(From APJ Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire )

My Padma Bhushan evoked mixed reactions at VSSC. While there were some who shared my happiness, there were others who felt I was being unduly singled out for recognition. Some of my close associates turned envious. Why do some people fail to see great values of life because of sadly twisted thought processes? Happiness, satisfaction and succes in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.

An inner voice told me that the time come for a long felt but ignored, need for renewal. Let me clean my slate and write new sums. Were the earlier sums done correctly? Evaluating ones own progress in life is not an easy task. Here the student has to set his own questions, seek his own answers and evaluate them to his own satisfaction. Judgmenet aside, eighteen years at ISRO was too long to stay to leave without pain. As for my afflicted friends, the lines by Lewis Carroll seemed appropriate:

You may charge me with murder

Or want of sense

(We are all of us weak at times)

But the slightest approach to a false

prentece was never among my crimes...