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

A Scientist and a Gentleman

In every civilisation, there are two measures of success. One is public and noisy—titles, awards, positions, headlines, and the temporary glow of importance. The other is almost invisible: the quality of a human being. History remembers the first for a moment and the second forever. The tragedy of...

Learning the Art of Writing by Reading

I enjoy reading quite a lot—sometimes as much as ten hours a day, though on average about eight. Reading has become my primary pastime—not as a leisure activity, but as a discipline. I read good books, chosen carefully, ordered online and added to a personal library built slowly and meticulously...

From Disease to Wellness: Time for a Paradigm Shift

Modern medicine is magnificent at one thing: it rushes heroically to the battlefield after the war has already been lost. When the coronary artery is blocked, a stent is inserted. When the pancreas fails, insulin is administered. When cancer erupts, it deploys surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy...

A Hero’s Journey of Taking Cognition Beyond Mortal Neurons

In an age mesmerised by rankings, metrics, and loud declarations of success, the most consequential journeys often unfold quietly. They are not propelled by brilliance alone, but by curiosity, humility, and an unyielding fidelity to truth. The exploration of consciousness—the deepest and most...

Science, Service, and the Long Goodbye to Leprosy

It was already evening when they arrived, and I sensed a good feeling. The light had softened, retreating gently from the edges of objects, as though the day itself wished to listen to what came next. Dr. Gangadhar Sunkara came with Dr. Chinnababu Sunkavalli—both close friends, healthcare...

Empire Without Flags

Still in her twenties, Rebecca F. Kuang has emerged as one of the most incisive literary voices examining empire’s afterlives. Born in China, raised in the United States, and educated at Cambridge and Oxford, she broke through with The Poppy War, a novel rooted in China’s wars, colonial trauma and...

A Child and a Name in the Lila of Becoming

 My younger brother Salil Tiwari’s son, Sudhanshu, and his wife, Stuti, have been blessed with a son. They live in Meerut, my hometown, and visited me recently. Like all visits involving a newborn, it carried a quiet gravity—soft footsteps, hushed voices, time slowing itself to the rhythm of...

Life Goes On—Imperfect and Unresolved

The readers have lapped up the silver jubilee edition of Wings of Fire. Within a month of its release on October 15, 2025, the 94th birth anniversary of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the first print was sold out. At the 38th Hyderabad Book Fair, on December 20th, 2025, I saw people buying  this book, and...

The Lost Wisdom of Our Kitchens

There is a peculiar magic in the things we eat—an intimacy so daily, so habitual, that it becomes almost invisible. Food enters our bodies the way air enters our lungs: without ceremony, without question. We assume its shapes, its colours, its textures, as though they were born complete, needing...

The Extra Mile

Shakespeare once reminded us that life is but a stage; listen closely, and beneath those familiar words, you can hear the soft hum of entrances and exits. Each of us arrives in medias res, as the Latins say—dropped into the middle of a vast, unfolding drama whose beginning we never witnessed and...

On Social

My Journal

December 04, 2005

Bhadant Nagarjun Arya Surai Sasai (b. 1935), a Japanese-born Indian Buddhist monk who came to India in 1966 and made it his home, released my book, ‘Peerless Benefactor of Humanity: The Life and Thought of Gautam Buddha’ at…

March 7, 2007

President George Bush came to India. Dr. Soma Raju and I were invited by President Kalam to the ceremonial reception, held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The horse-mounted Presidential bodyguards, in their royal regalia…

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…

January 29, 2013

Dr. Kalam took me to the Young Indian Leaders’ Conclave in Gandhinagar. Chief Minister Narendra Modi received him and surprisingly, I was included in what was supposed to be a tête-à-tête. Modi ji affectionately made me sit…

July 24, 2016

I met the American economist, Joseph Stiglitz (b. 1943), in Seychelles. Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Joseph Stiglitz declared that that capitalism and globalization had failed to sustain standards of…

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…

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…

November 17, 2010

After moving out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2007, Dr Kalam lived at 10 Rajaji Marg in New Delhi, which became my address until his departure in 2015…

April 18, 2005

Sampooran Singh Kalra, popularly known as Gulzar (b. 1934), met President Kalam to present the audio version of our book, ‘Wings of Fire’, that he had translated and narrated in Hindustani, with the title, ‘Parwaz’. When asked…

July 23, 2016

I met the veteran African leader and former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo (b. 1937), at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Annual General Meeting of of shareholders in Seychelles. Mahesh Patel ji…