"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 orthopaedic 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 Floor 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 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 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.
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, and
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 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 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 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) inWashington 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
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?" 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 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 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 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"
Let's do what India needs from us.
Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes
or junk mails.
Thank you
Abdul Kalaam"
