Ready To Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case

by Nambi Narayanan

But fate did intervene in different ways; sometimes taking me to levels of confidence that bordered on arrogance, at others to black holes of emotions where suicide was a logical end, and then to a state of measured optimism, courageous fight back and composed indifference. Some call it the survival kit of a spy who never was. I call it life.

Without the right partner, a game of bridge and rocket science can end with some very bad blood.

‘The name Sarabhai could move heaven and earth,’

‘If you have done no crime, you have nothing to worry.

Sarabhai was taking on the Americans in the American style—assertion through diplomatic deception.

‘Seshan, this is technology,’ said Dhawan. ‘You please focus on administration.’

if someone was not doing his job, he doesn’t deserve the job.

be as nice as possible; only as nasty as necessary.

‘The plan will emerge once we let people do what they want and realise what they are good at. I am not sure if it is the right thing to do, but I feel it’s the right thing to do now. It’s an experiment.’

know-how does not help you make rockets, you need know-why. And this comes only with working with the masters for long years.

‘You can’t have the brain in Trivandrum and the hands in Balasore.’

On learning I was a new father, Sarabhai congratulated me. Suddenly he fell silent. Then, as if pronouncing the result of an intense introspection, he said in a barely audible voice, ‘I was not a good father…never a good husband,’ he said. ‘They put up with me because they don’t have a choice.’