Reading the recently launched Hindi translation of the book A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: A Life by his close associate and friend Arun Kumar, the tone and intention of the author becomes very clear early in the text. The book is worked out as a hagiography of a person who had achieved a status comparable to a saint, maybe even more than that, in his lifetime. The work is not meant for critical understanding. You need to read it in a particular way in order to appreciate the contents of the book. The book is lucid, easy on the eyes, although unevenly paced, especially in its latter part. It could have been cut by 200 pages to make it more compact. Also, literal translation diminishes the contextual meanings and appeal of the text, e.g. translating ‘strange fellow’ as ‘ajeeb aadmi’ or ‘no free lunch’ as ‘koi free lunch nahi’. Though Kalam donned many hats through his long life: aeronautical engineer, missile man of India, President of the Republic of India, author, philanthropist, educationist, the work focuses on his spiritual side, and thus all the achievements and events merely become a vehicle or side story to the meta narrative of his spiritual and philosophical world.
November 2016, volume 40, No 11