I was very much moved by this email I got. I want everybody to read it and review it . I dont know if this material can be considered as a review but still I am putting it here. This was a shortened version of message from Abdul Kalam
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 producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was 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 picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchid and a granary
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.
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 in
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 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.’’)
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?
Our excuse? ’’It’s the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if 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 and 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 great deal of
introspection and pricks one’s conscience too....
Let’s do what India needs from us.