Think big: Kalam to kids
Tuesday July 29 2008 00:00 IST
APJ Abdul Kalam shaking hands with St Britto’s Academy students
THE students of St Britto’s Academy were excited
when former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam entered their campus on Friday and
their joy had no boundaries when Kalam shook hands with them.
The ‘Missile Man’ was at the school to interact with the students. He started
his speech Nanbargalae ellarukum vanakkam (Good morning friends) amidst
a thunder of applause. He also administered an eight-point pledge to the
students.
Speaking on the topic ‘No youth today need to fear about the future’, he said,
“When I was a young boy of your age, I had series of concerns in my life. Will
I ever go out of my village for high school studies? When I reached the high
school in small town and saw my colleagues well dressed, good at speaking
English, I used to ask myself, when will I enter into their company? When I
reached 9th class I had another concern, will I get good marks to go for higher
education, particularly engineering science or medicine? When I reached 10th
class definitely all these concerns vanished, because of the company of a great
teacher like Shri Sivasubramania Iyer,” said Kalam.
He added, “Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have
no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we
can navigate the time”.
Kalam then had the students repeating statements after him on righteousness in
the heart and beauty in the character. “Today, India has a mission of
transforming itself into a developed nation with a value system. This is a
great challenge. This can be achieved through our youth power.
Youth has got the power of ideas, ambition and ability. This resource of the
youth is an important building block for transforming India into a developed
nation. No youth today need to fear about the future,” Kalam insisted.
To a question raised by a student on politics and what are the skills one
should develop to become a genuine politician and leader, Kalam said,
“Political system is equal to political politics and development politics. Our
politicians do lot of political politics. Higher the development politics, it
will get higher respect”. When he was asked about the nuclear deal, Kalam said,
“The nuclear deal is not for setting up a power plant at a particular place.
It is to see that we get uranium in the world market. Power plant will be
installed at a place selected by DAE in consultation with state and central
governments”. Ending the interactive session, Kalam said, “Think big, aim in
life, acquire knowledge, hard work and perseverance-with these four you will be
a great personality”. Xavier Britto, founder-chairman of the school and Vimala
Britto, co-founder and correspondent of the school, were also present on the
occasion
