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Abdul Kalam
For
u r a l t
N e N e
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/neuraldtnet
Thoughts for Youth
The biggest problem Indian youth face, I feel, is a lack of clarity of vision, a
lack of direction. What I want to say is that no one, however poor, unprivileged
small need feel disheartened about life. Problems are a part of life. Suffering is
essence of success.
I will not be presumptions enough to say that my life can be a role model
for anybody; but some poor child living in an obscure place, in an
underprivileged social setting may find a little solace in the way my destiny has
been shaped. It could perhaps motivate such children liberate themselves from
the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hopelessness. Irrespective of
where they are right now, they should be aware that God is with them and when
He is with them, who can be against them?
Inspirations
-2-
My Moment of Truth
I was struck by his irresistible look, almost child-like smile and gracious
manner. I told him my name and he asked why I felt sorrow. I told him about my
unsuccessful attempt to join Indian Airforce and my long cherished desire to fly.
He smiled, washing away my anxiety almost instantly. Then he said, in a feelable
but very deep voice, “Desire when it stems from the heart and spirit when it is
pure and intense, and possess awesome electro magnetic energy. This energy is
released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep state. Each
morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents.
That which has been imaged will surely and certainly be manifested. When the
student is ready, the teacher will appear. Accept your destiny and go ahead with
your life. You are not destined to become an Air Force pilot. What you are
destined to become is not revealed now but it is predetermined Forget this
failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for
the true purpose of your existence Become one with yourself, my son! Surrender
you to the wish of God," Swamiji said. How true! Here was the teacher to show
the way to a student who had nearly gone astray! I took a different path with
strong desires to lead my life.
-3-
What can change the present cast where we appeared to have been trapped
as a society? Technology is the only tool that can free us from our shackles – both
physical and psychological. The advent of information technology can be seen
across the entire cross-section of our lives. Similar spread of technological
transformation is needed in the area of healthcare and value-added production.
This is the only way to become a developed nation. Fortunately we have all
components of technology to succeed – people, material, skills, and
infrastructure. The time has come when we come out from our mindset of a
suffering civilization and strive for our destiny to be a developed nation. This is
the idea that seems to be knocking on our door. Why don't we open it?
-4-
Can India become a developed country?
It can and it should .It has the potential and basic capabilities. Thrust
towards basic food security, self-reliance in strategic areas, speedier economic
growth, and the new thrust we see in information technology are steps in the
right direction.
How can we keep the best technological minds of India from emigrating to US?
I'm not worried about brain drain. Who cares? People will leave for obvious
reasons. Who can stop them? It's the process that will continue. We can keep
them by creating more challenging opportunities in the country and by
recognizing best talent and performance. The nation should have a vision. It
ignites the minds of the people and attracts the best.
Should we concentrate on core areas of research rather than all? Can you
identify some?
The nation definitely needs to focus on specific areas and not spread its
butter too thin. I can identify five areas which should be of absolute importance-
InfoTech, agricultural science, infrastructure, health and education. Research in
these sectors needs to be a never-ending process. And that's imperative for the
nation's all –round growth.
-5-
Does the fact that your inventions include instruments of mass destruction
bother you?
It does. But at the same time, I know that the same technology which
produces the missile also helps develop an instrument used to clear blocked heart
arteries. Some of the best defence-related technologies have done wonders in
medical science in India. Don't forget the weapons business is a beautiful
business. It's a business where if you are successful, you can also influence others
easily.
Being a Vedic scholar, how are the Vedas relevant in this day and age?
I read the Vedas, I read the Gita, I read Ramayana and I read Bible. And
often when I read a religious and spiritual book, I see a beautiful linkage that is
the real Indian culture. For a nation with vision and having a basic prosperity for
its entire people, religious will become a part of the individual and fulfill his
personal needs.
-6-
The Road Ahead
It is a long way from the first freedom movement, from the sacrifices and
struggles, from the bondage, that India became independent and has grown in all
spheres. India is a nation of one billion people with vast human and natural
resources, with multi lingual and multi religious people spread in so vast area.
When I go from North to South and East to West, I find the whole world
contained within India, with different climate, people and culture. Since our
Independence, what India could achieve in the field of Agriculture is marvelous.
Green Revolution is India's commendable achievement. Secondly, what India has
achieved in the field of Science and Technology is remarkable. When we have
achieved good progress in Science and Technology, why should we remain a poor
country – this is the question very often I am asked by the youth. I strongly feel
that this fire from the ignited minds, will call for change, for a better life. In fact,
we are in the process of realizing the full impact of our technological
advancement to get transformed as tool for uplifting the poor. We struggle hard
to come out with economic independence. There is poverty and illiteracy, which
has cursed so bitterly a section of our population. There is another problem that
of surging population, and we should contain such a population growth by all
means – and can we call it as our strength with our present rate of one billion
population? Certainly yes, provided we remove poverty with greater accelerated
growth and give dignity to every one down the strata with good education.
Education should be up to a point from where one does not merely recognize
letters but can shape his or her destiny out of education.
-7-
Excerpts From
WINGS OF FIRE
(Autobiography of APJ ABDUL KALAM)
----------------------
*A basic aspect of a person’s working style is how he plans and organizes tasks.
At one extreme end is the meticulous planner, who carefully spells out each step
before making any move. With a sharp eye for what can possibly go wrong, he
tries to cover all contingencies. At the other end is the fast mover, who weaves
and dodges without a plan. Inspired by an idea, the fast mover is always ready for
action.
*To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.
Such individuals are called "workaholics". The term is misleading because it
implies a pathological condition or an illness. If i do that which I desire more
than anything else in the world and which makes me happy, such work can never
be an aberration.
*Total commitment is a crucial quality for those who want to reach the very top of
their profession. The desire to work at optimum capacity leaves hardly any room
for anything else. Total commitment is the common denominator among all
successful men and women.
* The difference between an energetic and a confused person the way their minds
handle their experiences.
* Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.
*The trouble is that we often merely analyse life instead of dealing with it. People
dissect their failures for causes and effects , but seldom deal with them and gain
experience to master them and thereby avoid their recurrence.
-8-
This is my belief: thru difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to
grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the
wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins.
* One of the main driving forces is: Motive. It is the force which is internal to the
individual and forms the basis of his behaviour in the work environment. Most
people posses a strong drive for growth, competence, and self-actualization. The
problem is the lack of a work-environment that stimulates and permits them to
give a full expression to this drive.
*Quite honestly, I have never understood the reason behind the great importance
attached by people to astrology. As an art , I have nothing against it, but if it seeks
acceptance under the guise of science, I reject it. The highly complicated
calculations manipulated around the precise movements of celestial bodies, to
derive highly subjective conclusions, appear illogical to me. As I see it, the earth
is the most powerful and energetic planet.
*Everything solid contains great space within and everything stationary contains
great movements within. It is as though as the great dance of Shiva is being
performed on Earth during every moment of our existence.
***
Desire, when it stems from the heart and the spirit, when it is pure and intense,
possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the space
each night, as the mind falls to sleep. Each morning it returns to the conscious
state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imaged will be
surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely, young man, upon this ageless
promise as surely as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise.
**
Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. Forget this failure, as it was
essential to lead you to your destined path. Search for your true purpose of your
existence.
* As the process of confronting and solving problems often requires hard work
and is painful, we have endless procrastination. Actually, problems can be the
cutting edge that actually distinguishes between the success and the failure. They
draw out innate courage and wisdom.
*****
The kingdom of God is within you, in the form of internal power to help you
achieve your goals and realize your dreams. There are many different types and
levels that turn this internal power reaction critical. Sometimes, when we are
ready , the gentlest contacts with him fill us with insight and wisdom. This could
come from an encounter with another person, from a word, a question, a gesture,
or even a look. It could come thru a book, a conversation, a line from a poem, or
the mere sight of a picture. Without the slightest warning, something new breaks
into your life and a secret decision is taken, a decision that you may be completely
unconscious of , to start with.
-9-
* Most of the time, communication gets confused with conversation. In fact, the
two are distinctly different. A conversation full of pleasantries is often devoid of
any useful information, whereas the communication is meant only for the
exchange of information.
* Your willingness to invest your own inner resources to invest your life, esp your
imagination, will bring you success. When you undertake a task from your own
uniquely individual standpoint, you will become a person.
*****
Anyone who has taken the responsibility to lead a team can be successful only if
he is sufficiently intelligent and powerful in his own right to become a person to
reckon with. This is also the path to individual success in life. What can one do to
strengthen oneself?
First , by building your own education and skills. Knowledge is a tangible asset,
the most important tool in your work. You must have the most up-to-date
information. A leader should keep abreast of all that is happening around him. To
lead, is to engage in continuing education.
Second, develop a passion for personal responsibility. Work for the things you
believe in.
* Performance dimensions are factors that lead to creation. They go beyond the
competencies such as skills and knowledge of a person. They exist at various
levels of human personality. At behavioural level, the outermost ring, we can
observe skills and measure knowledge. Social roles and self-image form the
intermediate level. Motives and traits exist at the core level. If we can identify
those performance dimensions that are most highly co-related, with a job, we can
use them for outstanding performance.
***
Each individual creature on this beautiful planet is created by God to fulfill a
particular role. Whatever we achieve, is thru His help and as an expression of His
will. We are all born with a divine fire within us. Our efforts should be to give
wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness.
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APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad
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Quote:
- 11 -
FOUR: 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 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
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!
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.
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