Farewell Address to the Outgoing Cabinet

Farewell to Shri. Vajpayeeji and his Cabinet colleques

Dear Shri. Vajpayeeji and friends

I would like to recall and narrate the incident, which took place in the year 1980, when we in ISRO have successfully launched SLV3, which put the Rohini Satellite into the orbit. To celebrate the success and to honor Prof. Satish Dhawan and his team the then Prime Minister of India Shrimati. Indira Gandhiji organized a meet of the Parliament Science forum. In that meeting, the Prime Minister and many members spoke about how India was proud of the scientific community and its achievements. In that meeting, Shri. Vajpayeeji congratulated and embraced me for putting India in the space club. That was the beginning of our association and friendship. The connectivity continued then on and during the PAC meeting where in as the Chairman of the PAC, Shri Vajpayeeji used to provide a great push to the science and technology and defence programmes.

The common thing between Vajpayeeji and me is poetry. I always cherish his poems. I would like to recall one of the poems ?OONCHAI? which touched my heart. He says in the poem that the man achieves and achieves. The achievement takes him to heights; higher the achievements, it finally takes him to loneliness. Is loneliness a Bless as a Curse? He asks. Of course he has given a beautiful answer in his poem. He says man is a mighty creation of God. His mind makes happiness. Happiness should be the thick friend through various events all around us. He concludes in his poem:

'My Lord, Never let me climb so high that I can't bend down to embrace another human. Deliver me ever from such arrogance.'

Whenever I read this I remember his embrace in 1980. Today I recall these events with deep respects. Friends above all, I have met a noble human being in my life.