Vikram Sarabhai was nurtured and grew up at a time when there was a tradition of not thinking only of business as your business but doing things for the country and larger society as also your calling, your work, your business, Kartikeya V Sarabhai, writes
On August 23, as the time approached 6.04 pm, the nation held its breath. Each of those last few minutes seemed long and there was a lot of understandable tension. My 11-year-old grandson Kavan held my arm tight as we sat in anticipation, glued to the television. Finally, Vikram landed, softly and exactly as it was supposed to. There was a spontaneous outburst of joy wherever the cameras could take their viewers. The phones started to ring. Media channels wanted a sound bite. “How did you feel?” was one of the first questions. “Like every other proud Indian”, I would reply, “full of admiration for the team at ISRO which had so meticulously and without much hyperbole conducted a very difficult operation, one which no other country had done before”. The lander did carry my father’s name in respect of his contribution to establishing the Indian Space Agency, but he belonged to all of us.
Young Vikram Sarabhai was fortunate. Born in what was then one of the leading industrialist families, his passion for science was encouraged by his parents. A small lab was set up, under the water tank, at The Retreat, the family estate in Shahibag, Ahmedabad. Never was there any pressure to only focus on the business which was then largely textiles—the Calico mill was one of the largest in the city. That tradition of not thinking only of business as your business but doing things for the country and for the larger society as also your calling, as also your work, your business was quite unique and rare.