RE: Digest Number 441

[Guest guest]

Iwould just ask you if you really mean to promote this? It's very much a

mixed bag. India has a great culture and is a great nation but the Indian

Mutiny of 1857 was not its finest hour (just to take one item). Stick to

Yoga. Blessings to all, Rosemary

 

 

09 July 2005 13:28

 

Digest Number 441

 

 

There is 1 message in this issue.

 

Topics in this digest:

 

1. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise,

choice is yours.

" tamil_sengolan " <tamil_sengolan

 

 

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Message: 1

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 11:14:28 -0000

" tamil_sengolan " <tamil_sengolan

Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise,

choice is yours.

 

Mr. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad.

 

A must read for every Indian.

Quote: 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. ************08.07.2005********

 

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 Kg. each, dragging their feet around. He said to

me:

 

Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made this

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 them. Why? We are the first in milk

production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are

the second largest producers of wheat. We are the second largest

producers 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 a under-

developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Unquote:

 

Message: 2 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 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) 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. 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 everytime 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

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 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 looking 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 "

Thank you.

 

An Indian

 

 

 

Let's do what India needs from us. Forward this mail to each Indian

for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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" Health and Happiness are your birthright, claim them through Rishiculture

Ashtanga Yoga " -Yogamaharishi Dr Swami Gitananda Giri

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