SALEM: Before rockets, laboratories, and satellites, there was a village that went dark at sunset. In Kadaiyampatti, a small town near Salem, electricity was once a rarity. Growing up in that town, where nights were lit by oil lamps, Kannan did not dream of space — he dreamt of light. Little did he know that the simple wish would eventually lead him from a government school classroom to the heart of India’s space programme.
Born in Kadaiyampatti, N Kannan completed his schooling at a local government high school. Engineering attracted him early, but his choice of discipline was deeply personal. In his village, many homes including his own had no power. In 1970, he joined PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore to study Electrical Engineering with the hope that one day, villages like his would be fully lit.
Graduating in those days meant stepping into uncertainty. There were no campus interviews, no placement cells. One had to embark on an exhausting job-hunting journey. Kannan had applied to three places — the Army, BSNL, and ISRO. A job at BSNL was considered secure then, often involving a year-long training programme. Kannan waited for his calling.