The buck stops here!

I am not sure about the origin of this message or speech or whether these are actually Dr Kalaam's words but it is an interesting piece of writing and does make
you wonder why Indian's behave differently in India and abroad...


The President of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's speech in Hyderabad.

Why is the media here so negative?Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success
stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters. I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build
this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance.
Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.
YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,
The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits.
YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Take a person on his way to Singapore .. Give him a name - YOURS. Give him a face - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores.
YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Pedder Road) between 5 pm and 8 pm PM.
YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?
YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai..
YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are
billed to someone else.
YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.'
YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand ..
Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ?
Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ???
We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why can't you be the same here in India ?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan .. Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right.
We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect thegovernment to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are
notgoing to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl-child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system.
When New York becomes insecure we run to England .. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war
struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Let us do what India needs from us.

Thank you,

Dr Abdul Kalaam Azad

news you can misuse

Wanted to do this for a long time now and finally got around to realizing it. now that I'm officially on the other side, so to speak, i don't know what to type. seems like a vacuum. so let me just ramble for a while.
don't know about you but I'm really concerned about the stuff that appears in newspapers these days. the Bombay times as well as the HT cafe supplement is just full of stories about A is sleeping with B and X dumping Y and why. the mumbai mirror is only worse. it's just a tabloid for the sleazy lot. the HT cafe has a agony aunt column featuring kim sharma, the queen of P 3, no less. as if this wasn't enough even the main edition is no different. is this what news is supposed to read like? I'm sure not. as much as i want my 11-year old daughter to be aware of goings-on, i squirm every time she picks up the newspaper. now let me tell you this, the last thing i am is a prude. we have had pal-like talks ever since i can remember and i think she's quite sensible as kids her age go. but when soft-porn lands on your door every morning, there is little you can do. i have always been an advocate of awareness over censorship, so the last thing i want to do is stop her from reading but i think it's high time newspapers realize that even growing kids are reading them. i also realize that times are changing but the newspapers are really pushing the envelope. i heard somebody tell me the other day that television was bad for children, but i think you can at least you can use the remote here. with the papers even that option is not viable or for that matter advisable. on my part, i did try to tell my daughter that when you have a choice it's up to the individual to decide what choose since that's what divides a good person from a not so good one. but really can anyone expect a 11-year old to make the right choice first time, every time? so is there a answer to this? here's what i suggest. a good solution would be to keep the sleazy section of the news separate from the main edition and leave it to the subscriber's choice and leave it to the individual to choose whether or not he/she wants it delivered. they could even price it differently. that way at least we can be sure that we are exercising our option. after all, isn't that what a democracy is all about?