Address At The St Aloysius College

ADDRESS

I am delighted to be in the St Aloysius College which is continuing its noble mission to share an intelligent pursuit of excellence to people of all creeds, races, culture since 1880. I am happy to note that the college endeavours to produce creative, moral leaders who will champion the Jesuit values of faith, peace and justice for a better world.

My education

When I am in this institution, I recall my young days and education. I am from a remote island, Rameshwaram. My education in 1930s was in the island. My secondary school education started with Schwarts High School founded by Rev. Schwartz nearly 200 years. My college education was at St. Joseph College Trichy. Our education is what we learn in the class and from teachers, what we learn in the Libraries and what we learn in the laboratories. I received an excellent education at my School at Schwartz High School, Ramanathapuram and later at St Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. I would like to recall the everyday happening in the College. Generally, the classes would start at nine O'clock in the morning. Exactly at 8.55, Father Erhart used to come and stand at the entrance of the College - not with a cane; not with authority. But, with a delightful smile always. He does it every day. Was he taking attendance to punish the late-comers? No. Students and teachers used to come in time not because of his authority. They came in time just because they were received by Father Erhart with all smiles. Education system should be designed to ensure the voluntary and active participation of every student and it should aim bring-out the creativity out of every individual.

I will never forget the opportunity I had in secondary and college education given by the missionaries for a student like me with rural background. In India we have a civilization strength irrespective of which religion we belong. We could trace 4000 years Indian history which was never afraid of any new thoughts or new culture. Today, India is a well established civilization. Now it is all the more important, irrespective which religion we belong, our major aim should be to achieve a developed India coupled with a spiritual value system and also prosperity. It is well-known about the excellent contributions made by the Jesuits in the field of education and medicine at pre-independence and post-independence period. Being a Jesuit alumnus, I am aware of the great contribution made by the Jesuits in the field of education not only in India but all over the world. I consider any organisation promoting education in the true sense as doing something holy, something sacrosanct in the best interests of society and a growing civilization. If education in its real sense can be imparted to the younger generation, there is nothing better than that as an investment for an assured future. In my view, education is the ultimate realisation of eternal human values fortified by increasing knowledge of the Universe's systems leading to self-realisation. Since India has to enter into the 'developed' status by 2020, it is essential that Jesuits and other institutions in the country have to gear up to bring about appropriate educational schemes so that 'enlightened citizens' are created. That means an integrated personality from learning with value system. The most important message I would like to convey is, time has come, religions have to graduate into spiritual forces. I dream a land of beautiful minds. I dream a land where great souls are created. I dream a land of enlightened citizens. When I say these, let me narrate an incident that I experienced a few years back at Thiruvananthapuram.

Universal mind

I would like to recall an incident which happened four decades ago. As you all know, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is the visionary of space programme in the country. He is well known for his cosmic ray research area that led to evolving the space research programme for the nation. Both Dr Homi Bhabha and Prof Vikram Sarabhai were looking for a site to establish space research station in the equatorial region. These two great scientists visited a number of places. Thumba in Kerala was selected by the scientific community for space research as it was near the equatorial region and was ideally suited for ionospheric research in upper atmosphere apart from study of atmospheric structure. When Prof Vikram Sarabhai visited Thumba, the locality had series of villages and thousands of fishermen folk were living in that area. It also had a beautiful ancient church, St Mary Magdalene Church, Pallithura and a Bishop's House. Prof Vikram Sarabhai met many politicians and bureaucrats to get the place for the work of space science research. It did not move further because the nature of the place. He was asked to see the Bishop of Trivandrum, at that time in 1962, His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira. It was a Saturday when Prof Vikram Sarabhai met the Bishop. The Bishop smiled and asked him to meet him the next day, ie Sunday. In the morning Service, the Bishop told the congregation, "my children, I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science research. Dear children, science seeks truth by reasoning. In one way, science and spiritualism seek the same divine blessings for doing good for the people. My children, can we give the God's abode for a scientific mission?" There was a chorus of 'Amen' from the congregation and the whole church reverberated. Subsequently, the big event took place in 1962. His Excellency Rct Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, took the noble decision to dedicate the church in recognition of the national goal for the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organisation at Pallithura, Thumba. That was the church where we had our design centre, started rocket assembly, design of filament winding machine for FRP product and the Bishop's house was our scientists' place. Later, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) led to the establishment of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and multiple space centres throughout the country.

When I think of this event, I can see how enlightened spiritual and scientific leaders, all converge towards giving reverence to the human life. New church and new schools were established in record time. Of course the birth of TERLS and then VSSC gave the country the capability of design, development and produce world class huge rocket system and subsequently, India has the capability of launching geo-synchronous, sun-synchronous and meteorology spacecraft, communication satellite, remote sensing satellite thereby provided fast communication, weather forecasting and also locate water resources for the country. Today, among us, Prof Vikram Sarabhai is not there, Rev Dr Peter Bernard Pereira is not there, but those who are responsible for creation and make the flower and blossom will themselves be a different kind of a flower as described in the Bhagwat Gita: "See the flower, how generously it distributes perfume and honey. It gives to all, gives freely of its love. When its work is done, it falls away quietly. Try to be like the flower, unassuming despite all its qualities". What a beautiful message for all generation of this nation, on integration of minds and universal mind. We have a tradition of experience with noble leadership, indomitable spirit and universal mind.

Thinking is Progress

Friends, we should note that human mind is a unique gift. Marvels of universe you can enter into it only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest to all of you, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Thinking is progress. Non thinking is destruction to the individual, organization and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action brings prosperity

As a student, I would like you to have a mind to explore every aspect of human life. Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires to give the best to those who dream and work. Like Chandrasekhar Subramaniam discovered the black hole. Today, using Chandrasekar's limit we can calculate how long the sun will shine. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and questioned why the sea should be blue leading to the birth of Raman Effect. Like, Albert Einstein, armed with the complexity of the universe, asked the question how the universe was born. The famous equation E=mc2 arrived. When E=mc2 is in the hands of noble souls we got electricity using nuclear materials. When the same equation was in the hands of extreme political thinkers, destruction of Hiroshima took place. Millions of people walk in this universe. But during last millennium one noble soul walked and walked in the Indian soil giving application of ahimsa dharma leading to the Indian independence. My dear friends, can you dream to become a noble minded like Mahatma Gandhi or Sir CV Raman or Einstein, or Chandrasekhar Subramaniam. Look at the marvels of your universe. You become a great thinker and action will follow.

Knowledge sweat and perseverance

Wherever I go, I meet school children. Till now, I have met more than 100000 students. A few months back, I was in Tuensang, a remote village in Nagaland. I talked to student community. I was in Tawang, in a 400 year old monastery situated in the high altitude of 10,000 ft in Arunachal Pradesh. I was in Manipur valley, I was in Jharkand, I was in Gujarat. Everywhere, one common voice echoed from the young. Mr. Kalam, can you tell us, in this complex world how to achieve a prosperous India, Peaceful India, a secured India?. What can be my answer? I was thinking and thinking. I have lived in this planet for 71 years. Did I learn out of my difficult times, some thing to share with you, the young boys and girls across the country. From 1982 to 1992 was a very important period for me to design, develop, build and to operate certain missile systems for our country. What type of world was there around me at that time. All developed countries had condemned India in the name of MTCR, as one weapon. The other weapon used by them was NPT (Non nuclear Proliferation Treaty). With these two weapons of technological denials can the Indian minds succeed in its mission? I will share with you an experience which I had during development of Prithvi and Agni missile systems. In the missile system, for guidance and control, we use two gyro sensors in every flight system. For a given accuracy for a missile payload system, it was essential to have a accuracy of .20 drift per hour. One of our industries at that time was producing 10 per hour gyros. There was a denial of high accuracy gyros from developed countries. A task team was formed between an University and one of our labs to find a technical solution. About twelve software and hardware engineers after working for eight months came out with a solution of fast algorithm to be loaded on the on-board computer of the missile system and for real time error compensation. This will predict the error in the flight trajectory ahead and compensate the error in the gyro performance to make it to provide very high accuracy than the one which was denied. I am giving this example how software solutions, knowledge and enthusiasm can work with hardware constraints. We have to work for high end software which will bring more value addition. Also, VLSI foundries should be continuously upgraded to the sub micron level. To keep these foundries going, one of the major requirement is high purity VLSI grade silicon material. The country should have this facility and the investment should take place in this critical area.

The Vision for the nation

After 50 years of progress, the aspirations are mounting that India should become a developed country. This is the second vision for the nation. How we can prepare ourselves to this challenge? To become a developed India, the essential needs are (a) India has to be economically and commercially powerful, at least to be one of the four top nations in terms of size of the economy. Our target should be a GDP growth of 9% annually and that the people below poverty line to be reduced to 10%. (b) near self-reliance in defence needs of weapon, equipment with no umbilical attached to any outside world. (c) India should have a right place in world forums. Technology Vision 2020 is a pathway to realise this cherished mission. I am happy to note that St Aloysius Technical Training Institute is training school drop outs in a trade to help them earn a living with proper vocational facilities for workshops and class rooms. I am sure this will greatly benefit economically backward students as I am given to understand that concessions and scholarships are offered along with free hostel facilities to few students to students who are unable to pay the fees. I would like to suggest that the board members of this institution should aim to provide educational learning program in unique areas. Vocational programs in the areas of maintenance techniques of computers and various communication gadgets may be offered to a large number of educated un-employed youth to make them employable.

Conclusion

Dear friends, the present academic system may give you more workload, But, it doesn't prevent you to dream. It doesn't prevent you to work hard and acquire knowledge. Hard work and perseverance are beautiful angels who will support you. I would like to recall an incident that I witnessed in 1960s. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary of space programme, put forth to this country that India should design and develop communication satellites, remote sensing satellites and launch them in polar orbits from the Indian soil, for mapping Indian natural resources. Today his dream has become true. The nation is capable of developing any type of space system. Hence, dream. Your dreams will transform into thoughts. The thoughts will result into actions. You will succeed. India is a nation of a billion people. A nation's progress depends upon how its people think. It is thoughts which are transformed into actions. India has to think as a nation of a billion people. Let the young minds blossom-full of thought, the thoughts of prosperity.