I Will Fly and Fly

I will fly and fly _by Dr. APJ Abdulkalam Address and interaction with the Students and Teachers of Sat Paul Mittal School   I am delighted to address and interact with the students and teachers of Sat Paul Mittal School, Ludhiana. My greetings to all the members present here. I appreciate the vision of the founders and pioneers for providing quality education. Let me share with you some thoughts on I will fly and fly.

I will Fly and fly Let me present you an ancient version of a poem suitable to the young environment. I will fly "I am born with potential. I am born with goodness and trust. I am born with ideas and dreams. I am born with greatness. I am born with confidence. I am born with wings. So, I am not meant for crawling, I have wings, I will fly I will fly and fly" My message to you, young friends, is that education gives you wings to fly. Achievement comes out of fire in our sub-conscious mind that "I will win". So, each one of you assembled here and elsewhere, will have "Wings of Fire". The wings of fire will indeed lead to knowledge which will make you to fly as a doctor, or an engineer, or a scientist, or a teacher, or a political leader, or a bureaucrat or a diplomat or an astronaut or anything you want to be.

Knowledge and its dimensions Dear children, when you leave your schools, a great friend will be accompanying you. Who is that friend? That friend is - knowledge. Now, I am going to give the knowledge equation. Knowledge = Creativity + Righteousness + Courage Creativity "Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great" The next component of knowledge is righteousness. Righteousness is described in a divine hymn. Righteousness in the heart 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 an order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, There is peace in the world. Now the question is: how do we inculcate the righteousness in the heart. In my opinion, there are three sources which can build a youth with righteousness in the heart. One is mother, second is father in a spiritual environment and the third and the most important is the teacher, particularly primary school teacher.

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. Where from you will acquire knowledge? Home, good books, teachers and teaching environment, coming into contact with good human beings, teaching websites in the internet. When the schools teach the students to use the knowledge with creativity, righteousness and courage, nation will have a large number of empowered and enlightened citizens, which is vital for the growth of the individual, growth of the family, growth of nation and promotion of peace in the world.

Dear young friends, when you are completing your education from the Sat Paul Mittal School, you would have been blessed with knowledge with its three components and capacities to have great aim in life, that will make you to flying in life. Now I am going to give a few great examples who made a change, one with the determination to succeed in difficult circumstances, another with great heart for a beautiful green environment.

Dream transformed into thoughts and thoughts result into action A unique experience happened when I went to Madurai for inaugurating the Pediatric Oncology Cancer unit at Meenakshi Mission Hospital on 7th January 2011. After I completed the task, suddenly one person from the audience was approaching me and his face looked familiar. When he came closer, I found out that he was once my driver when I was the Director of Defence Research and Development Lab (DRDL) at Hyderabad during 1982-1992. His name is V. Kathiresan, who worked with me day and night for these ten years. During that time, I noticed, he was always reading some books, newspapers and journals during his waiting time in the car. That dedication attracted me. I asked him a question. What made you to read during your leisure time? He replied, that his children used to ask him lot of questions. That has made him to study and he tries to answer to his level best. The spirit of learning in him, attracted me, I told him to study formally through the distance education mode and gave him some free time to attend the course and complete his 10+2 and then to apply for higher education. He took that as a challenge and kept on studying and acquiring his skills and upgraded his educational qualification. He did B.A. (History), then he did M.A (History) and then he did M.A (Political Science) and completed his B.Ed and then M.Ed and he worked with me upto 1992. Then he registered for his doctoral studies and got his PhD in 2001. He joined the Education Department of Tamilnadu Government and served for a number of years. In 2010, he became an Assistant Professor in the Government Arts College at Mellur near Madurai. Later, a few months ago, I again met Prof Kathiresan sitting on the dais where I went to address the students of at UPMS School, Kovilpatti, Tamilnadu. There, I introduced Prof Kathiresan and brought out, how Prof Kathiresan, a native of Kovilpatti has transformed himself, earned a doctorate and teaching in a college after two decades of hard work. This incident cheered the entire young audience.

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 wheat, harvest; take it to miller to be ground. The money which his mother left for him ran out. At the age of four and half years, he started 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 where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to United States of America to join his uncle and aunt.

He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh 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. Although he liked Physics, its elegance and simplicity, he switched to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson, who advised 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.

Nobel laureate Capecchi life indeed is an example for the youth to succeed by overcoming difficult problems. Capecchi's life reminds of a song from Pinocchio:- "When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you"

Teachers who love teaching Friends, I visualise a scene - a school having about 50 teachers and 750 students headed by a Principal. It is simply a place of beauty for creativity and learning. How is it possible? It is because the school management and the Principal selected the teachers who love teaching, who treat the students as their sons, grand-sons or daughters and grand-daughters. The children see the teacher, as a role model in teaching and how always they look pious through their daily way of life. Above all, I see an environment in which there is nothing like a good student, average student or poor student. The whole school and teacher system is involved in generating students who perform the best. And above all, what should be the traits the teacher should possess based on teachers? life both inside the class room and outside the school. Then, the students in the primary school and the secondary school observe and learn a unique experience. When good teachers walk, students should feel the radiation of knowledge and the purity life from their lives. This race of teachers should multiply.

Teacher as a facilitator of innovation Friends, teachers have to emerge as facilitator of new ideas and lead to lifelong innovative thinking in the young minds. This reminds me of a poem "The Student's Prayer" by a Chilean biologist Maturana. I will narrate a few lines from the poem. The Student's Prayer" Show me so that I can stand On your shoulders. Reveal yourself so that I can be Something different. Don't impose on me what you know, I want to explore the unknown And be the source of my own discoveries. Let the known be my liberation, not my slavery. I am sure, the teachers assembled here would be great facilitators of learning and innovation. Let me now focus on what is called dynamics of Smile.

Dynamics of Smile When we see a child, we see the innocent smile of the child. When we come across, the child in the Primary School, the smile is reduced, since the child has to carry a heavy school bag. When we see the child in their teens, their smile slowly fades away and the sign of concern appears. This is because of the anxiety about the future. When they complete their education, the topmost question in their mind is, what will I do after my education? Will I get an employment? Will I get a proper employment? Can the Principals and teachers see this dynamics of smiles of the child and preserve the smile in their faces when they complete their school education. The Student should be confident that "he can do it", he should have the self esteem and the capability to become an employment generator rather being an employment seeker. The management of education, leader of education have to facilitate such type of creative teacher in large numbers in primary school and then the secondary school. This transformation can only be brought about by a teacher who has a vision to transform, who has the ability to take risk against all challenges, who is a good listener, who is a good innovator, who maintains a cordial inter-personal or intrapersonal relationship and who has the ability to reach out to parents, community, media, and colleagues for accomplishing the vision of generating an enlightened citizen for the nation.

Conclusion Oath for the Students 1].  I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realize that small aim is a crime. 2].  I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity. 3].  I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the society, a good member of the nation and a good member of the world. 4].  I will always try to save or better someone's life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language religion or state. 5].  I will always protect and enhance the dignity of every human life without any bias. 6].  I will always remember the importance of time. My motto will be "Let not my winged days, be spent in vain". 7].  I will always work for clean home, clean planet Earth and clean energy. 8].  As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others. 9].  My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation. My greetings and best wishes to all of you success in your educational mission. May God Bless you.