Padma Shri & Padma Bhushan, Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, popularly known as "father of BrahMos", is an Indian scientist who formerly served as Honorary Distinguished Professor at Indian Space Research Organisation and an honorary professor at IIT. He was in Kuwait last week to attend 57th Engineers' Day organised by the Institution of Engineers (India) – Kuwait Chapter. During his visit, few science enthusiast students Ms. Hanshika Sam (India International School), Mr. Samanyu Kumaran (Indian community school, Senior), Ms. Ramya Kumaran (Indian community school, Junior) and Mr. Hariharan Kartikeyan (Indian School of Excellence) got a chance to talk to this renowned scientist.

Below is the few excerpts from the talk.

Hanshika: Having worked with Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, what is the one quality of his that you truly admire?

Dr. Sivathanu Pillai: when he meets children like you, he becomes like a child: When he meets a scientist, he becomes a scientist. He can adopt himself to the people he meets. It comes from the bottom of his heart that is how humble he is. This is the best quality that I truly admire in Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Samanyu: What inspired you to pursue your career in aerospace and space research?

Dr. S Pillai: When I was studying engineering, I wanted to become an electrical engineer. When I was studying in school, I didn't have electricity in my house, so I thought that I should study electrical engineering and help children to have electricity. So, when I was studying the fourth year of my engineering, engineering was five years at that time, we had some project work. You do project in schools now a days. It was in 1968, processors were not well known and prevalent. So, we made a processor as college project, and it got many people’s attention.

Have you heard about Sir C.V. Raman – Indian Noble laureate? He appreciated my project and gave a pat on my back. Then Vikram Sarabhai, the father of space in India, who started the space program reviewed my project. He spent lot of time with me to find out what is the design methodology I have used, the capability it will have and other details. Then he put his hand around me and said, you have got a great future. It was an electrifying moment for me. When a great person such as him tells a student such as me that “you have got a good future”, it’s the biggest motivation in life. I told him that I would like to join him. He said yes. So, I joined the space program and became a space pilot.

Hanshika: Awesome. That was truly inspiring, sir. What emotions did you experience when the Brahmos Aerospace was launched and successfully completed its mission?

Dr. S Pillai: When India was working on the SLV-III with Abdul Kalam as the project director, we were ranked seventh in the world. Later, when we launched Agni, it's an intermediate range ballasting missile, we were ranked fourth in the world. But we wanted to be ranked first in the world and how can India achieve this? This question was bothering us a lot. That's when we thought about the two East Missiles that was used in America called Tomahawk. These missile are subsonic, Sonic means speed of sound whereas Subsonic means speed less than the speed of sound. So, we thought we should make supersonic, more than the speed of sound, which no other country has come up with and this launch resulted in India being ranked first. So, we joined hands with Russia to develop a technology which will give a supersonic speed for the two East Missiles. This is how India became first in the world by launching the Brahmos missile. This is the thrill we have got by achieving it.

Samanyu: Have you ever been worried about failure? And how do you deal with it?

Dr. S Pillai: See, failures are common in the aerospace. When we first worked on SLV-III, and launched, it was not successful. There were four stages in SLV-III. Purpose of SLV-3 was to give required velocity to put the satellite in orbit. So, for a satellite to go around orbit, you need 7.9 km per second speed velocity for the satellite.

Velocity cannot be directed. You must do it stage by stage. We have got four stages in the rocket launch. First stage, worked well, second stage failed. So, all our effort of 7 to 8 years, collapsed because it was a failure, and it was a huge setback. But a great person, Abdul Kalam, he is very determined. He said, okay, failure is common. Many people have failed, NASA has failed, everybody fails at some point in life. We should learn from failure and resolve. Failure is steppingstone to success. So that's what we did. We really were there. We put more effort, and we came out successfully.

Hariharan: Sir, what is your favorite book?

Dr. S Pillai: See, my favorite book is technical. It’s a book written by Sutton called Rocket Propulsion Elements

He has defined the rocket propulsion and guidelines to design rockets in this book.

But I will also tell you, what is my favorite non-technical book.

Light from Many Lamps - It’s based on the principles of life.

Also, Bhagavad Gita - It’s a good book to read and understand how we should be. We should work hard and contribute, but we should not expect, everything should come to us. You should not work for sake of credit. If you work hard, Credit will come automatically.

Ramya: What are some of the most important skills for a scientist to have?

Dr. S Pillai: Question. You must ask question. Who is a scientist? A person who is asking question is a scientist. If you ask a question, you are a scientist. Right?

What is the meaning of Scientist, why scientist is asking question? Sir C.V. Raman is the man who found out the scattering of light. How did he find out? He asked one question. Why the sky is blue? That was the question and answer came to him.

So, one person who asks question is a scientist.

Samanyu: Sir, what advice would you give to young aspiring scientists and engineers?

Dr. S Pillai: A good scientist must go into the detail of things. Anything you read, don't accept it. You should go through the detail, and ask questions such as Why, What and How?

Then after studying the details, how we can improve it? Your originality should come. A person who is creative is going to be a scientist. So, creativity is the one of the quality, one should have.

Hanshika: Sir, my next question for you is Who has been your greatest inspiration?

Dr. S Pillai: My great inspiration came from Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. Vikram Sarabhai is the person who created the space technology for India. He thought that the space technology will solve all the problems of our life. But nobody believed in him, today we have the communication system through a mobile phone, and it works 24/7 because of satellites. And we know everything on the earth because of satellites. We have got navigation systems such as GPS, which helps us get to places wherever we wish. This is also because of a satellite. As we have the space technology now, we are going to the moon, trying to find out how the moon is. All thanks to Vikram Sarabhai and his innovative idea, we can achieve this. Hence, Vikram Sarabhai is my greatest inspiration.

Padma Shri & Padma Bhushan, Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, PhD, D.Sc., is a renowned scientist in DRDO& ISRO and known as father of BrahMos Aerospace. He is the Founder, MD, and former CEO of Brahmos Aerospace. Dr. Pillai formerly served as Honorary Distinguished Professor at Indian Space Research Organization (2015–2018) and an honorary professor at IIT Delhi in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2015–2016) and a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Science (2014–2015).

The Institution of Engineers (India) – Kuwait Chapter proudly celebrated its 57th Engineers' Day on November 23, 2024, at the prestigious Al Amwaj Hall, Holiday Inn, Salmiya. Dr. Pillai graced the event as Chief Guest and inspired the audience with insights into India’s advancement in space technology, including future missions, rocket engineering and missile developments.

The interview was conducted by Ms. Hanshika Sam studying in Class-12, at India International School, Kuwait and passionate about Space Exploration, Mr. Samanyu Kumaran, Grade 8, Indian community school, Senior, Ms. Ramya Kumaran, Grade 3, Indian community school, Junior and Mr. Hariharan Kartikeyan, Grade 2, Indian School of Excellence.