I was piecing together a story on the death anniversary of Vikram Sarabhai, and noticed some discrepancies in the various accounts, because the itinerary that emerged after reconciling the sources was very jumbled. Note that the SSTC here is the Space Science & Technology Centre, which was later changed to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre after his death. First of all what was the name of Sarabhai's secretary? Was it NVG Warrier or KV Warrier. Guess V Warrier is the safest option here. Anyway, here is the timeline, the best I could make it.
On 29 December, Sarabhai visits SSTC for grueling meeting sessions and then attends the foundation laying ceremony of the Kazhakkuttam railway station with the then Minister of State for Railways, Kengal Hanumanthaiya. He is staying at the Halcyon Castle hotel, a colonial-style retreat for the Travancore royal family, that is now the Leela Kovalam. Sarabhai has dinner with AE Muthunayagam and Warrier. Muthunayagam was invited to breakfast the next day.
Sarabhai was to be presented with a report on the Control Power Plant the next morning. Kalam called Sarabhai in the night from the airport lounge in Delhi, where he had gone to attend a Missile Panel meeting. Sarabhai instructed Kalam to wait at the Trivandrum airport after disembarking, and meet him at the airport itself. Warrier also told Kalam to meet Sarabhai at the airport the next morning. Sarabhai planned to fly to Bombay the next day.
The meetings, breakfast and flight never took place. Sarabhai died of cardiac arrest, his body was airlifted to Ahmedabad for last rites. Now the discrepancy is in the movements of Kalam here... In Rocketing through the Skies, G Madhavan Nair writes, "His last discussion was supposed to have been with Dr Kalam. Dr Sarabhai's private secretary, KV Warrier, told Dr Kalam to meet Dr sarabhai the next morning on the way to the airport, as he had planned to go back to Delhi by the morning flight on 30 December 1971."
According to Kalam's autobiography, Wings of Fire, "It was my usual practice to brief Prof. Sarabhai after every Missile Panel Meeting. After attending one such meeting in Delhi on 30 December 1971, I was returning to Trivandrum. Prof. Sarabhai was visiting Thumba that very day to review the SLV design. I spoke to him on the telephone from the airport lounge about the salient points that had emerged at the panel meeting. He instructed me to wait at Trivandrum Airport after disembarking from the Delhi flight, and to meet him there before his departure for Bombay the same night."
So let us say he flew on 29th, attended the meeting, and flew back on 30th, he could not have possibly spoke to Sarabhai from Delhi before boarding the flight back! In My Odyssey K Radhakrishnan has just made a mistake by shifting the dates by a day, with Sarabhai dying on 31 December, and saying everything that happened on 29 December actually took place on 30 December.
Update:
So in Vikram Sarabhai: A Life by Amrita Shah where on 29 December, Sarabhai had lunch with RD John, the head of TERLS and HGS Murthy, then met the chemicals group in the afternoon, that went on for a few hours. UR Rao was at this meeting. This was followed by a meeting with Vasant Gowarikar, Suresh Thakur, Y Janardhan Rao, AE Muthunayagam, MK Mukherjee and EV Chitnis.
Gowarikar noticed Sarabhai reclining on the floor with his hands under his head. Thakur and Sarabhai were travelling to Ahmedabad together. Thakur was the PRL Director. Warrier went up to Vikram's room, a little after ten, and this is when Kalam called from Delhi, and Sarabhai instructed Kalam to wait at the airport the next morning.
The next morning, the staff entered the room, and found Sarabhai apparently sleeping, with a book open on his chest.
Now I want to know the name of the book!
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