Every year, former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s birthday is celebrated as World Students’ Day. In 2010, the United Nations had declared October 15 as World Students’ Day. A recollection of APJ Abdul Kalam’s legacy is incomplete without a mention of his role as a teacher. Dr Kalam was dedicated to teaching and identified himself first as a teacher and then as anything else. Today is APJ Abdul Kalam’s 91st Birth Anniversary.
Dr Kalam left us due to a cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture to the students of IIM Shillong on July 27, 2015. He was India’s 11th President, who served from 2002 to 2007, and was widely referred to as the people’s President besides being credited for India’s civilian space programme and military missile systems.
Here are some of his teachings that will transform your life-
“I was a disadvantaged child from a non-educated family, yet I had the advantage of being in the company of great teachers.”
“For me, there is no such thing as a negative experience.”
“I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.”
“Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.”
“Teachers have to realize that they are the builders of the society. The society can be built only when the students are made proficient in their subjects. In addition they have to provide a vision for life to the students and also inculcate the fundamentals of values which he should practice in the years to come.”
“Ultimately, education in its real sense is the pursuit of truth. It is an endless journey through knowledge and enlightenment.”
“Real education enhances the dignity of a human being and increases his or her self-respect. If only the real sense of education could be realized by each individual and carried forward in every field of human activity, the world will be so much a better place to live in.”
“My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.”
“Building capacity dissolves differences. It irons out inequalities.”
“Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry, creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and become their role model.”
“While children are struggling to be unique, the world around them is trying all means to make them look like everybody else.”
“My message, especially to young people is to have the courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to young people.”
“You have to dream before your dreams can come true.”
“When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.”
“Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place – that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have the perseverance to realise the great life.”
“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.”
“Tell me, why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognise 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 have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.”
“We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!”
“Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.”
“Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‘what can I give’ spirit.”
“It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.”
“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is harmony in the house; when there is harmony in the house, there is order in the nation; when there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.”
“Let me define a leader. He must have vision and passion and not be afraid of any problem. Instead, he should know how to defeat it. Most importantly, he must work with integrity.”
“For the success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.”
“When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.”
“When a nation is surrounded by weaponized nations, she has to equip herself.”
“Over the years, I had nurtured the hope to be able to fly; to handle a machine as it rose higher and higher in the stratosphere was my dearest dream.”
“Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.”
“Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.”
“Smart habitation is an integrated area of villages and a city working in harmony and where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.”
“Science is global. Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, has to reach everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not distort it. Science does not differentiate between multiple races.”
“All wars signify the failure of conflict resolution mechanisms, and they need post-war rebuilding of faith, trust and confidence.”
“All the scientists and technologists should work inappropriate region, specifically the rural technologies, to transform the Indian rural sector.”
“We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage.”
“There has to be a global mission for human progress.”
