Whats there in a foreign land we die to go?

Hi guys this blog is to share this speech given by APJ abdul kalam the father of our nation in my view. This speech was given in hyderabd Itz prity long one have patince u will like it

FOR ALL INDIANS ! ...pLZ READ THIS ..VERY INSpIRIG 4/22/2006 11:03 AM
DR. APJ Abdul Kalaam's speech in Hyderabad."I have three visions for India.In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have comeand invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. FromAlexander onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese,the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any othernation. We have not conquered anyone.We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and triedto enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.

That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe thatIndia got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war ofindependence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we havebeen a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developednation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels arefalling. Ourachievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack theself-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?I have a

THIRD vision.India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that, unless Indiastands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also asan economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was tohave worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept.of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr.BrahmPrakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked withall three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity ofmy life.
I see four milestones in my career:Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given the opportunity to be the project director for India's first satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. Theone that launched Rohini. These years played a very important role inmy life of Scientist.After my ISRO years, I joined DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was my second bliss when Agni metits mission requirements in 1994.The Dept. of Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership inthe recent nuclear tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with my team in these nuclear tests andproving to the world that India can make it, that we are no longer adeveloping nation but one of them. It made me feel very proud as anIndian. The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we have developed this new material. A Very lightmaterial called carbon-carbon.One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciencesvisited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There werethese little girls and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing overthree Kg. each, dragging their feet around.He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gramcalipers and took them to the orthopedic center. The children didn'tbelieve their eyes. >From dragging around a three kg. load on theirlegs, they could now move around! Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassedto recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse toacknowledge 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.Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into aself-sustaining, self driving unit. There are millions of suchachievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It wasthe day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had takenplace. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformedhis desert land into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiringpicture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings,bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

Why arewe so NEGATIVE?Another question : Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreignthings?We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we notrealize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl askedme 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 mustproclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highlydeveloped nation.Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice isyours.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, theairline is the worst in the world, mails never reach theirdestination.YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the 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 theairport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are asproud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx.Rs.60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway orPedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or ashopping mall irrespective of your status identity. In Singapore youdon't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public duringRamadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your headcovered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of thetelephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, "see toit that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else." YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tellthe traffic cop, "Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). Iam so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost."YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than thegarbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston???We are still talking of the same YOU.

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countriesbut 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 appreciativecitizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commis sioner of Bombay,Mr.Tinaikar , had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked onthe streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," hesaid. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame theauthorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expectthe officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feelsthe pressure in his bowels?In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right.We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit allresponsibility.

We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totallynegative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going tostop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop topick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expectthe railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learnthe proper use of bathrooms.We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the leastopportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to passon the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issueslike those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse athome. Our excuse? "It's the whole system which has to change, how willit matter if I 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 ofour neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities andthe government. But definitely not me and YOU.

When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lockourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into thedistance at countries far away and and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along& 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 intheir glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure werun to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand tobe rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is outto 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 agreat deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too....
I amechoing J.F.Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians....."ASK WHAT WE CAN DO

FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIAWHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"Lets do what India needs from us.JAI HIND !