The Second Strike

Book excerpt: This is an unusual autobiography of Anil Anand, an Indian Nuclear scientist who falls in love and marries Saiyud Sribyatta, his Ma Dame (My Lady). She is a doctor from Thailand, who is much older than him and after overcoming many obstacles, they settled down in Mumbai. Ma Dame sacrifices her medical career to support the budding scientist, and their travails through the various ups and downs of life are passionately portrayed in the book. Anil weaves an interesting professional life that reaches the pinnacle after designing a land-based prototype nuclear propulsion plant for the Indian nuclear submarine programme. He has worked on crucial Indian projects, including the nuclear fuel of India's ambitious DHRUVA reactor. Anil was the Project Manager/Director for the PRP (Plutonium Recycling Project), designed and built as a Bhabha Atomic Research Centre ( BARC ) project in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Complex at Kalpakkam. Brief information on the program and the people associated with it are vividly described in the book. Anil has written another book titled 'Submarine Propulsion -Muscle Power to Nuclear' for greater detail on the program. It's a prelude to the "make in India" program and to develop the second strike capability by the country; thus gives an insight into the hidden hurdles. Anil has also contributed a chapter on Marine Propulsion for the recently published Encyclopedia on Nuclear energy by Elsevier publications The book was written with Sujit Sanyal, who spent 35 years in advertising and brand communication.