Tessy Thomas was the toast of the Indian media last week after she test fired India?s fiercest weapon but on the way back from the mission, she confessed that what gave her a high and helped her relax was cooking for her family and indulging in a game of badminton?both of which she has been unable to do for a couple of years now as her career hit a high note.
Thomas grew up in tranquil Alappuzha in Kerala, suth India, among meandering backwaters and coconut palms, but was always fascinated by the action at Thumba, in Thiruvananthapuram, where India launched its rockets.
The world of math and science was her other passion. Then, in 1985, she was one of the 10 youngsters selected for a Defence Research and Development Programme which brought her up close with the world of missiles and changed her life forever.
India’s former president and missile man, APJ Abdul Kalam, spotted her talent and mentored her for a brief while, further arousing her curiosity in the missile programme.
It has been a long haul for this simple woman with her ready smile. She struggled initially with even the small things, such as figuring out how to ride an automatic scooter, she told a gathering of heavy weight women at a recently held women’s congress in Bangalore. But that struggle and a rather painful fall from her scooter, taught her to master everything, even the simplest gadget, before she used it. To this day, that is her philosophy.
Working her way laboriously up in what was essentially once a male domain, Thomas showed that it is indeed possible for a woman to equal, if not better, her male colleagues when she was chosen to head the Agni-IV team as project director for vehicles and mission and later, was project director (mission) for the more sophisticated Agni V launch.
Thomas herself does not recognise the role of gender and says talent is what matters. “Science shows no gender discrimination, and in that sense offers hope to a society where discrimination is practised.”
At DRDO there is a three-fold increase in the number of women scientists and she is convinced the numbers will surge in the coming years.
While she herself is a proponent of work-life balance, Thomas is also a very driven woman who is continually on the ball where work is concerned. Her next mission? A multiple re-entry vehicle, she said on the very day she successfully test-fired the Agni V.
Her family will have to wait for a while before they get to enjoy her cooking. So will her game of badminton….
—sudhamenon2006@gmail.com
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