As SIESCOMS welcomed APJ Abdul Kalam on the eve of Independence Day at SIES...heres how Dr. Kalam had to bless us with......
Address during the launch of SIES Educational Assistance Trust (SEAT) and felicitation of 75 Eminent Ex-Students, Mumbai
15/Aug/2008 : Mumbai
Education is the Primary Mission
Knowledge makes you great
I am delighted to participate in the launch of SIES Educational Assistance Trust. I am also happy to honour the alumni of South Indian Education Society (SIES). My congratulations to all of them. During the last 75 years, SIES has made significant contribution to the cause of education, right from the primary to post-graduate level which has a strength of 20,000 students now. Educational assistance programme launched today as a part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebration which will go a long way in providing financial assistance to needy meritorious students. My Platinum Jubilee greetings to all the Members of Education Society, eminent past students, teachers, parents, staff and students. I would like to discuss on the topic “
Education is the Primary Mission”.
Since I am in midst of educational community, I would like to first discuss the capacities to be built among the youth by the education system. What are those capacities? They are: inquiry, creativity, technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership. If we develop in all our students these capacities, we will produce “Autonomous Learner” a self-directed, self controlled, lifelong learner, who will have the capacity to both, respect authority and at the same time is capable of questioning authority, in an appropriate manner. These are the leaders who would work together as a “Self-organizing Network” and transform any nation into a prosperous nation. The most important part of the education is to imbibe the confidence among the student is the spirit of “we can do it”. I am sure SIES is building these capacities among the youth who are studying in these institutions.
Knowledge Dear students, when you complete the education in SIES what you will carry with you? It is knowledge. Knowledge has four components, creativity, righteousness, courage and indomitable spirit. The combination of these characteristics can generate enlightened citizens. Let us look at the first component
Creativity:
“Learning gives creativity
Creativity leads to thinking
Thinking provides knowledge
Knowledge makes you great”.
The next component of knowledge is righteousness. The power of Righteousness is described in a divine hymn, which is as follows:
Righteousness
"Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world".
It is a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. In a society we have to build righteousness among all its constituents. For the society as a whole to be righteous we need creation of righteousness in family, righteousness in education, righteousness in service, righteousness in career, righteousness in business & industry, righteousness in civil administration, righteousness in politics, righteousness in government, righteousness in law and order, righteousness in justice. In addition to righteousness in multiple dimensions in the society, indomitable spirit is essential for realizing the vision of developed India.
The third component is courage, which is defined as follows:
Courage
"Courage to think different,
Courage to invent,
Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
Courage to discover the impossible,
Courage to combat the problems
And Succeed, Are the unique qualities of the youth.
As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all the missions".
Hence friends, now you realize, knowledge is equal to the equation: Knowledge = creativity + righteousness + Courage Now the teachers and educators may like to see, how the real knowledge can be imparted to the students.
Dear friends, as I am with the young students in the process of shaping the vision of your life at this point, I thought of sharing with you some incidents in the life of few great human beings. That will be beneficial in your thinking and in your actions. I would like to share the uniqueness of three great minds, all of them Nobel Laureates, each one having unique traits such as cherishing the Value of Science; Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation and Scientific Magnanimity. Certainly I believe this will enable you to imbibe confidence and vision in your life.
The traits of Nobel minds
Value to Science: Let me start with an incident about Sir CV Raman – a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction, which determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student.
It is this unique trait of giving value to science that builds science. Next, let me highlight how science becomes a life time mission for Chandrasekhar Subramanyan.
Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation: Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, harvest; take it to miller to be ground. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out and at the age of four and half years, he starting wandering on the streets. He headed south, sometimes living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for malnutrition. He wanted desperately to escape. Scores of beds lined the rooms and corridors of the hospital, one bed touching the next. No sheets, no blankets. That was where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to America to join his uncle and aunt.
He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh over there and started his education, interested in sports, studied political science. But he didn’t find interesting and changed into science, became a mathematics graduate in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry. Capecchi never took a Biology class; he learned about biology in the labs. For his practical experience, he worked several terms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Although he really liked Physics, its elegance and simplicity, Capecchi realized from his lab experience that everything we learned [in Physics] was only up to the 1920s. He knew he would switch to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson. Watson taught him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.
His objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980 and by 1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In 1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse. By manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize in 2007. Noble laureate Capecchi life indeed reveals: -
“When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are”
Scientific Magnanimity: Now, I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a function conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India’s first Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody gathered there. When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India’s advancement in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. M S Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India. Even though Prof Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. He said, all these scientists had contributed for India’s and Asia’s agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as “Scientific Magnanimity”. Friends, if we aspire to achieve great things in life, we need Scientific Magnanimity to focus the young achievers. It is my experience that great mind and great heart go together. This Scientific Magnanimity will motivate the scientific community and nurture the spirit of achievement among the young towards science.
Dear Students, with this background of unique traits of great minds, dear friends, I am sure you will think big. Now it is time to have a great dream in life, dream transforms into thoughts and thoughts result into action. In this environment, I was thinking when you complete your education; you have to take different assignments in different institutions in the country. Many a times you have to take the leadership position also after acquiring experience. To achieve great things in life, you need four traits (i). Aim in life (ii). Acquisition of knowledge (iii). Hard work and (iv). Perseverance
Conclusion Dear friends, I have seen three dreams which have taken shape as vision, mission and realization. Space programme of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), AGNI programme of DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) becoming the National Mission. Of course, these three programmes succeeded in the midst of many challenges and problems. I have worked in all these three areas. I want to convey to you what I have learnt on leadership from these three programmes.
1. Leader must have a vision.
2. Leader must have a passion to transform the vision into action.
3. Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path.
4. Leader must know how to manage a success and failure.
5. Leader must have courage to take decisions.
6. Leader should have Nobility in management.
7. Every action of the leader should be transparent.
8. Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
In order to achieve excellence in any area or in any institution, what we need is creative leadership. Creative leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitates self-respect. I am sure; SIES will generate such leaders for participating in our national development mission.
With these words, I launch the SIES Educational Assistance Trust. My greetings to all the members of SIES success in the mission of developing quality human resource with value system backed by our civilizational heritage to our national development tasks.
May God Bless you.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
15.08.2008
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