Dr. Abdul Kalam's Speech in Hyderabad
This is a real strong speech from our president.
I hope we all can really contribute at least some time
to read it, if not implement it.
Quote: 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 st and 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:
ONE: 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.
TWO: After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part
of India's missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni met its
mission requirements in 1994.
THREE: 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 arbon-carbon.
FOUR: 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 callipers
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
loor reaction Orthosis 300 gram callipers and took them to the
orthopaedic centre. 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
with 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 land into an orchid 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.
Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country?
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 our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute
pits.
YOU say, say and say.................
What do YOU do about it?
Take a perso n 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 comeback 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 buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10
pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see 0r to it that my STD and ISD
calls are billed to someone else."
YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kmph) in Washington and
then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta hai sala 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 or 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?"
He's 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 up
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& nbsp; 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 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 neighbors, 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.
From the KFC news release:
