian nationalism or religion. Even the British judges who sentenced him to imprisonment recognised Gandhi as an exceptional personality.

 First Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

Among those who strongly admired Gandhi were the members of a network of pro-Gandhi "Friends of India" associations which had been established in Europe and the USA in the early 1930s. The Friends of India represented different lines of thought. The religious among them admired Gandhi for his piety. Others, anti-militarists and political radicals, were sympathetic to his philosophy of non-violence and supported him as an opponent of imperialism.

In 1937 a member of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament), Ole Colbjørnsen (Labour Party), nominated Gandhi for that year's Nobel Peace Prize, and he was duly selected as one of thirteen candidates on the Norwegian Nobel Committee's short list. Colbjørnsen did not himself write the motivation for Gandhi’s nomination; it was written by leading women of the Norwegian branch of "Friends of India", and its wording was of course as positive as could be expected.

An ordinary politician or a Christ? In this photo Gandhi listens to Muslims during the height of the warfare which followed the partition of India in 1947.

The committee's adviser, professor Jacob Worm-Müller, who wrote a report on Gandhi, was much more critical. On the one hand, he fully understood the general admiration for Gandhi as a person: "He is, undoubtedly, a good, noble and ascetic person – a prominent man who is deservedly honoured and loved by the masses of India." On the other hand, when considering Gandhi as a political leader, the Norwegian professor's description was less favourable. There are, he wrote, "sharp turns in his policies, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained by his followers. (...) He is a freedom fighter and a dictator, an idealist and a nationalist. He is frequently a Christ, but then, suddenly, an ordinary politician."

Gandhi had many critics in the international peace movement. The Nobel Committee adviser referred to these critics in maintaining that he was not consistently pacifist, that he should have known that some of his non-violent campaigns towards the British would degenerate into violence and terror. This was something that had happened during the first Non-Cooperation Campaign in 1920-1921, e.g. when a crowd in Chauri Chaura, the United Provinces, attacked a police station, killed many of the policemen and then set fire to the police station.

A frequent criticism from non-Indians was also that Gandhi was too much of an Indian nationalist. In his report, Professor Worm-Müller expressed his own doubts as to whether Gandhi's ideals were meant to be universal or primarily Indian: "One might say that it is significant that his well-known struggle in South Africa was on behalf of the Indians only, and not of the blacks whose living conditions were even worse."

The name of the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate was to be Lord Cecil of Chelwood. We do not know whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee seriously considered awarding the Peace Prize to Gandhi that year, but it seems rather unlikely. Ole Colbjørnsen renominated him both in 1938 and in 1939, but ten years were to pass before Gandhi made the committee's short list again.

 1947: Victory and Defeat

In 1947 the nominations of Gandhi came by telegram from India, via the Norwegian Foreign Office. The nominators were B.G. Kher, Prime Minister of Bombay, Govindh Bhallabh Panth, Premier of United Provinces, and Mavalankar, the President of the Indian Legislative Assembly. Their arguments in support of his candidacy were written in telegram style, like the one from Govind Bhallabh Panth: "Recommend for this year Nobel Prize Mahatma Gandhi architect of the Indian nation the greatest living exponent of the moral order and the most effective champion of world peace today." There were to be six names on the Nobel Committee's short list, Mohandas Gandhi was one of them.

The Nobel Committee's adviser, the historian Jens Arup Seip, wrote a new report which is primarily an account of Gandhi's role in Indian political history after 1937. "The following ten years," Seip wrote, "from 1937 up to 1947, led to the event which for Gandhi and his movement was at the same time the greatest victory and the worst defeat – India's independence and India's partition." The report describes how Gandhi acted in the three different, but mutually related conflicts which the Indian National Congress had to handle in the last decade before independence: the struggle between the Indians and the British; the question of India's participation in the Second World War; and, finally, the conflict between Hindu and Muslim communities. In all these matters, Gandhi had consistently followed his own principles of non-violence.

The Seip report was not critical towards Gandhi in the same way as the report written by Worm-Müller ten years earlier. It was rather favourable, yet not explicitly supportive. Seip also wrote briefly on the ongoing separation of India and the new Muslim state, Pakistan, and concluded – rather prematurely it would seem today: "It is generally considered, as expressed for example in The Times of 15 August 1947, that if 'the gigantic surgical operation' constituted by the partition of India, has not led to bloodshed of much larger dimensions, Gandhi's teachings, the efforts of his followers and his own presence, should get a substantial part of the credit."

The partition of India in 1947 led to a process which we today probably would describe as "ethnic cleansing". Hundreds of thousands of people were massacred and millions had to move; Muslims from India to Pakistan, Hindus in the opposite direction. Photo shows part of the crowds of refugees which poured into the city of New Delhi.

Having read the report, the members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee must have felt rather updated on the last phase of the Indian struggle for independence. However, the Nobel Peace Prize had never been awarded for that sort of struggle. The committee members also had to consider the following issues: Should Gandhi be selected for being a symbol of non-violence, and what political effects could be expected if the Peace Prize was awarded to the most prominent Indian leader – relations between India and Pakistan were far from developing peacefully during the autumn of 1947?

From the diary of committee chairman Gunnar Jahn, we now know that when the members were to make their decision on October 30, 1947, two acting committee members, the Christian conservative Herman Smitt Ingebretsen and the Christian liberal Christian Oftedal spoke in favour of Gandhi. One year earlier, they had strongly favoured John Mott, the YMCA leader. It seems that they generally preferred candidates who could serve as moral and religious symbols in a world threatened by social and ideological conflicts. However, in 1947 they were not able to convince the three other members. The Labour politician Martin Tranmæl was very reluctant to award the Prize to Gandhi in the midst of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, and former Foreign Minister Birger Braadland agreed with Tranmæl. Gandhi was, they thought, too strongly committed to one of the belligerents. In addition both Tranmæl and Jahn had learnt that, one month earlier, at a prayer-meeting, Gandhi had made a statement which indicated that he had given up his consistent rejection of war. Based on a telegram from Reuters, The Times, on September 27, 1947, under the headline "Mr. Gandhi on 'war' with Pakistan" reported:

 "Mr. Gandhi told his prayer meeting to-night that, though he had always opposed all warfare, if there was no other way of securing justice from Pakistan and if Pakistan persistently refused to see its proved error and continued to minimise it, the Indian Union Government would have to go to war against it. No one wanted war, but he could never advise anyone to put up with injustice. If all Hindus were annihilated for a just cause he would not mind. If there was war, the Hindus in Pakistan could not be fifth columnists. If their loyalty lay not with Pakistan they should leave it. Similarly Muslims whose loyalty was with Pakistan should not stay in the Indian Union."

Gandhi saw "no place for him in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not". In the picture, Gandhi's spiritual heir, Prime Minister Pandit Nehru, Defense Minister Sardar Baldev Singh, and the Commanders-in-Chief of the three Services, are inspecting a Guard of Honour at the Red Fort, Delhi, in August, 1948. Fifty years later, both India and Pakistan had developed and tested their own nuclear weapons.

Gandhi had immediately stated that the report was correct, but incomplete. At the meeting he had added that he himself had not changed his mind and that "he had no place in a new order where they wanted an army, a navy, an air force and what not".

Both Jahn and Tranmæl knew that the first report had not been complete, but they had become very doubtful. Jahn in his diary quoted himself as saying: "While it is true that he (Gandhi) is the greatest personality among the nominees – plenty of good things could be said about him – we should remember that he is not only an apostle for peace; he is first and foremost a patriot. (...) Moreover, we have to bear in mind that Gandhi is not naive. He is an excellent jurist and a lawyer." It seems that the Committee Chairman suspected Gandhi's statement one month earlier to be a deliberate step to deter Pakistani aggression. Three of five members thus being against awarding the 1947 Prize to Gandhi, the Committee unanimously decided to award it to the Quakers.

 1948: A Posthumous Award Considered

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year's Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The Committee received six letters of nomination naming Gandhi; among the nominators were the Quakers and Emily Greene Balch, former Laureates. For the third time Gandhi came on the Committee's short list – this time the list only included three names – and Committee adviser Seip wrote a report on Gandhi's activities during the last five months of his life. He concluded that Gandhi, through his course of life, had put his profound mark on an ethical and political attitude which would prevail as a norm for a large number of people both inside and outside India: "In this respect Gandhi can only be compared to the founders of religions."

Nobody had ever been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. But according to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation in force at that time, the Nobel Prizes could, under certain circumstances, be awarded posthumously. Thus it was possible to give Gandhi the prize. However, Gandhi did not belong to an organisation, he left no property behind and no will; who should receive the Prize money? The Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, August Schou, asked another of the Committee's advisers, lawyer Ole Torleif Røed, to consider the practical consequences if the Committee were to award the Prize posthumously. Røed suggested a number of possible solutions for general application. Subsequently, he asked the Swedish prize-awarding institutions for their opinion. The answers were negative; posthumous awards, they thought, should not take place unless the laureate died after the Committee's decision had been made.

On November 18, 1948, the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Chairman Gunnar Jahn wrote in his diary: "To me it seems beyond doubt that a posthumous award would be contrary to the intentions of the testator." According to the chairman, three of his colleagues agreed in the end, only Mr. Oftedal was in favour of a posthumous award to Gandhi.

Later, there have been speculations that the committee members could have had another deceased peace worker than Gandhi in mind when they declared that there was "no suitable living candidate", namely the Swedish UN envoy to Palestine, Count Bernadotte, who was murdered in September 1948. Today, this can be ruled out; Bernadotte had not been nominated in 1948. Thus it seems reasonable to assume that Gandhi would have been invited to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize had he been alive one more year.

Why Was Gandhi Never Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Up to 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded almost exclusively to Europeans and Americans. In retrospect, the horizon of the Norwegian Nobel Committee may seem too narrow. Gandhi was very different from earlier Laureates. He was no real politician or proponent of international law, not primarily a humanitarian relief worker and not an organiser of international peace congresses. He would have belonged to a new breed of Laureates.

 There is no hint in the archives that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ever took into consideration the possibility of an adverse British reaction to an award to Gandhi. Thus it seems that the hypothesis that the Committee's omission of Gandhi was due to its members' not wanting to provoke British authorities, may be rejected.

 In 1947 the conflict between India and Pakistan and Gandhi's prayer-meeting statement, which made people wonder whether he was about to abandon his consistent pacifism, seem to have been the primary reasons why he was not selected by the committee's majority. Unlike the situation today, there was no tradition for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to try to use the Peace Prize as a stimulus for peaceful settlement of regional conflicts.

 During the last months of his life, Gandhi worked hard to end the violence between Hindus and Muslims which followed the partition of India. We know little about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's discussions on Gandhi's candidature in 1948 – other than the above quoted entry of November 18 in Gunnar Jahn's diary – but it seems clear that they seriously considered a posthumous award. When the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize, and then, one year later, not to spend the prize money for 1948 at all. What many thought should have been Mahatma Gandhi's place on the list of Laureates was silently but respectfully left open.

Sachin Tendulkar

          Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973 in Mumbai, India. He went to Shradashram Vidyamandir, a high school in Mumbai, where he began his cricketing career under his coach Ramakant Achrekar. He attended the MRF Pace Foundation during his schooldays to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who saw him training, was not much impressed and suggested that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead. As a young boy, Tendulkar would practice for hours at the net, and was driven hard by his coach Achrekar.





       While at school, his extraordinary batting skills got noticed by the sports circuit. People felt that the young boy would soon become one of the greats in cricket. In the 1988 season, he scored a century in every inning that he played. In one of the inter school matches that year, he had an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli.

When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar a great Indian batsman of that time, gave him a pair of his own light pads. This touching gesture greatly encouraged the budding cricketer, who 20 years later broke Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries.

 In 1988, when he was just under 16, he scored 100 not out in for Bombay against Gujrat. This was on his first-class debut. He then scored a century in his first appearance in the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy. Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar picked him up after seeing him batting Kapil Dev in the nets. That season he was Bombay’s highest run-getter. In the Irani Trophy final, He made an unbeaten century. He scored a century in all three of his Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy debuts, and became the first player to do so. He was selected for the tour of Pakistan next year.

At the very young age of 16, Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. In this Test, he received several blows to his body at the hands of Waqar Younis, a pace bowler. He made just 15 runs. In the last test in Sialkot, he had a bloody nose from a bouncer, but he went on playing. He scored better in the subsequent games, scoring 53 runs of 18 balls at Peshawar.

In the 1990 Test in England he scored a century at Old Trafford. The English were highly impressed by his disciplined display of immense maturity. He played many types of strokes. His off-side shots from the back foot greatly impressed the English. Though short in height, he confidently faced short deliveries from the English pace bowlers. His great performance made him look the embodiment of Gavaskar, India’s former famous opener.

During the 1991-1992 tour of Australia Tendulkar scored and unbeaten 148 in Sydney and another century on a bouncing pitch a Perth.

At the age of 19, Tendulkar was in England, playing for Yorkshire in 1992. He scored 1070 runs at an average of 45.25 while playing for the English county as the first overseas player.

In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he made 673 runs in 11 matches which enabled India reach the final. Although Australia won the trophy Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.

Shortly after this Tendulkar developed a tennis elbow and he was out of cricket for a while. But by 2005, he was back in form. He played well against Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Tendulkar performed very well against Bangla Desh and he was adjudged the Man of the Series in the Future Cup against South Africa.

Today Tendulkar is a national icon to fans all over the world. He is the most worshipped cricketer in the world. Tendulkar has been granted the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government.

Personal Life

In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a doctor and the daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara and Arjun. Tendulkar now sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through a Mumbai-based NGO.