“Shashikala Sinha, the nation is proud of you!” said Union Minister of State for Defence Subash Bhamre from the stage, as all the eyes in the auditorium were riveted on a bespectacled lady.
“I was just doing my job...so much of the spotlight...it is unnerving. I wish my entire team of 300-odd scientists and others were here to share these accolades. After all, it is a team effort and I was just the music conductor,” exclaimed the 56-year-old Project Director of the Defence Research & Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Advanced Area Defence (AAD) Endo Atmospheric Interceptor Missiles, Chandipur, Odisha, on the success of the interceptor missile test. Ms. Sinha was at the DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), which was instrumental in developing indigenous missile systems.
She was in the State capital’s suburbs to participate in International Women’s Day celebrations on Wednesday.
In fact, returning to RCI brings back fond yet sad memories for her, too, because it is here that Ms. Sinha first arrived with her naval officer husband Lieutenant Commander Gaurav Raj Sinha when he got posted here.
Unfortunately, she lost her husband to a road accident, and revived her career here as a scientist on a contract basis in 1997.
‘Great support’
“I had to look after my two daughters, then aged seven and 11. I was returning to science labs after almost a decade. It was tough initially but my scientific fraternity and my husband’s friends were a source of great support,” said the post-graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, where she also met her husband.
The DRDO’s senior scientist originally hailed from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, spent her childhood in Hyderabad as her father was in the Army, and completed her engineering from Osmania University. Her mastery over her subject not only helped her get full time employment in the DRDO in 2001, but also accelerated promotions for outstanding work.
“There is no gender here. You are here for what you do,” she averred.
What next? “We should be ready for a field test on a multi-role interceptor missile at an even higher altitude within two-and-half years. It will take four-five years to get it [the multi-role interceptor missile] into actual usage. Unlike the West, we cannot afford to repeat field tests as that would be very expensive. We want the private sector to get involved more in our programme. Right now, it [private sector participation] is disappointing,” Ms. Sinha observed.
