It couldnt get more practical than this. One 100 salutes to dr. Kalam for pointing the straws in our eyes as well as giving us a solution to the pandora box. : I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of ourhistory, people from all over the world have come andinvaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds.From Alexander onwards, The Greeks, the Turks, theMoguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, theDutch, all of them came and looted us, took over whatwas ours. Yet we have not done this to any othernation. We have not conquered anyone. We have notgrabbed their land, their culture, their history and Triedto enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because werespect the freedom of others.That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. Ibelieve that India got its first vision of this in 1857,when we started the war of Independence. It is thisfreedom that we must protect and nurture and build on.If we are not free, no one will respect us.My second vision for Indias DEVELOPMENT, For fiftyyears we have been A developing nation. It is time wesee ourselves as a developed nation. We are amongtop 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levelsare falling. Our achievements are being globallyrecognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence tosee ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant andself-assured. Isnt this incorrect?I have a THIRD vision. India must stand up to theworld. Because I believe that, unless India stands up tothe world, no one will respect us. Only strengthrespects strength. We must be strong not only as amilitary power but also as an economic power. Bothmust go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to haveworked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai ofthe Dept. of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, whosucceeded him and Dr.Brahm Prakash, father ofnuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with allthree of them closely and consider this the greatopportunity of my life.I see four milestones in mycareer:Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given theopportunity to be the project director for Indias firstsatellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launchedRohini. These years played a very important role in mylife of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDOand got a chance to be the part of Indias guidedmissile program. It was my second bliss when Agni metits mission requirements in 1994.The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had thistremendous partnership in the recent nuclear tests, onMay 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy ofparticipating with my team in these nuclear tests andproving to the world that India can make it, that we areno longer a developing nation but one of them. It mademe feel very proud as an Indian. The fact that we havenow developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for whichwe have developed this new material. A Very lightmaterial called carbon-carbon.One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute ofMedical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted thematerial and found it so light that he took me to hishospital and showed me his patients. There were theselittle girls and boys with heavy metallic calipersweighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feetaround.He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients.In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis300-gram calipers and took them to the orthopediccenter. The children didnt believe their eyes. Fromdragging around a three kg. load on their legs, theycould now move around! Their parents had tears intheir eyes. That was my fourth bliss!Why is the media here so negative? Why are we inIndia so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths,our achievements? We are such a great nation. Wehave so many amazing success stories but we refuseto acknowledge them. Why?We are the first in milk production.We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.We are the second largest producer of wheat.We are the second largest producer of rice.Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribalvillage into a self-sustaining, self driving unit.There are millions of such achievements but our mediais only obsessed in the bad news and failures anddisasters.I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israelinewspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks andbombardments and deaths had taken place. TheHamas had struck. But the front page of thenewspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman whoin five years had transformed his desert land into anorchid and a granary.It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to.The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths,were inside in the newspaper, buried among othernews. In India we only read about death, sickness,terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessedwith foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we wantforeign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why thisobsession with everything imported. Do we not realizethat self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was inHyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girlasked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goalin life is. She replied: I want to live in a developedIndia. For her, you and I will have to build thisdeveloped India. You must proclaim. India is not anunder-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back witha vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes,then read; otherwise, choice is yours.YOU say that our government is inefficient.YOU say that our laws are too old.YOU say that the municipality does not pick up thegarbage.YOU say that the phones dont work, the railways are ajoke, the airline is the worst in the world, mails neverreach their destination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs andis the absolute pits.YOU say, say and say.What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way toSingapore. Give him a name - YOURS.Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airportand you are at your International best.In Singapore you dont throw cigarette butts on theroads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of theirUnderground Links as they are. You pay $5(approx.Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent ofMahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch yourparking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant ora shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. InSingapore you dont say anything, DO YOU? YOUwouldnt dare to eat in public during Ramadan, inDubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your headcovered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy anemployee of the telephone exchange in London at 10pounds (Rs.650) a month to, see to it that my STDand ISD calls are billed to someone else.YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, Jaantahai sala main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). Iam so and sos son. Take your two bucks and getlost. YOU wouldnt chuck an empty coconut shellanywhere other than the garbage pail on the beachesin Australia and New Zealand. Why dont YOU spit Paanon the streets of Tokyo? Why dont YOU useexamination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston?We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who canrespect and conform to a foreign system in othercountries but cannot in your own. You who will throwpapers and cigarettes on the road the moment youtouch Indian ground. If you can be an involved andappreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot yoube the same here in India?Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipalcommissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar, had a point tomake. Rich peoples dogs are walked on the streets toleave their affluent droppings all over the place, hesaid. And then the same people turn around tocriticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency anddirty pavements. What do they expect the officers todo? Go down with broom every time their dog feels thepressure in his bowels? In America every dog ownerhas to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same inJapan. Will the Indian citizen do that here? Hes right.We go to the polls to choose a government and afterthat forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to bepampered and expect the government to do everythingfor us whilst our contribution is totally negative. Weexpect the government to clean up but we are notgoing to stop chucking garbage all over the place norare we going to stop to pick up a stray piece of paperand throw it in the bin. We expect the railways toprovide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learnthe proper use of bathrooms.We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide thebest of food and toiletries but we are not going to stoppilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even tothe staff who is known not to pass on the service tothe public. When it comes to burning social issues likethose related to women, dowry, girl child and others,we make loud drawing room protestations and continueto do the reverse at home. Our excuse? Its the wholesystem which has to change, how will it matter if Ialone forego my sons rights to a dowry.So whos going to change the system? What does asystem consist of? Very conveniently for us it consistsof our neighbors, other households, other cities, othercommunities and the government. But definitely not meand YOU. When it comes to us actually making apositive contribution to the system we lock ourselvesalong with our families into a safe cocoon and lookinto the distance at countries far away and wait for aMr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with amajestic sweep of his hand or we leave the countryand run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fearswe run to America to bask in their glory and praisetheir system. When New York becomes insecure werun to England. When England experiencesunemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf.When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescuedand brought home by the Indian government.Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country.Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscienceis mortgaged to money.Dear Indians,The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a greatdeal of introspection and pricks ones consciencetoo....I am echoing J. F. Kennedys words to his fellowAmericans to relate to Indians.....ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHATHAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICAAND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAYLets do what India needs from us.Thank youAbdul Kalaam[Dr. APJ Abdul Kalaam]]
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 09:17:08 +0000
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