Karaiba Chawang
Kohima | March 15
You look at Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, and it will appear that he has already achieved what he wanted- first, by becoming the successful scientist, popularly dubbed ‘The Missile Man,’ and secondly, becoming President of the largest democratic nation in the world. Yet, he still will be failing if he doesn’t achieve one thing. And that is his vision to see India’s billion hungry faces to smile.
Asked by a student what more he still wants to achieve in life, Dr Kalam, coolly replied that he desires to see billions of Indians smiling, without being saddened by hunger and poverty, and went on to expound his now famous India 2020 vision.
At an interaction with the high school students at Kohima Government Higher Secondary School this evening, after he graced the NU convocation, Kalam threw open the session with his famous adage, “The ignited mind of the youth are the most powerful on earth, above the earth and under the earth”, and “convert dream into thoughts and thoughts into action”.
As the students rained on him with volleys of queries, ranging from nuclear issue to HIV/AIDS, he enthusiastically responded to all questions. “Impossible is not a good word. At your age, you must think that everything is possible”, the president began.
The president went on to tell students that if one does something, problems will always be part of it, but if one doesn’t do anything, problem would not be there. “But you should never allow problem to be your captain. Defeat problem. Don’t let problem defeat you”, he urged.
Kalam also said that HIV virus is ‘unique virus’, as such scientists are still struggling hard to find remedies. But, expounded that there is medicine to prolonged life even after infection. He also told the students that by the next 3-5 years anti-HIV vaccine will be developed, so the disease will be preventable.
“To protect our freedom, to maintain peace and achieve development through it”, Kalam replied to query what India benefited by becoming a nuclear country. Child labour prevention should be proportional to rehabilitation, he said, over a question what India has done to prevent child labour.
Dr Kalam also talked of visions that India wishes to achieve by 2020. The aim to reach the Moon and Mars, to be fully developed country, which he said Nagaland will also be made part of it. “If every state is developed, India is developed. Definitely Nagaland is there’, Dr Kalam said. Science, he said is a life time mission, and one should like the subject, Kalam told the aspiring scientist.
He also narrated a Naga folk tale about birds and animals developing a conflict over a small pond, and how the humble sparrow proffered a witty solution that ended the quarrel. “I need more of that sparrow”, Kalam quipped, while making a point that the story is from NE.
Kalam, who was one hour behind schedule, appeared apologetic as he said he had gone to Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. “Sometime people delayed me, sometime weather. I am sorry for the delay”, he apologized to the eager students, who had been waiting for him for hours together in uniforms. He threw open the interactions with his generous appreciation over the song “Song for the nation”, presented by the students’ choir, and by making the students to repeat after him word by word on what he called “about courage”. He also enthusiastically volunteered to pose for a photograph with the students.
Bumblebees have ‘un-proportionate’ wings and body. But, how do they fly? Because they want to, he concluded.
