Parvez Kumar

The Cry of the Eagle Parvez Kumar

These memoirs of a restless Aerospace Engineer cover a life and career in seven different countries, from his early days in Lahore; to his time in Nanking, China; followed by his boyhood adventures at the Lawrence School Sanawar, India, and St. Marylebone Grammar School in London, England; and finally encompassing his professional activities in the UK, France and Canada recalling both happy and tragic times.



His aeronautics and space career spans over forty years and the first hand narrations of his flight tests in biplanes to jumbo jets and helicopters, has one entranced. We read first hand how the International Space Station Programme was initiated and see the early designs and sketches that look as if they came from a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci's Scrapbook!



Interlaced are the personal stories including breathing life again into an abandoned two hundred year old farmhouse in the South of France; to designing and building a house for his family in Ottawa; and living in the Canadian wilderness, in a rescued ancient log cabin, at one with nature; to facing challenges and tragedies with fortitude.



The book includes hundreds of photographs, including some artistic images of his beautiful wife, which give us a very personal glimpse into the life and mind of this rather impatient artist and engineer who rose from humble beginnings as a refugee from the India/Pakistan Partition to being considered by some as one of Canada's Space Pioneers.