Once upon a time, a boy was in the fifth grade, and his teacher was Sivasubramania Iyer, a great teacher at his school. One day, this wonderful teacher was teaching about the flight of birds. He drew a diagram of a bird, showing the wings, tail, and body. He explained how the birds could create a lift and then fly. He also explained how they change the direction while flying and flying by creating a formation of ten, twenty, or thirty of them.
At the end of the class, the teacher wanted to know whether the students understood or not. The boy and many other students said that they hadn’t understood. Then the teacher had an idea: he wanted to take a practical class. That evening, the whole class went to the seashore, and the students enjoyed the opportunity. The birds were flying and chirping. The teacher pointed out that the seabirds flew in the formation of ten to twenty. The teacher asked to notice the birds flying. The students saw the wings flapping. The teacher told the students to look at the tail and the flapping wings. The students looked closely and watched the birds to see how they could fly. Then the teacher asked the students, Where is the engine, and how is it powered? The boy said, Birds are powered by their own being. Then all the students understood the dynamics of bird flight.
For the boy, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. The bird’s flight entered him and created a special feeling. From that evening on, the boy decided to study flight and flight systems in his future studies. He asked the teacher about his decision, and the teacher said that you should go to engineering college and study something connected with flight science. This advice gave him a goal and a mission in life. The boy went to college and studied at the Madras Institute of Technology, specializing in aeronautical engineering.
Thus, the boy’s life was transformed into that of an aerospace engineer and technologist. That one interesting lesson and live example is the turning point of his life. That boy was none other than our Former President of India and the one who was fondly called as “Missile Man”, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Moral of the Story: Our wings already exist; all we have to do is fly.
