I was watching the movie ‘Rocketry- The Nambi Effect’ yesterday. This film was directed, written, produced and acted by R. Madhava; he is an actor who you may know from the movie ‘Tanu Weds Manu’. Imagine how big of a fan he must be of him! I got so moved by an inspiration like him that I could not help but write about him. Nambi Narayanan is a rocket scientist who worked at I.S.R.O. (Indian Space Research Organisation). He was awarded with a Padma Bhushan. He went through immense trauma because of the brilliant mind that he had but he showed everyone that he could face all those downfalls and come out of it stronger than ever.
Nambi Narayanan was born in a middle class Tamil Brahmin family on 12th December, 1941 in Nagercoil in Travancore. He met Vikram Sarabhai who was another sensational rocket scientist in 1966 and made him his mentor. In 1969, Nambi Narayanan got a NASA fellowship in Preston University where he learnt about chemical rocket propulsion in detail. His masters program in chemical rocket propulsion under Professor Luigi Crocco was completed in just 10 months instead of the usual 3 years! Solid fuels were taught in great detail there but he was more interested in liquid fuels which at that time was a newer concept and had been tested less than the solid fuels.
Instead of using his knowledge in the United States of America, he went back to India. India itself was quite behind on the concept of liquid fuels and only used solid fuels for its rockets. Nambi knew that India would benefit greatly from liquid fuels and took on the challenge to build a liquid engine for India. Liquid fuels were tested only in a few countries and so they asked France to assist in building a liquid engine. In 1974, the French said they would help if India provided 100 human years of work in jointly developing its 'Viking' engine. ISRO's Nambi Narayanan led the team which developed the 'Viking' engine in 1984. Nambi however named the engine as the ‘Vikas’ engine after his mentor who had recently passed away at that time, Vikram Sarabhai. He made history by building an engine which India used for many of its rockets.
While working for ISRO in 1994, Narayanan was falsely accused of sharing confidential information about India's space programme to two Maldivian nationals, who allegedly sold the secret drawings of ISRO’s rocket engines to Pakistan. He was accused and then arrested for espionage. He was in jail for 50 days. The charges against him were dismissed as false but the false accusation followed by beatings and torture he was put through to spill out the truth was an extremely painful experience he went through. Although, once he was released, he earned back his dignity and respect. He did not let this traumatic experience decide his future. He received a compensation of INR 5 Lakh but the Government of Kerala gave him a whopping 1.3 Crore rupees for the hardship of going through what he did without any fault of his.
You may have noticed that many rocket scientists have died at a young age unexpectedly such as Vikram Sarabhai, Homi J. Bhabha and many others. All of this was because India was racing ahead in the field of space technology with these geniuses by its side in that century. The foreign countries wanted to slow India down by killing those scientists off. Although, India still rocketed ahead with full force and still has an admirable position in the space technology industry. Nambi Narayanan is thankfully still alive today with his cheerful face always smiling just like in the picture given. May he live on for many more years and may his soul live forever in the heart of every Indian.
Amazing!