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M G K Menon, the afternoon’s third lead speaker, spoke of his “dear friend, Satish” with warmth and
affection. “Our paths crossed many times, starting from the early 1940s in Lahore, to our days
together in the Space Commission* till the 1990s”, he reminisced. Menon explained why he admired
Dhawan so greatly (“especially his commitment to society”) and added that seeing “Satish in action”
was itself exemplary education (“he seemed to know exactly how equipment could ‘work’”).

Menon also provided some missing details of what has always been a bit of a puzzle: how did the
Delhi bureaucracy, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi herself, so readily agree to Dhawan’s condition
that he would lead India’s Space Programme only out of Bangalore? Apparently Menon played a
role: he reminded Mrs Gandhi that the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) model, with Homi
Bhabha at the helm, worked remarkably well out of Bombay. Dhawan too, Menon argued, could
achieve similar success with the Department of Space out of Bangalore, especially because most Space
projects functioned out of establishments in South India.

Jyotsna Dhawan ended by providing a charming account of Satish Dhawan as a father: how he read
stories from Kipling’s The Jungle Book to his children, how much he admired P M S Blacke , how
troubled he was that local tribes would be displaced while creating the Shar satellite launch complex
(now called Satish Dhawan Space Centre), how much he loved the birds of Shar (the only book
Dhawan ever wrote was titled Bird Flight), how appreciative he was of Medha Patkar’s social
crusades, and how, most unsurprisingly, Dhawan’s most precious possessions (hidden in his
favourite bo om drawer) included a small saw, a hammer and an assorted set of nails.

— *It is not well-known that for a brief period after Vikram Sarabhai died, M G K Menon held the
office of Chairman, ISRO. So Dhawan succeeded Menon when he became ISRO Chairman in 1972.
Prof Menon passed away on 22 November 2016.

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