"And how do you intend to find a solution to this problem?" Dr APJ Abdul Kalam asks the young boys and girls of India. Everyone in the audience is stunned. They are emotionally charged but unable to provide a befitting reply. And Dr Kalam then shares his vision 2020 with all of them and suddenly everything begins to make sense.
Sounds like a riddle? Yes, it does. Allow me to tell you the context.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has made a very pertinent observation in his book 'Ignited Minds'. He says that India was under British control for a very long period. And a very big majority had started to accept the situation as a must-be. Then in the year 1857, they first saw the dream of free India. Every Indian started to desire freedom and strive for it. It took a poor and oppressed nation 90 years to achieve that vision. But the bottom line is very clear. If everybody has a common vision, a nation is able to realize it sooner or later.
Dr Kalam then asks, "And what is the vision today? What is it that we are trying to achieve? If freedom from the British inspired every Indian from 1857 onwards, do we have any such burning desire today?" And he goes on to say that absence of any such common cause or vision only is the biggest problem before us. When an entire nation does not know where to go, where would it go? Nowhere is the only possible answer. And this is the pressing problem of today, feels Dr Kalam.
The situation can be compared with many travellers walking here and there with no destination in sight. They walk daily, sometimes they come back, sometimes they take random turns and as a result they never reach anywhere. As a nation, what do we intend to achieve? It's a pity that the vision is not clear.
Many business schools teach Goal Setting to their students. Nearly all the companies begin with a mission statement. What about our national vision?
Dr Kalam has definitely blessed us with a very good vision document by way of his book Vision 2020. A number of people, who went through the visionary exhortation, have appreciated the same. But i do not want to share the gist of the same here. Rather i want to throw this question open here. What should be the driving force for India today? Can you please express yourself in not more than one sentence? I hope this may lead us somewhere.
Let your vision for mother India be visible here, continuously.
