Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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In my previous column I wrote about President Abdul Kalam's book India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium. The book was published in 1998, and co- authored by YS Rajan. The book, as I summarised, was trying to address the question of whether India can become a developed country.

President Abdul Kalam has recently published a new book titled Ignited Minds: On Leashing the Power Within India, based on the result of his two-year pilgrimage around the country, during which he met thousands of school children, teachers, scientists, saints and seers. It was a one-man field study, in which the author tried to answer questions, raised especially by the young, as well as ask his own. Among the more challenging questions was "why, given all our skills, resources and talents, and when we are so obviously capable of being the best, do we settle so often for the worst. What is it that we, as a nation, are missing?" The answer, in a nutshell, came from the child to whom the book is dedicated. On April 2002, at a high school in Anand, while talking to the students, a question came up: "who is our enemy?"

"There were many answers," writes the president, "but the one we all agreed on came from her: our enemy is poverty." It is the root cause of our problems and should be the object of our fight.

The minds the author seeks to ignite are clearly those of the young, whom he attempts to motivate. Throughout his career in the field of technology and its management, he relied on power and the potential of youth. "My strength," he writes, "has been my young teams who never let me down." His motto is summarised as follows: "Thinking is the capital. Enterprise is the way. Hard work is the solution."

Every nation has struggled to achieve its goals. Generations have given their best to make life more livable for their offspring. "And yet," he says, "we fail to follow the winning track. More than the problems outside -- globalisation, recession, inflation, insurgency, instability, and so on -- I am concerned about the inertia that has gripped the national psyche, the mind set of defeat."

The book consists of nine chapters, all linked in a narrative style. It takes the form of conversations, questions and answers, with all sections of society. He begins with a rumination on peace, without which, he insists, there can be no progress.

I particularly like the way he opens the first chapter: "Dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts. And thoughts result in actions." During a disturbed sleep, the author had a dream. He saw himself in a desert with miles of sand all around. There was a full moon and the desert was basking in its light. Five men -- Mahatma Ghandi, Albert Einstein, Emperor Asoka, Abraham Lincoln and Caliph Omar -- stood in a circle, their clothes ruffled by the wind.

Through his imagination, he records the lives of these five great men. The conversation ends with Ghandi saying "Let the business of life be peace and prosperity, and not exploitation and conflict. This is our message to the planet. Everything that we do, any doctrine we espouse, should be for the good of humankind."

In this chapter he concludes that spirituality must be integrated into education. Self- realisation is the focus. We should ignite our dormant inner energy and let it guide our life. It is important, claims the author in the second chapter, to provide the young with a "role model." A nation's wealth lies in the younger generations of the country. When they grow, who can be the role model? Mother, father, and elementary school teachers play a very important role in this respect.

The president then goes on to list some of the important visionaries, in the form of teachers and scientists, who have greatly contributed to the advancement of India. But, together with these secular leaders, their spiritual wisdom "has been our strength." The young should also learn from saints and seers. "The fact that we advance technologically does not preclude spiritual development."

In a chapter entitled "Patriotism beyond politics and religion" he calls upon his people "to rise to greatness, to rise to their highest capabilities." He quotes three factors that are invariably found in a strong nation: A collective pride in their achievements, unity, and the ability for combined action. There must be a sense of mission.

Throughout the book, the president emphasises the importance of dreams, visions, and the power of imagination. It is the power of imagination which lies at the heart of the creative process, and is the very substance of life. Missions are always bigger than organisations, just as organisations are always bigger than the individuals who run them. Missions requires effort, while the mind provides the purpose.