Subject: : The President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalaam's Speech in Hyderabad

[Guest guest]

This definitely is worth reading (in its whole

entirety) even a 2nd time !

 

As desired by the President of India, this paper is

for circulation.

The President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalaam's

Speech in Hyderabad:

 

" I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our

history, people from all over the world have come and

invaded us, captured our lands,conquered our minds.

From Alexander onwards.... The Greeks, the Turks, the

Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the

Dutch - all of them came and looted us, took over what

was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other

nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not

grabbed their land, their culture, their history and

tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because

we respect the freedom of others.

 

That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I

believe that India got its first vision of this in

1857, when we started the war of independence. It is

this freedom that we must protect and nurture and

build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

 

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty

years we have

been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves

as a developed nation.We are among top 5 nations of

the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth

rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling.

Our achievements are being globally recognized today.

Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a

developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured.

Isn't this incorrect?

 

I have a third vision. India must stand up to the

world. Because I believe that, unless India stands up

to the world, no one will respect us. Only STRENGTH

respects strength. We must be strong not only as a

military power but also as an economic power. Both

must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have

worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of

the Dept. of Space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who

succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear

material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of

them closely and consider this the great opportunity

of my life.

 

I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I

spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the

project director for India's first satellite launch

vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These

years played a very important role in my life of

Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and

got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile

program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its

mission requirements in 1994. The Dept. of Atomic

Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in

the recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was

the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team

in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that

India can make it, that we are no longer a developing

nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as

an Indian. The fact that we have now developed for

Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed

this new material. A very light material called

carbon-carbon.

 

One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of

Medical Sciences visited my laboratory. He lifted the

material and found it so light that he took me to his

hospital and showed me his patients. There were these

little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers

weighing over three Kg. each, dragging their feet

around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my

patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor

reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took them to

the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe

their eyes. From dragging around a three kg. load on

their legs, they could now move around! Their parents

had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

 

Why is the media here so negative?

Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our

own strengths, our

achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so

many amazing

success stories but we refuse to 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 tribal

village into a

self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions

of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in

the bad news and failures and disasters.

 

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli

newspaper. It was

the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and

deaths had taken

place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of

the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman

who in five years had transformed his desert into an

orchard 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 other news.

 

In India we only read about death, sickness,

terrorism, crime. Why are

we so NEGATIVE?

 

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed

with foreign

things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts.

We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with

everything imported. Do we not realize that

self-respect comes with self-reliance?

 

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year

old girl asked

me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life

is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India.

For her, you and I will have to build this developed

India. You must proclaim. India is not an

under-developed nation; it is a highly developed

nation.

 

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a

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 the

garbage.

 

YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a

joke, The

airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach

their destination.

 

YOU say that the country has gone to the pits.

 

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

 

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name

- YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the

airport and you are at your International best. In

Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads

or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their

Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs.

60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim

Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU

come back to the parking lot to punch your parking

ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a

shopping mall irrespective of your status identity. .

In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?

 

YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in

Dubai.

 

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered

in Jeddah.

 

YOU would not dare to bribe an employee of the

telephone exchange in

London at 10 pounds (Rs. 650) a month to, " see to it

that my STD and 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, " Jaanta hai

main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and

so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost. "

 

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere

other than the

garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New

Zealand.

 

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?

 

Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake

certificates in

Boston???

 

We are still talking of the same YOU.

 

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in

other countries but cannot in your own. You who will

throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you

touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and

appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot

you be the same here in India?

 

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal

commissioner of Bombay,

Mr. Tinaikar, had a point to make. " Rich people's dogs

are walked on the streets to leave their affluent

droppings all over the place, " he said. " And then the

same people turn around to criticize and blame the

authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What

do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a

broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his

bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up

after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will

the Indian citizen do that here? " Mr.Tinaikar is

right.

 

We go to the polls to choose a government and after

that forfeit all

responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and

expect the government to do everything for us whilst

our contribution is totally negative. We expect the

government to clean up but we are not going to stop

chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going

to stop to pick a stray piece of paper and throw it in

the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean

bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use

of bathrooms.

 

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the

best of food and

toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at

the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff

who is known not to pass on the service to the public.

When it comes to burning social issues like those

related to women, dowry, girl child marriages! and

others, we make loud drawing room protestations and

continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? " It's

the whole system which has to change, how will it

matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry. "

So who's going to change the system?

 

What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for

us it consists

of our neighbours, other households, other cities,

other communities and the government. But definitely

not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a

positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves

along with our families into a safe cocoon and look

into the distance at countries far away and wait for a

Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a

majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and

run away.

 

Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to

America to bask in

their glory and praise their system. When New York

becomes insecure we run to England. When England

experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out

to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to

be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.

Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody

thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is

mortgaged to money.

 

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive,

calls for a

great deal of introspection and pricks one's

conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words

to his fellow Americans to relate to

Indians.....

 

" ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE

DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN

COUNTRIES ARE TODAY "

 

Lets do what India needs from us.

 

Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead

of sending jokes>or junk mails.

 

Thank you,

 

 

Dr. Abdul Kalaam

(PRESIDENT OF

INDIA)__