ARUN TIWARI

author • scientist

ARUN TIWARI

author • scientist

ARUN TIWARI

author • scientist

ARUN TIWARI

author • scientist

ARUN TIWARI

author • scientist

INTRODUCTION

Starting my life from an old city mohalla in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where I was born in 1955, I would have remained inconsequential and unknown to others, as well as blind to my potential, had I not met Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 1982. I joined the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) as a scientist, a euphemism for an engineer in the Indian missile laboratory.

My first break came when Dr Kalam asked me if we could replace missile air bottles, made of 15 CDV6 steel, with Titanium alloy and assigned me this work. This took me to France in 1985, boarding an aircraft for the first time in my life, and making me realize that extraordinary people, as they are known to the world, are indeed those ordinary people who do extra work. Moreover, this extra work must come to you, not be chased by you. Life is all about give and take, in that order. There are no entitlements; only privileges, blessings and grace. We are changing every moment – quantum self – now a particle, now a wave living in a conscious universe; picking and discarding people with a purpose – to make this planet a better place to live in!

This website is all about the first person experiences of this ‘nobody’, who briefly became a ‘somebody’, but is back to being a ‘nobody’ again, as is the cycle of life. It is meant for all those who are willing to let their identities, masks and makeovers drop for a while and touch the ‘nobody’ inside them – waiting for attention, frustrated, and almost passive. I invite all ‘nobodies’ to connect to and whistle at this grand show of Divine Comedy which we call the world, with ‘minds without fear and heads held high’, as envisioned by Gurudev Tagore about India, but which nobody heard.

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The purpose of this effort is to heighten the perception of the way our lives move forward, to become conscious of those chance events occurring at just the right moment, bringing forth the right individuals, sending our lives into new trajectories and important directions. This would help us become more conscious of that Presence in our lives, the force that steers us towards the purpose of our lives.

Because we are not mere bodies, but souls; eternal, immortal and embodied with a purpose – very specific, very precise, part of an orchestra most melodious and extremely fine-tuned. This purpose can be linked to our own evolution as a human being, as well as being an instrument to help others on their path; but may be beyond our comprehension. To quote a stanza from The Great Invocation;

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve
Let us then enjoy together a spiritual unfolding that is both, personally as well as universally enriching…

– Arun Tiwari

My Books

 

SELECT TITLES

Latest

Uddhava Gita

by Arun Tiwari
Published by Sakal Publications

Latest

Anugita

by Arun Tiwari
Published by Sakal Publications

Latest

How To Grow The Moral Way

By Arun Tiwari & Suresh N Patel

Published by Universities Press

Wings of Fire

By APJ Abdul Kalam & Arun Tiwari

Published by Universities Press

My Blog

The Invisible Journey of Rain

My blog, Solidified Air, received an unexpectedly enthusiastic response. Readers remarked that it had drawn attention to something that everyone sees every day but very few consciously notice. Air surrounds us so completely that we almost forget it exists. Yet compressed air becomes steel-cutting...

Wings of Duty

There is a small seabird that weighs scarcely more than a hundred grams, yet every year it performs the longest migration known in the animal kingdom. The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) leaves its breeding grounds in the Arctic and flies to the Antarctic from August to November, where summer...

Two Paths up the Human Mountain

I have read Sri Aurobindo for many years, and my spiritual framework has been deeply shaped by his intellectual spirituality. From The Secret of the Veda to Savitri and The Life Divine, he produced perhaps the most profound exposition of Indian philosophical thought in the English language....

From AI to Autonomous Care

The second edition of the International Conference on AI in Healthcare was held at Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad on 13-14 June 2026. Robotic cancer surgeon Dr. Sunkavalli Chinnababu led the event, which attracted 2,000 delegates, 375+ speakers, policymakers, innovators, healthcare leaders and...

Solidified Air

I am enjoying re-reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In Part I, in the chapter Of the Tree on the Mountainside", he uses the image of a lonely tree growing high on a mountain to describe the fate of those who strive to rise above the ordinary. This simple...

Inner Frontiers

Tanya Seth is the quiet architect behind my blog and, in many ways, one of the unseen custodians of my intellectual journey. She created my website in May 2019 and has selflessly nurtured and maintained it ever since—not merely as a technical administrator, but as a thoughtful curator of ideas,...

The Perpetual Proletariat

have long been an admirer of V. S. Naipaul, whose writings—especially his celebrated Indian Trilogy: An Area of Darkness (1964), India: A Wounded Civilisation (1977), and India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990)—have deepened my understanding of India beyond the comforting simplifications of...

Who Builds for the Billion?

There are moments when knowledge does not come from books or structured lectures, but from the quiet authority of lived experience. I have increasingly come to believe that the most important knowledge comes from listening—listening to people as they recount what they have built, what they have...

The Art of Holding Up a Mirror

I continue here the narrative on the power of storytelling from my earlier blog, Technology, Post-Truth, and the Craft of Story. History, when reduced to dates and events, runs the risk of becoming distant—almost abstract. But when someone writes with moral clarity and an actor embodies a life...

Civilisation, Sovereignty and the Future of War

Indian civilisation stretches back into prehistory, carrying within it one of humanity’s longest continuous memories. The Vedas stand among the earliest recorded repositories of knowledge, intuition, inquiry and metaphysical reflection. The spread of Indian culture across South-East Asia—visible...

On Social

My Journal

January 24, 2016

My connection with Africa started with President APJ Abdul Kalam’s visit to Tanzania in September 2004. I did not go with him on this trip. Still, I got involved after he was told about the plight of Tanzanian children suffering from…

February 20, 2004

Sachin Tendulkar visited the Care Hospital with his wife, Dr. Anjali. He came to see me; a great gesture on his part. I have been a cricket fan since childhood and had earlier met Sachin in 2003, when President…

October 14, 2002

I accompanied President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to Arunanchal Pradesh. We flew in from Delhi to Guwahati and shifted to Mi-8 helicopters, which majestically rise to 15,000 ft to cross over the Sela Pass…

February 01, 2006

I met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (b. 1952; I share my birthday with him), the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore since 2004, in Singapore. Lee is the eldest son of Singapore’s founding father and the first Prime Minister…

November 21, 2006

Chinese President Hu Jintao (b. 1942) visited India and President Kalam invited me to meet him. His calm and poise was compelling. He looked at me like a sage and heard with interest the interpreter conveying my praise…

November 21, 2016

Accompanied by my wife, Anjana, the young Kenyan-Indian, Dil Patel, and our Swiss host, Stefan Müller, I visited the Einsteinhaus (Einstein House), a former residence of Albert Einstein in Bern, Switzerland, which has been…

November 01, 2002

I was at the Rashtrapati Bhawan with two great doctors – Dr. Kakarla Subbarao (b. 1925) and Dr. B. Soma Raju (b. 1948). I first met them when I was admitted to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in an…

December 03, 2004

President Kalam hosted a ceremonial banquet for the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. I was given a seat on the 44-member dining table, with 22 guests on each side; the Presidents facing each other in the middle…

November 30, 2018

I visited the ‘father of the Zambian nation’ and ‘Gandhi of Africa,’ Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (b. 1924), at his home outside Lusaka. Born to a missionary teacher, Reverend David Kaunda…

August 8, 2018

I met Prof. C.N.R. Rao (b. 1934) during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad. Conferred with a Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India…