An evening with Col. Joe Kittinger

On August 16 1960, a brave soldier stood up from the edge of his seat at an altitude of 102,800 feet. Below his step are the words: "This is the highest step in the world". With a pressure suit and gears twice his weight, he gazed at something that could have only been spectacular. With the curvature of the earth in his view and at a distance close to the heavens, he had one job to do: TO JUMP. With his faith bestowed in the Gods above, he stepped off from the top of the world returning to his planet at a blazing velocity of 614 mph. 

53 years later, in one of the coldest dusk, there he was in my sights at the National Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio. I could not believe what I saw. In the middle of the hangar filled with airplanes, there he was accompanied by two American heroes, Arthur Thomson (Redbull stratos technical project director,  Felix Baumgartner's earliest collaborator, pioneering Aerospace Engineer who was involved in the design of B-2 stealth aircraft and a creative artist who created the Batmobile in the Batman movie!) and Dr. Jonathan Clark (A six-time space shuttle crew surgeon who served top roles at NASA Johnson Space center, Naval flight officer, Naval flight surgeon, Navy diver and Special forces freefall parachutist.)

In an hour questionnaire with the two American heroes and one American legend, they revealed the history and technical difficulties behind the jump in 1960 by Col. Joe and the jump in October 14, 2012 by Felix Baumgartner. The amazing fact is that Col. Joe Kittinger's jump is purely dedicated to the advancement of science and not just to break the previous record. And so is Felix Baumgarnter's jump. To see their act of bravery as a dedication to science rather than a stunt, is a whole another realization for me. Col. Joe Kittinger was assigned to a High altitude bailout team at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, right here in Dayton under the project titled "Project Excelsior" meaning "forever upward". Col. Kittinger did series of jumps to study the dynamics of human body when falling from high altitudes. Col. Joe and his team build a drogue chute to stabilize and reduce the rotational rate of humans when falling towards earth. In the process of experimentation, Col. Joe almost lost his life and put himself at risk several times for a greater cause. As a student of experimental Aerodynamics class, I could not help but wonder the process of the experimentation involved in solving a problem which can be as big and as risky as these brave people undertook. In the end of the talk, Col. Joe Kittinger specifically mentioned that it is because of the invention of the drogue chute and the research involved, Felix's jump became successful. It taught me that what we do as engineers will definitely pay off in the future and it might even make a difference.

I went home that night from the museum enchanted. But that night was merely a prelude to what came the other day. Thanks to the efforts taken by my advisor, Dr. Aaron Altman, I had an opportunity to hear Col. Joe Kittinger, Mr. Art Thompson and Dr. Jonathan Clark talk again at my university (University of Dayton). I had an opportunity of a life time to shake hands with the legends and introduce myself and get an autograph in a collage of Col Joe's pictures that I put together. Meeting him in person is the amazing experience in my entire life. For a man of such high achievements, he was the most humble human being I have ever seen. When he talked, with his wisdom and his innocence, I saw a perfect example of what a human being should be. After his talk at the auditorium, me and my friends Mr. Santhosh and Mr. Oman Memon stayed back to be in his presence. We had very good conversation with Col Joe personally and also with Mr. Art and Dr. Clark and we heard several stories about space shuttle missions and crew, the U-2 flight crew and the challenges they faced (especially Decompression sickness (DCS)) and so on. In all that time I could think only of one thing about Col. Joe: "What an incredible human being". And soon after, we found ourselves walking with him and the Redbull team towards Kettering Labs (Engineering Building) to show them our Merlin Flight Simulator.

Col. Joe, Mr. Art Thompson and Dr. Clark was very excited to see the Flight simulator. One of our student technicians Mr. Ted Lannert loaded a redbull racer in the simulator for Col. Joe to fly. Col. Joe, climbed up the stairs and sat in the simulator cockpit to give us the amazing sight ever. "Col. Joe Kittinger in our Flight Simulator". Everyone in the room took a mental picture of that scene which will be in our memory forever. After spending a good amount of time in the simulator, Col. Joe, Mr. Art Thompson and Dr. Jonathan Clark shook our hands for the last time and thanked us for the experience and went their way with a promise to make history worth remembering and to inspire generations to come. 

What an incredible evening! I went home that night with a memory which I will cherish forever through the ages and with an everlasting inspiration to achieve great things in life. Not for the personal agenda but for greater cause, to be a part of something meaningful, to contribute to the development of science and engineering, to be humble, to be brave, to kneel on this God given earth and to raise my arms skyward to be free from fears, to be free from doubts and to be free from anything that might hold me back, to follow in the foot steps of the legend, Col. Joe Kittinger... 

"What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else." 

- Joesph Campbell

The End of a Historic Space Bird

What an incredible site it was to watch the touchdown of the final space shuttle Atlantis early this morning. Thirty years of remarkable journey came to an end when the wheels of Atlantis stopped for the final time in Kennedy Space Center.


 To be launched as a rocket and to land like an aircraft was just words of early science fiction writers. It was myth that was once thought to be impossible to accomplish. But one day, there it was taking its first step towards the sky as the mission controller's voice echoed 'two, one, zero..'. The words which never failed to inspire me. A sense of pride sweeps across every part of my body every time I watch its lift off. There is no feeling greater than watching it roll in style 180 degrees in mid air after clearing the tower embarking its thunderous journey to the stars. I smile every time when the boosters separate the shuttle external tank. And few seconds after that mission commander voices "Houston, we have successful MECO" (Main Engine Cut Off) which says the shuttle has entered its preliminary orbit. A roar of applause will fill the room at the Mission Control Centre and also in my heart. Reentry of the space shuttle is always a great treat for both my eyes and ears. A sense of happiness and victory envelops me every time I hear the two sonic booms produced by shuttle acknowledging its arrival near the landing site, more kind of a victory roar from its remarkable work in space. I feel blessed everytime I watch this exceptional piece of beauty land with its mighty wings and its tremendous valour carrying the pride of thousands of people who worked for what it is now. My heart weeps knowing the fact that I could not see such a beauty of science any where in the near future. There is no such thing that could replace this magnificent space vehicle. For what it has done to the world and for it has done to the people, Space shuttle and its entire fleet will be a pinnacle of human achievements in earth as well in space.



It is no doubt that Space shuttle is a remarkable feat of engineering excellence and an icon of space exploration. It has inspired me each and every day. It gave me a dream, it gave me the passion. It showed me what humans are capable of doing. It gives me an immense honor to have lived in the time of The Space shuttle and watch it perform milestones in space. Space shuttle is only one thing in this world that my hand salutes other than my National Flag.



Farewell Challenger

Farewell Columbia

Farewell Discovery

Farewell Endeavor

And

Farewell Atlantis



Thank you so much for what you have done to this world and to its people and especially for what you have done to me. You have inspired me more than you could imagine. I salut you.

    

A Walk to Remember

Life is a cluster of fiddling moments that gives you the true meaning of it in the long run. In these moments beautiful things occur and everything around you seems to be so ecstatic. These are the times that one can remember. The times that are worth remembering not just for the pleasures we had but for what it taught us. These are the moments where the intangible assets of life called the "Insights" occur or you may call the seed of beatitude sprouts.

I took a walk with my uncle with a withered thought that it may change my capricious mind which was formed due to the recent events happened in my life. We walked through the sturdy buildings wondering about the lives of the people live there. A good weather and a soothing breeze accompanied us all through our way. I just adjusted the volume of my Ipod a little and flowed with the rhythm of life inside and outside me. I just wondered the way of life and the state of mind people have in those kind of life style. There are million ways in which a human can live their lives depending on the various factors which they have. There are many cross roads in between life and its us who choose the way that we have to carry our journey. 

Then cross roads came in our way. I mean the real cross roads. Cross roads of road not the cross roads of life. Ofcourse the latter is always there. There were two roads one running to left and another to right. We wondered which way to choose. In our right we saw a small temple. I was like "Wow.. Mr.God. We will follow your way". So we took right and went past the temple. The corners of my mouth went up as I saw Mr.God. What a crazy thought. So we went on curious to know where this God's road end. I was enjoying songs and I could see people looking at me weirdly not that I blame them. My dress up was like that. I was hearing a song from the famous english rapper Akon. The title of the song was "No more you". I was lip synchronizing that song and suddenly I saw a building close to the streets with a big "U" in it. I was smiling

"Oh k I know what you say Mr.God. There is always U. Thank you very much." It was crazy to the core.   

  

 After walking half a kilometer again we met another crossroad. And there was no temple to be found anywhere in the vicinity. The inertia of the "God, Right, Road, U" feeling hit me again. So we again took right and walked for a while. To our surprise there was a beautiful park in a corner of a street and to our astonishment there was a big church opposite to it. That church was so monumental. I heard its the biggest church in our area. We never thought these would come in this way. We never knew these beautiful and not so hard to find places were in our neighborhood. We went inside the park and I was strolling and caressing the green offshoots trying to peep the "nature loving - got no work to do" human creatures that came to the park. 

And thats where the most beautiful thought stuck my mind.

I recently understood that life can be compared to an ocean. And we are in the middle of it. We have no directions to go where we want. We don't know which path is right or wrong. We just swim in some direction and we may reach a beautiful mountain full of apples or a creepy island full of homo-sapien-flesh loving animals. Its always uncertain and frustrating to know it has to be like this. Going without a direction is fun sometimes but not always. I dint mean going without a goal. No direction means without knowing the way to reach the goal. It would be better if he have some kind of gizmo to tell the way but we should figure it out all by ourselves. But how? 

From this walk I came to know the answer for that question. There are always some signs that shows us that way is the right way. Like we met Mr.God on the road and we chose to go in that way. We believed too that it will lead us somewhere good. And it did. So look for the signs. Thats the external thing. And believe. Thats the internal thing. We need to have both to find the right way. 

So life is full of these small moments which teach us the way we have to live. Nature says many things from its serene beauty and its amative sceneries. Its us who has to find it. Its only we the most complex species in this world can decipher it. Everything we need is around us and let everything we do lead us to a better future. 

Thank you 

The unforgettable 45 minutes of my Life

In all of our lives there occurs an incident which teach us how hard a life on this earth can be. We always have a minimum of two choices to make in all those situations. One is to allow the situation to take control and let it win or take the situation under control and rise to win the race. I like to share one such incident which happened to me recently.

That was one fine saturday morning, I woke up from the trauma of the night before due to a bathetic notion, hoping and asuring myself for a great day. And there was one thing that already included in it from which I know I cannot take flight. It was my toefl exam. It was scheduled on 10.00 A.M and the reporting time was 9.30 A.M. In my bed I could picture myself laying upside down in an unfashioned way stressing my left eye to open. The clock in the far wall showed 6.30. With a mixed up cerebrating of peaceful as well as a rioting expectations I flicked up to the floor. I could find asking myself what happened last night and my image in the mirror gave an expression far too to be understood. After following the series of personal duties of a normal morning day, I sat in the sofa waiting for a sweet cup of coffee. Feeling the taste of coffee and its warmth in my throat, my hand made sure all my belongings which I had to carry for the exam is been took. With new energy and hope, I stepped out of my home at 8.00 A.M. I could hear me say "This is the day. Here we go".

It took me 15 minutes to reach the zone where the exam centre is. Because all I know about the location of the centre is its name and its address which says only the board number and the lane. I should say the lane runs for more than 5 kilometres and also one of the busiest road in Chennai!! Sometimes we say hope is the only thing that drives us. Its true but only thing is it has another side too. I was hoping I could find the centre in half an hour.  From the railway station to the lane it took me 10 minutes to walk. I had to begin my search there and reporting time was just 20 minutes away.

When I begun looking for the centre, I never hoped that I would face such a terrible day. Within a time limit of 20 minutes I was forced and was under pressure to find the centre. When I made the first enquiry, the man in his security uniform said that its in the far side of the lane 5 streets accross. I felt the joy of taking the exam while I was walking the lane. And when I reached there the centre was nowhere to be found. After that all I knew was I ended up enquring about 50 strangers and struting the same lane more than 5 times. The two sentences I heard was " I dont know" and " Its here somewhere, ask him (pointing to other ungodly human)". I ran past my reporting time. My watch showed 9.35. And I am in middle of the road, (with no cellphone, coz not allowed to carry during exam) in one of the busiest lane in chennai. All I saw was high buildings with decorated facades and small road side shops for tea. I stopped and looked around. For the first time in my life I was there with all my hopes lost and with no one to help. My reservoir for self encouragement and all my strength dried up completely. Simply lost in the middle of the road alone with a crucial exam to attend. It was the time my mind started playing game. All I could hear in my head was 

"U wont make it. No I will, U have faced many situations. U will not be allowed, I will beg them. What am I going to say to parents?. U r of no use and u r pathetic. I am not going back without writing the exam. U r doomed, U r a looser, No i am not."

The only thing that ran with hope was time. It was 9.45. I asked one thing, "Is this going to happen to me? Am i not capable of  facing this?" loud enough that a man five foot ahead can hear. All these years I have been in situations which cant be explained in words. Situations where you become your own enemy. I am not the only person who faces hard situations I know. There are people above and people below. But I dont know how many of them faced such a situation. The psycological webs that I built in these years in my mind, started filling my dried up reservoir. Somewhere inside I believed, I made my mind clear that I am going to make it. I prayed to God, "please help me mother". And I should say its not the last hope. It was the first hope of the next level. I found a man doing pooja to a small temple. I appraoched him. I was under impression it should be it. I will get it. I am going to God now. When I asked him, to my worry he said "I don't know". I was expecting to say myself that "I knew this would happen". But after a couple of enquiries, I FOUND THE CENTRE. After reaching there my head automatically tilted up and I could feel my lips smiling at the sky. Thank you God.

I went to centre at 9.50 A.M completely parched but with a hope born anew. I did my test well.

All I learnt is "Life is hard but its not permanent. Even in the deep abyss of the worries, there always lies a hope which needs to be found, which can give light even in the darkest of hours. To hope and to believe seems easy and it is. But standing by it needs a different level of maturity. And as the famous old saying goes, WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY. I learnt it was true. Miracles do occur.".

Thank you.

A tale of my time

Hi everyone. I have completed my 5th semester with all the satisfaction of heart and I thought I could probably write something about my experience in this semester. To begin with I should say it was not like the other semesters I had before. They were nothing more than a scheduled clock of our routine. But this last semester of mine was a mixture of that and with some other well mannered frivolities and pranks. It was a perfect realization of myself I should say if I had to be precise. Because I believe I had divulged in the self consciousness a long time back in my school days. The starting was much more like the previous semesters and the the way it moved was different. 
   As this happened to be my third and the most important year in the college life, I had to confine myself more to academic studies. That was my plan before the commencement. And my invoice told me I had to do much more than that. I had a feeling that I should do something which must be useful to me as well as to others. Like a flower whose presence makes a good home for some tiny living beings in this planet and helping all the way through. I first thought its too much for an ordinary student like me and again my invoice told me that I could do it if I believed in it. So started having faith in myself. And I came to know that trusting oneself does not require the mind and heart of a successful high profile persons. Each and every soul in this earth can do it. So coming back to my college life, interestingly professional subjects attracted me a lot one of which is High speed Aerodynamics. I got an expert teacher and a very kind person as himself for this subject who is also our Head of the Department. Under his guidance I could do well. I learned a lot both in terms of knowledge and wisdom behind the equations and logics. But I am sad to say that I never managed to get full marks in any of the test papers. At sometimes or other the question paper dominated me. And I also felt some pride in allowing it to dominate. It was a mixture of feelings for it. So then all the other subjects were also coming by and I looked good for myself. And things went on. And now looking at my social atmosphere, believe me I made a very good friendship with persons and my class mates to whom I have not even spoken a word in my past two years of my college life. And they are not one or two, I could get along with each and everyone in the class. It was always my dream to become friends with all my classmates. Get to know them, share their feelings and emotions. And I am very glad that I am a friend to all those in my class. I take this opportunity to thank every one of my friends for their kindness and their unresentful friendship. 

In the midst of this semester I got an opportunity to organize a class tour to Ooty. I am a guy who used to travel a lot in the name of tour with my family. So I am pretty much used to the nature of organizing which I gained by watching my kins doing it. So my heart told me that I could do it and it even enforced that is my responsibility to make sure everyone returns as happy as they can be.  But you know, things never happen the same way twice and as we planned. I was getting into my mind more quickly like I had to take all the responsibilities in and around on my two shoulders or so. Which ended up like I am over protecting them and all I found is I was not happy with made others not to be happy but not all the time. I found something was missing in the trip. Something in common. But then realized may be this is supposed to happen this way. I got my friends nearly from each and every corners of my country. It should be the other way in the trip but it was not. So excluding the odds the trip proved to be the best in my life and I almost felt like I was in my family. My friends were so kind and they are my hero's I should say. I learned a lot from them. I figured out responsibilities should not make one person sick and it should not get into your head. Each and every one has their own life philosophy and significance for them and that they are strong enough to take care of themselves.

Well every experience teaches you something worth in your life time, isn't it? It was one of them for me. And I got wised up a lot after that. So in the end I have managed to give good dinner to my folks after the trip. It was my unforgettable moment in my life. Handling two networks of my life, family and friends is the one of the things which I am of no good.   But surprisingly it went through without any timidness. After the trip my mom messaged me that she was very pleased in the I way I handled my kiths and kins and she said I am growing up to be a man. I was very glad to hear that from her. So those were the best moments in my whole life. Everyone remembers the trip with a lot of satisfaction and with great nostalgic remembrance. I too tasted my first beer there. Didn't like it though. Ha ha. The trip made our class to be more united than before. We were very pleased. The differences among us waned out in a dimmer light. Its so great to be a part of it. And the things were different then on. Everyone was happy during classes. Except for the days of exams!! I too found a bit of tiredness and a temporary state to carry on. For the goodness sake I got through. I did well in the internals. And I did something interesting too. In the early days of this semester I accidentally came across the most beautiful plane I have ever seen. It was the "Concorde". The world's only supersonic airliner. I was so excited about the characteristics and making of this plane and placed my time with it for days and days. All in the end I found having a compilation made by me about this marvelous piece of beauty. It was a work of my three months study. And I managed to place one of the copies of my first written book ever in my department's library. And I got a good support from one of my friends to help me through the language and editing of this book who was also a pro in English. I was inspired by that plane and I learned a lot. Again both in terms of knowledge and wisdom. It taught me that men can do anything in this world. Everything is possible by means of hard work and dedication. And what made this plane the most revered one , all  around the globe is people who built it, enjoyed their work. They loved it. They had put a lot of love in their work. And I also learned that without loving what you do and with the hard work alone, even success seems to be an odd thing. On reading the history I found most part of it was not knowledge oriented but it said a lot about about human values behind those lines. You may wonder what I am saying, but its true. To know more about this plane, visit www.concordesst.com. You may wonder it. 

My best moments

Proud moment when I took my parents to the stage after we danced for the farewell show of our batch.

We the Chera House celebrating the achievement of Cock-House Trophy for the year 2005-06.

Me in Kakki uniform ready for Independence Day Parade. This was taken in my room.....

My GSLV Model

Behind me is the model of GSLV Rocket with its MCC and umbilical cord. It was made in my 12th standard at Sainik School Amaravathi Nagar. Besides the construction ,I learn't a lot about thermocoal. I used to heat the knife and then do the work. If I heated it beyond some point the thermocoal will melt to larger distance than the required dimension. If i heat it low, all the fibers from it will stick to knife or blade. And it was really a tiresome work to build the base with thermocoals. I used nearly 40 pillars made of cardboard to withstand the weight of the whole structure. And for the rocket also mild thickness cardboard was used. So its really a hard worked project. But I enjoyed a lot working in that. That design was based on my vision on my visit to ISRO. It really pleases me to hear that it still stands there in my name.