Be Proud To Be An INDIAN

There is a reason to write this blog now. Two days back I got a forward mail from one of my friends narrating the speech of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam tagged as 'must read for every Indian'. I think all of you might have gone through it at least once since it is a 7 year old email and still continues the loop. Yes, it is the very same speech in which he talks about why the Indians and the Indian media are so negative; the very same speech in which he asks for ten minutes of every Indian to think about why we behave differently when at abroad and at home and why we obey the rules in a foreign country and at the same time does not bother what the rules says in India.

I didn't give it a big importance as it is not the first time I am receiving the same. But a reply from a person who is a friend of my friend but totally unknown person for me made me think about it. He made me react to his reply; as per him this mail was irrational and compilation of bullshit(as per his words),he depicts that it is foolish to believe the rosy pictures painted by someone of the garden next door(mentioning about Dr. Kalam) and he doesn't mind the person who gave the speech was the Indian President or a person who got the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

The most funniest thing is, in between this talk another person came up with an opinion that this article was not Dr. Kalam and its a spam- Wow!In his words, a great personality like Dr. Kalam will not give such a stupid and provocative mail. And as per him, 70% of the Indian population in under the BPL( he is still four decades back I think) and we minority people(above BPL) sitting in front of a laptop in an a/c room is simply wasting our time for a useless debate. I wonder how people are having all these kind of false information in this era of information technology! I shut him up by giving him the link to the original speech and by submitting the statistical tables of present Indian economy. You can also have a look at the original speech here

I asked our hero if Dr. Kalam is not the right person to talk to us then who in the world is? and I explained him clearly that by this speech Dr. Kalam meant to motivate the Indian youth. He is doing what a great leader should do- Motivate and Show us the path. To understand what he meant exactly and to contribute to the growth of the country by changing accordingly is our duty.

Do you know what happened next? I got emails from his friends, appreciating me and saying sorry for their friend who cannot understand. But what I am worried is if 2 out of 20 people in the mailing list is thinking like this then what will be the number in total 110 crores. That's why I decided to write this here.

The change of the entire nation starts with a single person. If everyone fears to be the first(to change), the change will never occur. Dr. Kalam cannot come to each one of us and tell us what to change. Understand his intentions in the right way and begin the change. It is our duty to make his vision- The Vision 2020, a truth.

I will stop with a quote by Dr. Joe Vitale the marketing guru. "I believe that the past is gone and the future is now". Stop worrying about the past and look forward to the future. Be a contributing part of that India which all of us dreams.

JAI HIND