Newskarnataka – Mangalore
By Sandhya S
Mangalore: As a part of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) former President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, who is also a space scientist delivered a special talk and later took part in an interactive session with the College students from around the district on Tuesday April 1 at TMA Pai International Convention Centre in the city.
He started his talk by raising a question- “How does achievement come in one’s life?
Answering it Kalam said, “The four proven steps are; before 20 years you must have a great aim in life, Aim is not sufficient – you must acquire knowledge from resources available, Hard work and lastly Perseverance – which means you must not be afraid of the problem. This is the most essential.”
He further recited a poem– I am I am born with potential, I am born with goodness and trust
I am born with ideas and dreams, I am born with greatness
I am born with confidence, I am born with wings
So I am not meant for crawling, because I have wings, I will Fly, I will Fly, , I will Fly.
I will vote, I will vote, I will vote, I will vote, a good leader will be elected by me.
Dr A P J Abdul Kalam stated, “Education gives you wings to fly and achievement gives you confidence in your subconscious mind; you must have wings of fire that will lead to knowledge and you can become as you desire.”
Elaborating it with an equation Kalam said, “Knowledge = to creativity +righteousness in heart + courage”, he said creativity – learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking and thinking leads to knowledge. The other variable, righteousness in heart defines beauty in character, which leads to harmony in home, order in the nation and peace in the world wherein courage helps to think differently, to invent, to travel unexplored paths as well as acquire the impossible.”
Concluding the equation he said that India needs a righteous leader, and leaders can be created only through a spiritual environment that the parents provide and the education that the primary teacher imparts.
Narrating an incident Dr A P J Abdul Kalam said that a student of M.Phil had asked him a question which was relevant to empowerment of democracy. He said, “The power of a full grown banyan tree is equal to the power of the samplings or the seeds of the tree, both are the same but exhibit their attributes according to their capabilities, because the seeds that do not grow into a tree also convert into manure and facilitate the tree.”
Correlating the example he said that the seeds of the banyan tree are like the citizens of the nation. Democracy gives us an opportunity to grow to the capacity we perform; everyone must be nurtured and valued. The constitution is accessible to all, which notifies the right of every citizen must be dignified.”
Speaking on election and empowering the youth to vote, Kalam said, “This Lok Sabha elections, will be the largest election as 150 million first time voters will participate, thus educating value system, graduating religion into spirituality and removal of discrimination towards inferior will promote consensus, thus I urge you to caste your valuable vote with full conscience.”
Kalam encouraged the students to take an Oath and repeat after him that they will vote this election.
During the interaction session a student questioned about the lack human development index in the nation even as we have a large population, to which Kalam answered that with more people getting informative and with literacy rate in a process of growth with time, things will surely change.
Other students questioned about making Voting compulsory or implementing a system through which voting becomes mandatory, to which Kalam answered that we live in democracy and enforcing such rules is not the solution rather one must try to change the consciousness of the people and they must with their free will encouragee voting.
Deputy Commissioner AB Ibrahim welcomed the gathering wherein the vote of thanks was delivered by Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Tulasi Maddineni. Before the session began General election 2014, SVEEP CD’s were unveiled by the dignitaries on the dais.
