A Day with Dr Kalam

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

It was a matter of great prestige and honor to see Dr Kalam delivering speech today. He came to Rayat and Bahra Group of Colleges, Mohali, today for convocation ceremony and made an enthralling and brilliant speech. It was a delight to hear him. He started his speech in Punjabi language to create an aura of friendliness between him and the audience, as he was speaking to the people of Punjab. To begin with, he said,” I have two suggestions for all the students sitting here", the first one is: what can I give to the society? And the second one is what can I take from the society? “He requested the audience to repeat with him and all the people repeated his words. Such a great start by a great orator!! “Have you not taken breakfast? Why you sound low? Be loud and repeat with me

“What can I give to the society?

What can I take from the society?”

Then the former president recited a beautiful poem which was like music to our ears and inspiration to our souls, the poem goes like:

I will fly,

I am born with potential,

I am born with goodness and trust,

I am born with ideas and dreams,

I am born with confidence,

So, I am not meant for failure,

Because, I have wings,

I will fly, I will fly, and I will fly!!

Such a lovely poem and such great motivational words! Dr Kalam, who is a great scientist and also known as “missile man of India”, said that education gives you wings to fly. He very aptly said that “achievement comes out of fire in our subconscious mind. This fire helps us to become great doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, great leaders and managers. His convocational address topic was “sustainable development towards a clean, green planet. He has a vision that 21st century is a knowledge based society where exquisite knowledge meets innovations and inventions. In his speech DR.Kalam mentioned about a book namely “empires of the mind” by Denis waitley. In this book a comparison between yesterday and today is made, FEW OF THESE COMPARISONS WERE QUOTED BY DR. Kalam in his speech. He looked at the audience and said

Yesterday hierarchy was in losses, today synergy is there

Yesterday employees took order, today teams make decision

Yesterday seniority ruled, today creativity drives us

He took a pledge from all of us to work with integrity and succeed. He also mentioned about Japan, talking about their pace of development, he said,” tsunamis and earthquakes destroyed it, but they got transformed into most developed nation, because they do not allow problems to master them. One great thought that personally touched my soul was “do not allow problems to be your captor-defeat the problems.”MR. Kalam did not forget to mention about his mentor DR. Vikram Sarabhai, he flashed back to year 1962, when MR. Sarabhai was looking for a site to establish a space research station, when he selected a site where church was established. DR. Sarabhai met the bishop DR. peter Bernard Pereira who told the congregation,” my children I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church for the work of space science research, can w give it to him?” the church reverberated with a chorus of “amen” from congregation and the place was dedicated to build what is known as ISRO today!( tis incident is also mentioned in DR.Kalam’ book, My Journey).

He concluded his speech by saying that” I request all of you to be good members of society, work for a change. Do achieve success and enjoy success. Do not discriminate each other on basis of caste, creed, religion, and language.” It was a great experience to be a member of the gathering. Hope to see him again!

By Azra Mufti