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Chrisdorothy
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Posted On : 12:15 AM 12th Nov 08
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target="_blank" href="http://www.uttishthata.org/2007/07/06/a-letter-to-every-indian-apj/"
target="_blank">Published
by target="_blank">uttishthata July 6th, 2007 in target="_blank" href="http://www.uttishthata.org/category/apj-abdul-kalam/" target="_blank">APJ
Abdul
Kalam
The
class="yshortcuts">President of India
DR. A. P. J. id="lw_1226466632_1">Abdul Kalam 's Speech in Hyderabad
.
color: red;">Why is the media here
so negative?
Why are we in id="lw_1226466632_2">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 class="yshortcuts">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 into an orchard 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.
Sans MS"; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">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
T.Vs, 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.
Sans MS"; color: blue;">Got 10 minutes for
your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is
yours.68, 68);">
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?
68);">Take a person on his
way to class="yshortcuts">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 class="yshortcuts">Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and
8 PM. YOU come back 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 class="yshortcuts">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 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 id="lw_1226466632_10">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 class="yshortcuts">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?
In America every dog
owner has to
clean up after his pet has done the job, same in class="yshortcuts">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 style="cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;
-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; background-attachment: scroll;" id="lw_1226466632_14">class="yshortcuts">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.
68);">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.
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