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FW: The Vision Of an Indian (fwd)
>
> An excerpt from APJ Abdul Kalam's editorial
>
> =-=-=-=-=-==-==-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-==-=-=-=-==-===-=-
>
> 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
>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 built 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 right?
>
> I have third vision. The 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 work 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. 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.
>
> 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 Kgs. 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 forth 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 second largest producer of wheat in
> the world. We are the second largest producers in rice. We are the
> first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing
>satellites.
> 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
> built this developed India. You must proclaim.
>
> Abdul Kalam.
>
>
>
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