Historic Speech of Dr. Abdul Kalaam at Hyderabad

Dear Friends,
Forward this message to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.
DR. APJ Abdul Kalaam’s speech in Hyderabad.
“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 beenMy 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 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 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 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

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, 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) in Washington and

say jaanta hai main kaun hun ?

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 commis sioner 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

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
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.

Thank you,

Dr. Abdul Kalaam
(PRESIDENT OF INDIA)