The Week India – July 21, 2019

32 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019

COVER STORY

CHANDRAYAAN-2

GONE TOO

SOON

D

ecember 30, 1971, Thiruvananthapuram:

It was around breakfast time. Nadesha

Paniker, a bellboy at the Halcyon Cas-

tle, Kovalam—a heritage hotel popularly

known as Kovalam Palace—rang the doorbell of a

suite. The guest was scientist Vikram Sarabhai, a reg-

ular who had always tipped Paniker generously.

On hearing no response from inside, Paniker got

worried. He was familiar with the guest’s habits; it was

unusual for Sarabhai to sleep this long. So he tried the

door handle, but it was locked. Paniker went out to

the balcony from where he could look into the room.

Through the window, he saw Sarabhai on the bed, un-

der the mosquito net.

Alarmed, he ran to inform the manager, who opened

the door with a spare key. They found Sarabhai in bed

with an open book on his chest. The manager asked

the reception desk if there were any doctors among

the guests. Dr K.C. Mammen, a paediatrician, was in

the hotel for a family get-together. He was on the beach

with his children when the hotel staff told him about

the situation.

“They said Vikram Sarabhai was unwell, and re-

quested me to come over and check him. But by the

THE DAY INDIA LOST ITS

SPACE PIONEER

BY NIRMAL JOVIAL

time I reached his room, he was dead,” Mammen, now

in his late 80s, told THE WEEK. “The body was not cold,

and the colour also did not suggest that he had died a

long time before. Some of his acquaintances pressed

his chest [to revive him]. I told them it was of no use.”

No autopsy was done. Sarabhai’s mother, Sarla Devi,

had requested prime minister Indira Gandhi to omit the

procedure. Amrita Shah’s biography of Sarabhai says

that the 52-year-old scientist had been declared fit by

his physician, Dr R.J. Vakil, just days before his death.

Even on the evening before the fateful day, he did not

show any signs of illness and had met a number of peo-

ple at the hotel. Later, there were murmurs about an in-

ternational plot behind his sudden and untimely death.

From Thiruvananthapuram, a special aircraft of the

Indian Air Force flew the body to Bombay, where wife

Mrinalini and daughter Mallika waited. Later, the body

was taken to Ahmedabad and cremated at the Sarabhai

family’s Kakrapar farm in Hansol village.

Kartikeya, Sarabhai’s son, could not make it home

from the US in time. So Mallika broke tradition and

lit the pyre. The ashes were later scattered in the sea

at Thumba, close to the Thumba Equatorial Rocket

Launch Station (TERLS), which Sarabhai had found-

ed. TERLS was renamed as the Vikram Sarabhai Space

Centre in his honour. In 1974, the International Astro-

nomical Union named a moon crater after him. Now, as

part of Chandrayaan-2, an Indian lander will go to the

moon, carrying Sarabhai’s name and dream.

THEY REQUESTED

ME TO COME OVER

AND CHECK HIM.

BUT BY THE TIME

I REACHED HIS

ROOM, HE WAS

DEAD.

Dr K. C. Mammen

END OF AN ERA

Vikram Sarabhai’s body at the Halcyon Castle, Kovalam.

TERLS test director H.G.S. Murthy is seen gesturing to others