The second SLV-3 mission took place on 18 July 1980. It was six-thirty in the morning. The whole nation’s attention was on the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) launch complex, which has now been named after Prof. Dhawan as a tribute. The mission teams were busy during the countdown and carefully watching the flight sequence. At T-0, the vehicle took off and we witnessed a textbook trajectory. After nearly 600 seconds of the flight, I realized that every stage had given the required velocity including the fourth stage. I made an announcement, ‘Mission director calling all stations. The SLV-3 has given the required velocity, and right altitude to put the satellite Rohini in orbit. Our down range stations and global stations will get the orbit of the satellite within an hour.’ There was thunderous applause from the station and the visitors’ gallery.

The most important thing happened after that. There was another press conference. But this time, Prof. Dhawan did not handle the press; he asked me, along with the other team members, to talk to them.

There are two messages I would like to convey here. The first is one of resilience and the courage to return from a setback. And the second is of the role of a leader in managing failure. When there is success, the leader should give credit to the team. When failure comes, the leader should absorb the failure and protect the team. I had not come across this beautiful education of failure management in any of the textbooks written by any of the institutes at that time.

Believe in Yourself

Address to the participants at the valedictory session of the seminar titled ‘Global Business Bridge: Linking Kentucky and India’, Kentucky, USA

9 April 2010

At a meeting, I had asked some students to highlight the most inspiring person they had come across in their lives. One of the students, Stephanie, gave a beautiful answer to this question. She said that the most inspiring person she’d met was her grandmother, Esther. She told me that her grandmother had been threatened by her boss and told not to vote for a particular presidential candidate or he would fire her. But Esther decided to boldly stand up for her beliefs and principles and told her boss in front of everyone that she would freely vote for the candidate of her choice and was not intimidated by his threat.

Indeed, as history would have it, Esther voted as per her choice, that particular presidential candidate won the elections, and of course, Esther was never fired. This is a unique example of the courage of one woman to fight for her democratic rights even if it meant defying her boss. It also shows us how great examples of leadership and courage exist within our families and friend circles and how, sometimes, we may not notice them.