This is my tribute to the great man who stood for what he believed.
This is a land where great leaders, great philosophers and great scientists were born. We should be in fact very proud of it. Many great people were born who made their mark and left an indelible impression in this world.
India is the 2nd most populous country in the world and also the most widespread people over the globe are Indians. Out of every 40 Americans, there is an Indian and out of the top 20 richest persons in America there are 5 Indians. It is said that “you don’t find Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Europeans, Britishers in India, but you find Indians everywhere.” We are in India as well as everywhere, we are widespread and we also lead. To be a proud Indian we can say that now, Indians even lead the biggest software companies in the world. Satya Nadella for Microsoft, Sundar Pichai for Google, Sanjay Kumar Jha etc. We have many greats in many things. We have a God of Cricket, we have God of Maths, we have the Greatest Politician the world has ever seen, we have many people who are constantly making India a proud country for producing such leaders. But among them all there is a gem of gems who recently passed away and I think that he should be regarded as the true dreamer of India and we call him as “Missile Man”. This man not only made Indians feel proud but, he made many people of the world feel proud of him.
His name is Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (A.P.J. Abdul Kalam) born on 15th October 1931, Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu who recently passed away on 27-72015. He was the 11th president of India. He was a dreamer a true visionary of India. He believed that India’s only super power is its youth and if we empower this super power with knowledge. If we feed them with self-confidence and the courage to dream then India would truly be a super power in the world. Believing in this dream till his last breath he did what he liked. He went around all over the country meeting students in different states and inspiring them to dream. He always told the students to dream and if anyone tells that such a dream is impossible he asks them to pursue such dream and achieve it. He believed that we will be what we think of ourselves.
“If we think we are weak, the new are and if we think we are strong then we indeed are strong.”
He started this mission “Lead India 2020”. His main aim by this mission was to rename India from a developing country to a developed country. It is sad that this great personality couldn’t live long enough to see his dream get completed but no doubt he has not left any stone unturned to make his dream a reality even if he is not there.
It has been 68 years since we got our independence from The Britishers after a struggle which lasted for 400 years. Many were killed, there was a lot of bloodsheds, and many lost their lives giving us the today which we are living in. I wish you all 69th independence of India, but I do really have this question in my mind that “is it really worth it to celebrate our independence?” What have we done so far to be proud to tell that we are the pride of India and we are worthy enough to celebrate today with great pride that it is our 69th year of freedom it is our fundamental duty to cherish the national ideas and freedom struggle and always hold them in high regard but what’s the purpose of remembering what happened almost 6 decades back?. Come on let’s be somewhat serious and genuinely ask ourselves this question. Why should we be celebrating Independence Day? What have we done to the country so far to say that we are Indians? And we are proud to be? 69th year of freedom and still we call ourselves a developing country. Why is it? Whose fault is it? No use pointing out that it is the fault of the politicians or saying that it is the leaders work because it’s you who elect them and not them who rule you. You have the real power in you. You rule them. What have you done? You being the citizen of India holding the all-powerful weapon of India’s future what have you done in furtherance of the dream of a developed nation for which many have sacrificed their lives so that we get what we are enjoying today.
I am not being pessimistic about our great nation because this nation is the greatest of all. It is a country which has a great history. It has the most powerful weapon in the world and that is this country’s youth. But are we utilizing such great power to the maximum extent? Are we doing our duties enshrined in the article 51A of the Constitution?
I won’t say we are not trying to change or there is no change. There are in fact a lot of changes when compared to what we were a few years before. People have become more aware of what their rights and duties are and what they have to do in order to lead a peaceful life. The proofs of such changes are:
- BJP winning a clear majority for the first time in many years at the Central level.
- Election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Swachh Bharath Mission
- The increase in the voting percentage all over the country.
- Active participation in social and political activities by young and the old equally.
- Nirbhaya Amendment.
- Repealing of many archaic laws
- Enactment of stringent rules and strict practice thereof.
- Enhanced public policies.
These are some of the things which we can treat as our journey towards change in this year. But there is much more change India needs to get because this country still bleeds. Many people die of hunger even to this day, being an agrarian country a farmer is not encouraging his own son to pursue an agricultural profession. Many people don’t have a house to stay in and if I start with there is a huge list that never ceases to end. So much of our human resources are lying waste and underutilized because of lack of opportunities. As every coin has two sides this great country too has 2 sides. One which is striving for development and change and the other side people are becoming lazy and ignorant.
I once heard a person crack a joke on the Indian mentality. He said
Indians and women are same like an Iron Box; they are useless until they are under heat.
But I would prefer that we are similar to that of a missile. Inherently very dangerous and capable of creating great ripples wherever we go but we only do that when our time comes.
The problem with us Indians is we are both afraid and lazy. We know that we are capable of much more than what we think of ourselves but we don’t just care. We always look upon someone to come down to the job which we though categorically feel that we are not meant to do that. To prove this I will share with you an experiment. There is an empty class room and the students were asked to sit down and fill in the seats. Guess what they found out? Out of the 60 students it was only 2 students who took the initiative to sit in the first row of benches and after seeing them the other students followed. I will also give another one. There was a seminar going on in a college and the students were requested to come to the dias and give their few words on the topic and the results were that most of them were looking to other side or front or back to see if someone would start the seminar and some were looking down so that they are not asked to start with and few were calling out the names of their friends so that they get caught and are asked to speak first. This proves that we never tend to believe in ourselves and what we are actually capable of. It also proves that we always look for someone to start. I ask you “why can’t you be that someone?” “Are you not capable of doing that?” if that is the case today there wouldn’t have been many great people out there to be called as great Indians. The point Is all those who became great always believed in them and not in their fears. They didn’t look for someone to start, they took the lead. They were not afraid to realize their dream and to do what they believed in. A.P.J Abdul Kalam was one of those great visionaries.
To honor him and to celebrate our independence righteously I guess we have to start walking towards change.
In my words I feel that India will achieve its true freedom when it will fulfill this great man’s dream, a dream, which he fought to make it a reality till his last fighting breath. He sacrificed his whole life for this dream and I think he will not want us sitting idle and remember what he has done because he would rather ask us to work more than the usual than to remember his great works.
“If you want to see change in the society, you be the change you want to see.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Change doesn’t come from outside it comes from deep within yourself. India is moving forward towards change. But it will move forward and to a further greater position only when you change and walk towards growth and development. Jai Hind.
My Journey 