Dr. Abdul Kalam's Speech

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kvvsn/message/2205

Subject: Dr. Abdul Kalam's Speech

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, and 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:
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 guided 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. We have developed a light material
called carbon-carbon for Agni's re-entry structure.

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 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 Outhouses 300 gram calipers 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 we are 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
killing, 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 years 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 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
don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the
world, and that the phones 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
Ramazan, 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 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 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. 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 is in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?"

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 or are we going to stop to pick
up 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 that 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