Biographies of Indian scientists are often limited to school textbooks. Some about whom students learn and cram include CV Raman, Meghnad Shah, Homi Bhabha, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Vikram Sarabhai and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Some have also been popularized through comic books.
Biographies or autobiographies from the Indian scientific and technological firmament are few and far between. Of course, Indian scientists may find a little time to write their memoirs as they grapple with the mysteries of nature, tackle red tape and also handle the pressures of personal life. Even if they write, there would be no market for their manuscripts as Indians are not obsessed with reading, more so when it comes to the stories of scientists in Indian labs!
No wonder we are ignorant about what goes on in these multicore publicly-funded research and development organisations. Breaking this monotony is the book by K Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation – My Odyssey: Memoir of the Man Behind the Mangalyan Mission.
ISRO is truly a temple that has steered India into the realms of modern science and technology since its inception on August 15, 1969. Launching a record number of satellites, reaching the moon, landing on Mars, and creating ever more capable launch vehicles, ISRO has made India and Indians proud of their position in the select group of nations.
Radhakrishnan was very much a part of this journey of trial and triumph, since the time he joined ISRO in 1970, till he retired as its chairman. He was named by Nature magazine in 2014 as one of the top ten scientists in the world who mattered.
My Odyssey in a way chronicles the transformation of India’s space programme, since the era of Dr Vikram Sarabhai – how Radhakrishnan cut his teeth as an avionics engineer on India’s first satellite launch vehicle – Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 project.
A foresighted institution builder, Radhakrishnan created efficient centres to use satellite data for the benefit of people – remote-sensing programmes, deep-sea sensing and the establishment of a tsunami warning system. As India’s space chief, he triumphantly led ISRO through many historic milestones, including the successful launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, with an indigenous cryogenic engine for the first time.

My odyssey will definiTely be a fuTure handbook for Those wanTing To sTudy abouT isro

So it is an insider’s look into ISRO. Along with ISRO scientist Nilanjan Routh, Radhakrishnan explains the intricacies of the world of Indian space research and simplifies its scientific terminology for popular reading.
In the opening chapter, K Radhakrishnan recalls a chat with his wife on the penultimate day before he stepped down from ISRO. At the dinner table, Mini suddenly asked me, ‘How do you feel now?’ ‘Blissful!’ I responded promptly. Could I have asked for more than what we have done during the last five years? ISRO is now admired all over the country and abroad. We have completed 37 missions, six of them in the last six months…We reached Mars.
Thereon he goes on to recount how he started as an ordinary boy from Irinjalakuda in Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala; how he acquired a degree in electrical engineering, a doctorate, and even a management degree. He goes on to pay tribute to his mentors, such as Prof Satish Dhawan who handpicked him for the ISRO headquarters and his successor Prof UR Rao, who groomed him further for a decade among others.
Another facet of the book is that it helps the reader understand how India’s space programme has evolved over the years. It is also a story of how hundreds of unsung scientists are making a difference in the lives of the common man. Even as he helped to place India in the higher galaxies of space research, Radhakrishnan continued with other soul-stirring pursuits – performing Carnatic music and Kathakali at temples and public concerts.
My Odyssey will be a future handbook for those wanting to study how ISRO created historic milestones, even as there are few factual inaccuracies (or perhaps typos) in the book. For instance, it mentions the fiftieth Lok Sabha Elections instead of the fifteenth!
One of the numerous scams that hit the UPA-II government was the Antrix-Devas deal. Radhakrishnan headed ISRO during this tumultuous period. “The credentials of a nationally adored organisation were under the public radar… I had to face the music for something that happened when I was not even with the Department of Space… But I learnt to live with it”.
ISRO has to pay a fine of $ 1.6 billion, payable as compensation to the Bangalore-based multimedia company, Devas Corporation, for breach of contract. A Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal in The Hague had ruled in 2016 that ISRO acted “unfairly and inequitably” to cancel the contract between Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, and Devas, primarily because of its inability to launch GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites on time and lease transponders to Devas, among other things, within two months of his departure.
Whatever the shortcomings, we need more books to understand what goes into our premier scientific and technological establishments.