Inaugural Address at the Centenary Celebration of Mitra Institution Bhowanipur

I am indeed delighted to participate in the Centenary celebrations of Mitra Institution, Bhowanipur branch. My greetings to the members of the managing committee, teachers, distinguished guests, all the students and staff of this prestigious institution. I was informed that the institution is rated presently as an excellent institution by the Board of Secondary Education, Government of West Bengal. I congratulate the teachers for their dedicated work in bringing about this excellence in this school and shaping the young minds. I was also informed that the main aim of the teachers is character building among students to make them enlightened citizens. Due to their persistent work many of the alumni became leaders in various spheres of national life. One of the shining example is my friend Shri Somnath Chatterjee a distinguished alumni of this institution who has made significant contributions in national politics as an eminent parliamentarian during the last few decades.

When I am in the midst of the young students, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts which will ignite your mind.

Marvels of Universe

Friends, we should note that human mind is a unique gift. You can enter into Marvels of Universe only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Learning is the primary resource.

When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms.

When the creativity blossoms, thinking emanates.

When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit.

When knowledge is lit, young life is enriched.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work. Like Nobel Laureate Subramaniam Chandrasekar discovered the black hole through a quest, why most of the stars shine and few die. Today, using Chandrasekar limit we can calculate how long the sun will shine. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and the sky, and questioned why the sea should be blue? This led to the birth of Raman Effect, he found the blue of the sea was due to the molecular scattering of light and was not a case of reflection of the sky in water as most people imagined. Like, Albert Einstein, armed with the complexity of the universe, asked the question how the universe was born. The famous equation E=mc2 arrived, which can be used for the generation of electricity using nuclear materials and also lead to nuclear weapons. In India during 1960's one important event took place, Prof. Vikram Sarabhai gave a vision for the nation on the space programme. He said, India should build her own rocket system, build communication and remote sensing satellites, integrate and launch from Indian space launch centers and put them into the geosynchronous orbit and sun synchronous orbit. Today India can build any type of rocket systems and satellite and launch in a specified orbit.

Indomitable spirit

Let us study the characteristics of indomitable spirit. It has two components. The first component is that there must be a Vision leading to higher goals of achievement. I would like to recall a couplet from Thirukkural by the Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar written 2500 years ago.

Quote:

It means that whatever may be the depth of the river or lake or pond, whatever may be the condition of the water, the lilly flower always comes out and blossoms. Similarly, if there is a definite determination to achieve a goal even if it is impossible to achieve, the man succeeds.

Many of us have gone through large programmes and projects. We would have experienced that success is not in sight and there are many hurdles. The same poet reminds us at this point of time through another couplet:

We should never be defeated by any problems. We should become master of the situation and defeat the problems. I consider these two Thirukkurals characterize the indomitable spirit.

Bird story and my profession

When I think of my school days, I am reminded of an incident which took place when I was studying in 5th class. I had a teacher, Shri Sivasubramania Iyer. He was one of the very good teachers in our school. All of us loved to attend his class and hear him. One day, he was teaching about bird?s flight. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail, body structure and the head. He explained how the birds create the lift and fly. He also explained to us how they change direction while flying. Nearly 25 minutes he gave the lecture with various information such as lift, drag, how the birds fly in a formation of 10, 20 or 30 etc. At the end of the class, he wanted to know whether we understood how the birds fly. I said, I did not understand how the birds fly. When I said this, he asked the other students whether they understood or not. Many students said that they did not understand. Our teacher was a real teacher and very good teacher. He did not get upset by our response.

In view of this, my teacher said that he would take all of us to the sea shore. That evening the whole class was in the sea shore. We enjoyed the roaring sea waves knocking at the rocks in the pleasant evening. Birds were flying with sweet chirping voice. He showed the sea birds in formation in 10 to 20 numbers. We saw the marvelous formation of birds, with a purpose, and we were all amazed. And we were enjoying the formation of the birds. He showed the birds and asked us, what did we observe? We saw the wings being flapped. He asked us to look at the tail portion with the combination of flapping the wing and twisting the tail. We observed closely and found that the birds in that condition flew in the direction they wanted. Then he asked us, where the engine was and how it was powered. Bird is powered by its own life and the motivation what it wants. All these things were explained to us within 15 minutes. We all understood the whole bird dynamics with practical example. How nice it was? Our teacher was a great teacher; he could give as a theoretical lesson coupled with a live demonstration. This is real teaching. I am sure many of the teachers in schools and colleges will follow this example.

For me, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. The bird?s flight entered into me and created a feeling on the seashore of Rameswaram. From that day evening, I thought that my future study has to be with reference to flight and flight sciences. I am telling this because, my teachers teaching and the event that I witnessed later, decided my future career. Then one evening after the classes, I asked the teacher, ?Sir, please tell me, how to progress further in learning flight sciences.? He patiently explained to me that I should complete high school, and then I should go to college that may lead to education of flight. If I do all these things I might do something connected with flight sciences. This advice and the bird flying demonstration given by my teacher really gave me a goal and a mission for my life. When I went to college, I took Physics. When I went to engineering in Madras Institute of Technology, I took Aeronautical Engineering.

Thus my life was transformed as a rocket engineer, aerospace engineer and technologist. That one incident of my teacher?s teaching, giving a live demonstration proved to be a turning point in my life which eventually shaped my profession.

Enlightened Citizens

In every country, the national development, which is a collective process, has to be accomplished through the constructive efforts of enlightened citizens, who practice righteousness in all their activities. The evolution of enlightened human beings is indeed a big challenge for the world community. I was asking myself, what will be the components of such a mission? There are three components to that. The first component is education with value system, second religions graduating into spiritual forces to bring universal brotherhood and the third is poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity through a national vision. And it has to be done in every country in an integrated way with link to the world.

Righteousness

I would like to share a hymn that I heard in the divine campus. The name of the hymn is 'Peace in the World':

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is a 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 a order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. How to inject righteousness in the human heart? This is indeed the purpose of human creation - that is divinity. We are going through a complex situation as many of us are completely at war with ourselves, with society and with nation. At every instant there is a war in our mind, whether we should go in one direction or another. Whenever there is a dilemma, we must seek the wisdom from the Almighty to lead us to the path of righteousness through education with value system.

I wish you all students and the teaching community success in giving the nation empowered, learned young with integrity.

Question & Answers

1. What are my responsibilities as a future citizen of India?

- Rudresh Sarkar,Class VI

or

2. What is your advice to the students of India to fulfill your Vision 2020?

- Bitan Bhattacharya, Class VIII.

Ans. I have a message for the youth of our country. All the youth should have indomitable spirit. Indomitable spirit has two components. First you should have an aim and work for it. Second, while working you will definitely encounter some problems. In those circumstances, do not allow problems to become your master, you should become master of the problems, defeat them and succeed. Fortunately, our nation has a great resource of young population. Ignited minds of the young are the greatest resource compared to any resource on the earth, under the earth and above the earth. When ignited minds work and perform with indomitable spirit, prosperous, happy and safe India is assured.

As a student you can definitely contribute by fixing a goal in your life, concentrate to combat, overcome the hurdles and achieve excellence. Student must imbibe moral values. They should aspire to become entrepreneurs. During holidays students can teach poor and underprivileged children and create a mission for them. They can plant trees and contribute towards improving ecological balance. These activities will collectively lead towards development and prosperity.

3. Atomic research is Quintessential to progress. But it is detrimental to environment. How will the problem be tackled?

- Subhojit Ghosh, Class XI

Ans: If adequate care is taken in handling atomic research it is not detrimental to environment.

4. What are the achievements of a man to be called successful?

- Bobin Biswas, Class XI.

Ans. It varies from person to person. Anything which has challenges and have not been achieved by others and you are able to achieve, I would call you a successful person.

5. Even after more than 50 years of our freedom in our country many are still illiterate. What should be done to achieve full literacy?

- Rajorshi Banerjee, Class XI.

Ans. As students you can contribute significantly to remove illiteracy among our people. During your holidays please go to the near by village and educate at least 10 persons who cannot read and write. If all of you take this as a mission and educate our people I am sure there will be no illiteracy within a few years.

6. India is a multilingual and multiracial country with many religions. Do you agree that unities among the people of the country is most important and how will we achieve the same?

- Subhajit Ganguli, Class XI.

Ans. Harmony comes from tolerance. We should cultivate a sense of unity amidst diversity of region, religion and language. These divisive forces should be converged as cohesive forces for bringing about peace in the society. Nation is bigger than any individual, religion or organization. If we keep this in mind and work together there will be unity among all our people.

7. Would you please as our President see that there is all round development of sports in our country?

- Subhajoy Roy, Class XI.

Ans: Yes, I always encourage sportpersons.

8. In our country there are still millions of poor people. What is to be done to remove poverty?

- Anupam Polley, Class VIII.

Ans. The PURA that is Providing Urban Amenities in rural areas is one scheme designed to provide entrepreneurial and employment opportunities to large number of rural people. This will eventually remove poverty among our people.

9. What are your suggestions to meet unemployment problem in India?

- Soumavo Singha, Class XI.

Ans. PURA scheme envisages creation of large number of small enterprises in our villages. This will enable provision of employment to the villagers in the village itself. Also, I am recommending the education system to be made suitable to generate entrepreneurs who can provide employment to many rather than seek employment for themselves.

10. Sir, please quote the incidents / inspirations that have helped you to mould your career as the First Citizens of India?

- Soumya Mukherjee, Class XI.

Ans: My career has been moulded by my primary teacher, Prof Satish Dhawan and Dr Vikram Sarabhai which spanned around 41 years. During that period as a scientist and technologist I worked with many teams in the development of satellite launch vehicles, missiles, nuclear test and generation of a road map for transforming India into a developed nation. Finally, an opportunity has been provided to me to market this idea to the nation.

Before concluding I would like to administer a 10 point oath to you.

Ten point oath for the youth of the nation

1. I will pursue my education or the work with dedication and I will excel in it.

2. From now onwards, I will teach at least 10 persons to read and write those who cannot read and write.

3. I will plant at least 10 saplings and shall ensure their growth through constant care.

4. I will visit rural and urban areas and permanently wean away at least 5 persons from addiction and gambling.

5. I will constantly endeavor to remove the pain of my suffering brethren.

6. I will not support any religious, caste or language differentiation.

7. I will be honest and endeavour to make a corruption free society.

8. I will work for becoming an enlightened citizen and make my family righteous.

9. I will always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and will work hard to make them feel normal, like the rest of us.

10. I will proudly celebrate the success of my country and my people.