Average student, spiritual, says dad on Veeramuthuvel

CHENNAI: P Veeramuthuvel, project director of Chandrayaan-3, was an average student in school and highly spiritual and used to regularly visit Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore, his father Pachaiappan Palanivel told DT Next. A former railway employee from a small town in Villupuram, Palanivel said the space scientist skipped his younger sister’s wedding a few days ahead of the lunar landing.

“I was a senior technician in the mechanical department of the Tiruchy division of Railways. I did my PUC. His mother only completed her Grade 10. Veeramuthuvel is the first graduate of our family. In fact, no one in our family circle achieved like him in academics, like getting PhD from IIT.”

“He was an average student in Grade 10 and even while pursuing diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He picked up from BE. He was the topper in BE (from Sairam College of Engineering). He secured admission to REC, which was not easy. He did his ME there. Thereafter, he did his PhD from IIT through ISRO. Now he has become Chandrayaan-3 project director,” said the former division secretary of Southern Railway Mazdoor Union.

“I never thought he would rise to this height...that he would score well in BE or secure admission in REC and get selected in ISRO, which was his dream,” said Palanivel.

Calling his son a simple man who took no more than his tuition fees, Palanivel narrated, “He doesn’t spend unnecessarily. His life was an inspiration to many in our circle. He used to tell the same thing to school students. I am the president of the Parents Teacher’s Association here. I recount his rise among students to inspire them.”

Recounting the overwhelming response he received in the month leading to the lunar landing, Palanivel said, “I started inviting people for my daughter Gayatri’s wedding which took place on August 20, only after the launch of the Chandrayaan last month. Everywhere I went, people only asked me about his career as the ISRO project director. No one asked me about the wedding. People used to call their daughters and sons and introduce me as the father of Veeramuthuvel when I invited them.”

“Actually, he (Veeramuthuvel) did not attend his younger sister’s wedding. When I visited him to show the invitation, I told him not to attend the wedding because it was scheduled three days prior to the lunar landing,” explained Palanivel.

“He is a very sincere and hard working person. He leaves for the office daily at 8.30am and returns only by 11pm. So, his child (only daughter) will be asleep mostly when he returns home. Hence, he got her admitted to the school in the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore to help her schooling. I am spiritual too. But he is more spiritual than I. He visits Isha Yoga Centre every two or three months during weekends,” Palanivel added, before anxiously wondering what ISRO has planned for his brainy son.