Indomitable Spirit - APJ Abdul Kalam

The very thought of APJ Abdul Kalam's calm and serene, yet pensive face brings smiles to many faces, inspires a number of young hearts, adds passion to thoughts and spurs so many to action. ‘Indomitable Spirit’ is one masterpiece of a book that acquaints the reader to the beautiful thoughts Dr. Kalam nurtures for the future of India. The book describes in every sense what our country needs in this hour of trial when we our gripped with a  gamut of socio-economic issues, justifying the urgency for highly enlightened citizens, creative leaders, autonomous learners and truly indomitable spirits, to usher India into a realm envisaged as dream India-2020. The book describes the recipe of what a citizen of India ought to be. Full of stories, poems, quotes and anecdotes from the life of the author, the book covers a very wide ranging burning issues like poverty, education and women empowerment etc. and reflects upon subjects like creativity, values, science, spirituality and leadership. Indomitable Spirit is a gripping book, full of lessons for life, both philosophical and spiritual.

The very beginning of the book emphasizes on the role men play, be it at home, an organization, or a nation to drive it towards a better future. The way Dr. Kalam acknowledges the importance various people have held in shaping his life, reminds us how anyone and everyone has an impact on others, how we can get inspired from not only the most successful ones around us, but also the most humble ones. I personally feel that inspiration can be drawn not just from people, but also the inanimate objects and nature around as.

"The ignited minds of the young are the most powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. Teachers have a great mission to ignite the minds of the young." Although anyone from whom one learns can be called a teacher, but the teachers at school and the parents are people a person begins to learn in his formative years. It is through their perspective that one starts seeing the world and beyond. One spends a significant amount oftime of his life in school, and this time is when children are most inquisitive and best learners. This puts a great responsibility on school teachers, who must not only be good at coaching children, but must be ready to answer their questions with great interest, so as to ignite the fire of learning, and slowly infuse in them power of logic and reasoning.

Teaching is no longer an easy job, and requires lifelong commitment and diligence on teachers' part to 'sharpen their axe'. It would not be an exaggeration to comment upon the dearth of teachers, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in India. To combat with this situation, it is important to realize the capacity of technology in this field. We need to increasingly enhance our IT infrastructure to make e-learning and interactive distance learning a reality in each and every village of the country. Who knows how many great learners are remaining unrevealed due to lack of good education.

“If one has integrity, nothing else matters, If one doesn’t have integrity, nothing else matters”. Today it is rare to find a person with impeccable honesty, integrity, truth and righteousness in thoughts and actions. The younger generation today feels gratified in insulting elders, bullying the weaker, disrespecting women and hence bringing disrepute to their near and dear ones. The rising cases of crime, corruption, rapes, financial embezzlements and increasing number of old-age homes, children rehabilitation homes etc. are living proofs of the corrosion of our souls. It pains me to see how parents are shown the doors, by their own children, in their needy years. There has undoubtedly been a serious lapse in integration of a solid value system in our education system. The government policy makers need to realize this now. But a greater realization is needed on part of parents who are the first guide of children. Values can’t be taught but learnt from the milieu. Children emulate their parents. Parents must become role models of their wards. Good habits learnt in childhood remain forever. At the same time, a more contextual and relevant coursework in subjects like humanities, social sciences and moral sciences must be included in academic curriculum at each stage of the education system.

Dr. Kalam gives his mantra for developing an ideal education model for 21^st century comprising of five components: research and enquiry, creativity and innovation, capacity to use high-end technology, entrepreneurship, and moral leadership.

India today is second largest country of the world human-resource wise. We have some of the brightest brains in the world. Yet we are a major technology importer today. The graduates from our elite education institutions prefer to go to West to pursue their careers. We have enough scope to grow here in India. What is needed is creativity. An idea can change the life, it can make the impossible possible. But as Dr. Kalam recognizes, innovation needs courage. Thus all private sector, public sector and academia need to collaborate to create an environment that enhances risk taking capacity of people that encourages creativity and innovation.

 Greatest souls of all times have also been great thinkers and a good thought rises from the depths of a clean conscience. It is important to listen to our conscience whenever in dilemma. It is important to keep the conscience alive by constant introspection. In the words of Dr. Kalam, “A virtuous man alone can use the instrument of conscience.” The conscience can be elevated to divinity by art which “helps to bring out the beauty of life in its noblest forms, imparting meaning and depth to human existence, justifying and vindicating the purpose for which life was evolved.”

Dr. Kalam, himself one of the greatest scientists ventures into the subject of spirituality, wonderfully putting an end to any antagonism between science and spirituality, which he says both seek the same divine blessing for doing good for the people. Spirituality is often misconstrued, as something unworldly, and difficult to achieve. Often people consider science and religion as enemies. The book cautions us against such people. Spirituality is the end, science may be a means. Spirituality helps to achieve self realization, to know oneself, to decipher the objectives of life, to lead it in a better way, in service to nation and others. It deals with the eternal immaterial satisfaction that we all seek. Science stands for the same.

Dr. Kalam is known to have a special place for children in his heart. Children are truly a nation’s future and their high spirited enthusiasm and capacity for hard-work can become a key to transform the nation. But it needs to be complemented with correct knowledge. Even after 60 plus years of our liberation, equitable education for all still remains a distant dream and a great cause for concern. But till that goal is achieved, we must not stop children from dreaming, for “dreams transform into thoughts which result into action”. We must encourage children to dream for themselves, word hard and succeed.

I remember having read once that man and woman are the two wheels of cycle of a family. In case any one of them rusts, the cycle becomes dysfunctional. It is high time to realize that not just in a family, but women have great role to play in nation building also. Until the women are empowered, the stability of the society will continue to be in jeopardy. Women are as important human resource as men, and must be empowered with good health and education to make them self reliant and drivers of national prosperity. Every organization must cater to the subjective needs of women, by making its members more gender sensitive, in its policies and actions. It is ironical that where at one place we feel proud to call great women like Rani Lakshmibai, Sarojini Naidu and Kalpana Chawla Indians, at the same time we deny even the basic right to live to girl child.

Dr. Kalam’s vision of building a “Knowledge Society” is truly a captivating one. Today knowledge is emerging as the primary resource rather than capital or labor. The society needs to change from mere materialistic gains towards an all round development and empowerment of each of its member. This can be achieved by having a quality and value based self-learning education system, self-empowered and flexibly skilled workers, software drive non-programmed work structure managed more by delegation than direction. There must be an all encompassing endeavor in the fields of Information technology, biotechnology, space-technology, environment, nuclear-technology, telecommunication and information processing to generate more employment as well as better services to ensure constant amelioration of lives of people. The current projects taken up by government like, NPTEL, National Knowledge Grid, NEGP, JNNURM, PURA, Rural connectivity, Digital library mission, Health grid, Panchayat level computerization and e-kiosks etc. are commendable steps towards becoming a knowledge society.

The book constantly reminds the reader of the dream of India 2020 and his responsibility of contributing towards it. It ignites a strong feeling of patriotism that surmounts all individualistic or narrow communalistic feelings. We today hold an increasingly important place in the world order an integrated action shall certainly transform us to a developed nation soon. Dr. Kalam visualization of a competitive developed India is visionary, “A nation that brings smile to billion plus faces”.

Today we are facing a serious threat from theological fundamentalists that hinder the universal harmony by spreading hatred amongst men and using instruments of terrorism. Dr. Kalam has in his book, simply resolved the causes of terrorism into deprivation, that leads to frustration, alienations and often to destructive activism. The only way to counter is through an inclusive development via democratic deepening and through an enlightened citizenship.

In any project, it is not sufficient to just identify the necessary stages and components, but equally important is a leader who, through his wider perspective and meticulous planning, drives forward the project towards its goal. India also needs a young and creative leadership. Dr. Kalam recognizes fourteen traits a leader must have, i.e. honesty, optimism, determination, looking beyond, judgment, problem solving, courage, being concise, collaboration, stimulation, providing assistance, fervor, public speaking and organization. I would like to add another, i.e. compassion. His multitude of experience in ISRO and DRDO as gives ample insight into what it takes to make an organization successful.

The title of the book itself suggests that we have everything today we need to grow as a nation. All we need is an indomitable spirit, a spirit full of devotion for the goal, which cannot be deterred by minor or major obstacles. There is no path that does not offer obstacles. It is by sheer hard work, sweat and perseverance that we can conquer over these obstacles. A successful leader can never be defeated by problems, but he defeats the problems. In fact it is our perspective by which we may measure the dimensions of a problem. A person with courage, faith, ability and capability never sees any problem as big enough to stop him. There are innumerous persons, who despite of their social, economic and/or physical disabilities have left a mark on the world. And so do we all do create a page in the history. It is up to ourselves that what is written on that page, what we would like to be remembered for? This very inspiring thought sends my adrenaline rushing and I shall conclude with a strong determination that “As a young citizen of India…… ….. I will keep the lamp of knowledge burning to achieve the vision- Developed India”.