THE SOMANATH EFFECT

FROM GROWING UP IN A HOME WITHOUT ELECTRICITY TO OVERSEEING THE CREATION OF INDIA'S MOST POWERFUL ROCKET AND LEADING ISRO, S. SOMANATH HAS POWERED PAST OBSTACLES THANKS TO HIS RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF DREAMS. THE WEEK'S MAN OF THE YEAR IS NOW EMPOWERING INDIA'S DREAMS

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

In the early 1980s, a sixth-semester mechanical engineering student at the Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering in Kerala’s Kollam district made an unusual request to his head of department, F.V. Albin. He wanted the department to introduce an elective in propulsion engineering. Such a course was then rare, if not nonexistent, in the state and nobody in Albin’s department had the expertise to teach it.

Nonetheless, Albin was moved by the student’s enthusiasm. It may have helped that the extraordinary request came from an extraordinary student; S. Somanath, who was from a humble background, had shown exceptional academic prowess and nurtured a dream to join the Indian Space Research Organisation. Somanath had told Albin that the elective would facilitate his entry into a field about which he was passionate and, importantly, pave the way for a job—an existential need for him.

The HoD approached a 29-year-old lecturer—K. Madhusoodanan Pillai—and asked if he could teach the course. “I was apprehensive as there was no readily available reference material at the college or in libraries,” said Pillai, who is now the vice-principal of a private engineering college in Kollam. “But, I assured the HoD that I would teach it.” He collected academic material from NASA and other space agencies. “It was an era without internet and obtaining academic material was quite challenging,” he said. “I compiled notes based on available sources.”