Three volunteers from Team Everest met Dr.AbdulKalam on Oct-07, 2009. This is my third meet with him

Our First meet happened at Pollachi, where I shared his photograph with 100 other people.

Second time, I met him in at Raj Bhavan in Chennai by midnight 12.00AM. This time, I took a photo standing just behind him along with 12 more people. Also, I got an autograph from him.

Action2020 forum brought me the third chance. As I have already got a chance of sharing a beautiful snap with him and also his autograph, this meet made me look forward for something special from him. In my last post about my meeting with Dr.Kalam, I mentioned -’In the 45 min interaction which we had, I would have learned at least 45,000 lessons from him’. This time too, I’m exactly looking forward for such lessons from him. Every movement of him, each word from his mouth will teach us thousands of lessons.

This time, we got his appointment at 8.30PM on Oct-7th at Raj Bhavan. We are also allowed to bring 2 volunteers from our respective teams. So, I decided to invite Thilagavathi Venugopal-the pillar of Everest and Karthik Ilango who is supporting Team Everest from 2006. This was a tough decision as we have many active volunteers who deserve to meet Dr.Kalam. We 3 assembled in front of Raj Bhavan by 7.00PM. We had loads of fun while standing in the platforms near Raj bhavan. Also, we got introduced to other 32 voluntary groups.

By, 7.45pm, we started walking inside Raj Bhavan. We are not able to see any deer’s around us this time:-(. I think, they might have got scared of our huge group. After, the regular checks, we are asked to seat in a big room in 1st floor. This is the same room where I met Gandhi’s secretary last time.

We three, carefully selected our seats so that we can see Kalam in a much better view

Around 8.45PM, Kalam came in.

All 70 people inside the room stood up and told in one single voice- ‘JAIHIND’. A real moment to be treasured throughout life. He gave a smile to everyone and repeated the word ‘JAIHIND’. Kalam was seated in a big sofa which had place to accommodate 2 more persons. After seeing it, Kalam told, ‘You are all sitting in groups, but trying to leave me alone. Don’t leave me alone. Please someone come and sit with me.’ On hearing this, I moved 2 steps forward. Suddenly, the topic changed and they invited six volunteers who are the core members of action2020 forum. My name was called as the 5th name. All the six people were standing near to him.

Out of the 3 seats available in the sofa, the center seat was accommodated by Kalam. Kalam invited Mr.Srinivasan, moderator of India vision2020 and Action2020 forum to sit towards his right. All the 6 volunteers were standing towards his left and no one sat near him. Kalam asked someone to sit near him. Everyone hesitated, but I took the chance, went and sat near him. Sitting with Dr.Kalam now. Wow! Opportunity knocked everyone’s door. But, only few people get up and open the door. I’m glad that I opened the door this time! Everyone loves to go to heaven. But, I got a chance to sit along with God though I’m not to heaven. I can say, he made that place heaven.

(The one sitting near to Kalam in White and Blue t-shirt is me)

I will share the speech by Dr.Kalam in a separate post.

Now, let me list out few points which I noticed during the meet:

1) During the Teams introduction session, a person will call the team name; the concerned volunteers from that team will get up from their seat. Every time, the team members stood up, he will see them and say a hello by shaking his head. This shows his importance towards individuals.

2) In one of the teams, there were two old women aged 50+ representing their team. When their turn came, they stood up. Kalam looked at them and told ‘Vanakkam’ in tamil. This shows how much respect he gives to old people. Also at the end, when he puts autograph to everyone, there was much crowd around him. Even by that time, he called those old ladies and put his signature for them so that they will not suffer in the crowd.

3) He insisted on Individual social responsibility even during this meeting. He told his famous lines once again:

Righteousness in the heart brings beauty in the character,

Beauty in the character brings harmony in the home,

Harmony in the home brings order in the nation,

Order in the nation brings peace in the world!!!

He asked every one of us to repeat the lines along with him. This is the 3rd time I’m repeating those lines along with him. While repeating those lines, I saw the police who came for Kalam’s security, standing at the corner of the room too were repeating the words along with us. What a surprise?? How many leaders will inspire people like this?

At the end of the meeting, they too took photo along with him.

4) 15min, before the meeting ends, I got up from the seat so that others can come and sit near Kalam to take the photograph. Almost everyone sat near him and took a photo. I sat near him for almost an hour.

5) I asked Thilaga to sit with Kalam and take a photo. Initially, she hesitated. But, later on she understanding that it is a life time opportunity and took a photo along with him. See the photo below:

6) We 3 stood behind him and took a photo as well. Have a look at it below:

9) I gave two copies of ‘Ilam Indiaviku’ book to Kalam. After the meeting, we gave a copy of this book to all who attended this meeting. Later, many of them mailed us and shared positive feedback about this book.

While returning home, I was keep thinking on what was the reason behind the success of Dr.Kalam? I can say it as, his humbleness, positive attitude, thinking big, having a vision and his acts towards achieving that vision. More importantly, he thinks about ‘WE’, whereas most of us think ‘I’ for 90% of our life time. I think these are his secret of success.

JAIHIND!

Dear friends,

As promised, I’m listing down the silly desires which I fulfilled in New York:

1) Many asked about my childhood role model, which I mentioned in my mail before I leave India. It is none other than Abraham Lincoln. I still remember the story of Lincoln, where he walks 6 miles to borrow books to read! Immediately I got down from the flight in Newark liberty international airport, USA, when my foot touched the US soil, I looked at the sky and saluted the country for giving one of the great leader and my childhood role model! The person near me gave me a different look. But, who cares? He didn’t know that for the first time in my life, I’m in the country of my childhood hero!

2) I gave my second salute towards sky for another hero this country has given us, who revolutionized the entire world with his operating system. Yes, it is the one and only Bill Gates! There may be a lot of controversies on Bill Gates growth. But I always admire for the size of dream he had! How many of us will dare to dream to have a computer in every home, when computers were of room size and you can still use it to do simple addition and multiplication? I have read his biography and those who have read about him can understand the depth of his dream! It is the salute for this man for the great dream he had!

3) I always believe it is music which keeps me alive, which keeps me calm, which keeps me thinking, which makes me research myself, which tells me what life is all about! Without music, life for me would have become very tough in this world! So, after reaching my room, I decided to hear a melody song of the great maestro Ilaiyaraja. He is yet another genius who made revolutions in Tamil film industry with his heart touching music.

So, the first song I heard was ‘Ilam Katru vesudhey’ from the movie Pithamagan. After hearing the song, I opened the window in my room to look at the view there. Instead of getting amazed at the tall buildings put up there, my mind was still thinking about Ilaiyaraja’s music. The big tall buildings looked too small for me in front of Ilaiyaraja’s music! Hats off maestro!

4) I didn’t forget to hear A.R.Rahman songs too! The first ARR song which I heard in New York was ‘Velai pookal’ song from the film ‘Kannathil muthamittal’. Fantastic! No wonder in which part of the country you listen this song. You can relate to his music and the lyrics. The song is all about ‘World peace’.

I even took a biography book on ARR along with me which I read in New York. Simply superb. It is his pure hard work and dedication to music which took him to greater heights. Hats off to his mother who has lost her husband at a very early stage, with her will power and dedication sacrificed her life for the well being of their children. Once, I finished reading his biography, I Just remembered the words uttered by ARR in the Oscar stage – ‘All my life, I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love, and I’m here’.

5) Being a book lover, how can I miss the opportunity of reading Vairamuthu’s book when I’m in New York. The book I read this time was ‘Indha Pookkal Virppanaikkalla’. I always wonder, how he is able to do magic with words. Simply superb. Enjoyed reading this book during my stay in New York!

6) My next silly desire was to see India while I’m in US! I just opened the world map and put my eye balls on India for few minutes. India looked more beautiful than ever!

7) My another silly desire was to read one of my famous Tirukkural –

The meaning of first line is that ‘Is there a lock to keep the love locked in this world?’. I’m wondering how come the poet Tiruvalluvar has foreseen it and written these lines 2000 years back!

What I have listed above may look very silly. In my short stay of 5 days in New York, I might have invested my time in doing other things rather than what I have listed above. But happiness is not dependent on where you are, but on what you do wherever you are! I just did the things which I loved through out my life!

If you liked this write up, you are most welcome to share your comment in this blog post. It is absolutely free!

Terrorism is not new to India and to this world. If the blood wetted this land during each terror attack is not cleaned, this world would have been floating in blood long back!

Now, world has seen one of the world’s ever worst terrorist attacks last week. With terrorists in their duties (!!!), more than 200 killed and 350+ got injured. It was the hot topic in all Medias last week (even now).

Everyone blamed the poor Indian security, the rich politicians and the coward terrorists. After the attack we lost 16 of our life saving GODS. (After seeing this attack, do you still call them as NSG or army or police or what so ever???)

There was lot of angry voices to tighten security in India. Political parties played their part as usual. But, something was running in my mind. Does securing our self is all what we can do now?? If we are secure enough, terrorists will start attacking China or Bangladesh or some other parts of this world. It is the same people but of different nationality is going to be killed. It’s the same blood which is going to wet this land.

Does it mean that we should not tighten our security?? No. What I want to tell is, just tightening our security is not enough. Something extra needs to be done to overcome terrorism.

Shall we go ahead and start killing terrorists across the globe??? Yes, you can. But at the end, you might have killed all Terrorists in this world, but not Terrorism. When you believe only one more terrorist is left alive in this world, there would have been thousands of terrorists trained and got spread across this world.

So, what is the solution? – Kill terrorism, ……..not terrorists!!!

Instead of preventing the enemy from attacking us, let us prevent an enemy being created!!

Just increasing security and killing terrorists may give you a temporary solution. But, killing terrorism will be the real and final solution for all terrorist attacks.

How can we kill terrorism? By killing all terrorist? No!!! We can kill terrorism only by not allowing anyone to become a terrorist!! How can we do that?

By ‘Love’ and ‘Value based Educational system’!!!

Love is the most powerful weapon this world has ever seen! A person with a lovable mother/father cannot be a terrorist at any cost! Their parent’s love would have already planted the seeds of kindness in one’s heart and there is no place for terrorism to spread its roots!

Let us start loving each other. It is the humanity in people which keeps people still alive in this world. Else, the words ‘People’, ‘Humans’ would have been added in history and queued next to ‘Dinosaurs’.

And, there are humans who turned to be terrorists because of the surrounding circumstances. We can name them as ‘Situational terrorist’. What can prevent them from becoming a situational terrorist is nothing but the ‘Value based educational system’. I have a personal feeling that today’s educational system is concentrating more on academics, neglecting the feed of moral values to the students.

A good educational system will not create Engineers and Doctors. It will create Honest, sincere, ethical Engineers and doctors!!!

We should start preaching good moral values to others. We should start doing it right from our home. You might have seen in many houses, when a kid falls hitting a chair when it tries to walk, many parents will go and start beating the chair to convince the child and to stop its cry. This is where we start sowing the seeds of terrorism in that child’s heart. The best response would be, to kiss the child, hug it and tell him to be careful next time. You can question me like the child is very immature to understand this. But, I may in turn question you, “if a child is matured enough to understand when you beat a chair, why cannot it understand your kisses and hugs?? “.

Just preaching others is not enough. We should start following it!!! You being a lion, cannot ask the tiger to be a vegetarian! Practice and preach!

The way you react to a situation matters a lot!! Your attitude determines your reaction!! So, have the right attitude!!!

To reach a stage of ‘Zero Terrorism’, everyone needs to play their role. You cannot just ask the politicians or the army to ensure the countries safety. You need to be socially responsible. Just like you being a good son/daughter to your father/mother, just like how sincere you are to your boss, Be a good citizen to your country!

You may ask whether ‘Zero Terrorism’ is possible. Why not? When a BAD can be taught easily to someone, a GOOD can be taught much more easily to others. Believe first. If faith is there, then you have won half the battle!

So, what can you do now?? How you can help this society kill Terrorism?? Simple.

Love all. Follow and preach moral values. Your great love and good values will certify this world as a ‘Zero Terrorism place’

Let us make the word ‘Terrorism’ available only in dictionary!

P.S: ‘Killing Terrorism’ will be a real tribute to those ‘Life savers’ who lost their lives during the attack and not a simple royal salute!

P.S.S: I just wrote what I felt. It is straight from my heart. I’m not an anti-terrorism expert. But a simple creature in this world who want to live in a peaceful world! This post is dedicated to all those who wants peace in this world!