6 Knowledge

equation
I would like to share an
inspirational call from
Hazrat Mohammad
Sahib's Hadeeth (peace be
w w w . a b d u l k a l a m . c o m upon him).
"When you speak, speak the
T H E P U L S E O F I N D I A truth.
FEBRUARY 27, 2008
Perform what you promise.
Discharge your trust.
When there’s order in the Nation, Withhold your hand from
striking and taking,
there’s peace in the World. That which is unlawful and
IT’S POSSIBLE bad."
Let us follow this path

CHANGE AGENTS
and lead a noble life.
I would like to recall a
great clarion call of
indomitable spirit, which
was given by Sir C. V.
Raman, at the age of 82.
The message is still rever-

CAN’T WE STOP SPITTING ON ROADS? berating in my mind:

"I would like to tell the
young men and women
By Team Billion Beats with greater awareness. It has to come before me not to lose hope
voluntarily as everything cannot be and courage. Success can

I
f you want change, you yourself have forced by the law.” only come to you by coura-
to be the change,” Mahatma Gandhi geous devotion to the task
had said. His saying is apt in many So what’s the solution? It’s simple.
Every time you think of spitting on lying in front of you.
ways, particularly in today’s world.
roads, imagine that you are spitting on "I can assert without fear
Educated Indians constantly complain
Mother Earth. of contradiction that the
about how unclean our roads and cities
are. We Indians go ga-ga over the clean- Conscientious citizens can walk up quality of the Indian mind
liness in foreign countries, but sadly, to the offenders and politely request is equal to the quality of
make no attempt to replicate the same them not to do the same again. Traffic any Teutonic, Nordic or
here. cops may be empowered to book such Anglo-Saxon mind. What
offenders. Local cable networks, channels and the we lack is perhaps courage,
A movement in this direction must start in schools what we lack is perhaps
and it should spill over to colleges and then to offices. media in general could devote some time and
space to highlight the ills of spitting in public driving force, which takes
Corporations and civic authorities must create
awareness campaigns 24x7 to ensure that spitting in places. one anywhere.
public is a strict no-no. Hospitals can display boards informing the ills of "We have, I think, devel-
Says Mrs Aruna Bahuguna, IPS, Director General, spitting in public places. They say charity begins at oped an inferiority com-
Fire and Emergency Services, Andhra Pradesh: “We home. Very true: We never spit at home! plex. I think what is need-
had mobile courts in Hyderbad in 1994 and booked As we race ahead to become a developed nation, ed in India today is the
the offenders immediately. This was a special drive let’s remember that the road to development must destruction of that
implemented in main areas of Hyderabad. It had a be clean. We can do it. From today. If we make up defeatist spirit. We need a
good effect. I feel this must be brought back along our minds. spirit of victory, a spirit
that will carry us to our
rightful place under the
ANGELS ANONYMOUS sun, a spirit, which will
recognize that we, as

She wrestled with an angry cow for me inheritors of a proud civi-

lization, are entitled to a
rightful place on this plan-
By Vinaya Hegde et. If that indomitable spir-
Do you remember with gratitude someone, it were to arise, nothing

T
his incident happened when I was 8 years old,
studying in class III in Chennai. My friends
and I walked to school everyday. One morn-
ing, I happened to be late, and my friends left with-
out me. There were just a few minutes to go before
the school bell and I took a short-cut through a nar-
row, deserted lane to save time.
As I ran, I was terrified to see a huge, angry cow
with massive horns, suddenly gallop towards me. I
froze with fright and my legs just wouldn't move.
Suddenly, I don't know from where, a thin middle-
aged woman dressed in a nine-yard saree appeared,
pushed me out of the way of the charging cow, and
waved a yellow cloth bag she had in her hand, to
distract the angry animal. "Run!" she screamed to
me in Tamil. "Run fast!"
My feet suddenly came to life and I ran for my
life. As I glanced back once, fearfully, I saw the tiny
woman bravely swishing her cloth bag at the huge
animal. I turned the corner and ran into my school
compound.
Throughout that day at school, I couldn't concen-
trate on my lessons. The image of that frail woman
swishing her cloth bag ineffectually at that huge,
enraged cow haunted me all the time. That evening,
when it was time to go home, I deliberately took the
same short-cut — rather fearfully, because in my
child's mind, I expected the cow to be still galloping
around menacingly. I was relieved to find the lane
deserted. Then I walked up and down the lane sev-
somewhere, who helped you when you least can hold us from achieving
expected it? And went away without waiting for a our rightful destiny."
word of thanks, and even without telling you Hence friends, knowl-
their name? Want to thank your Angel Anonymous edge is equal to the equa-
now? Mail us at billionbeats@gmail.com tion: Knowledge = creativi-
ty + righteousness +
eral times, looking for blood stains and strewn limbs courage + indomitable spir-
because I had been convinced that the cow would it. The combination of these
have gored the woman to death and torn her apart. characteristics can generate
enlightened citizens.
I still feel the relief I felt that day when I failed to
spot any blood stains or limbs or even shreds of the
woman's cloth bag. For several days after that, my
friends and I kept our ears open for any news of a
woman who was gored by a cow. But mercifully, in
that small neighbourhood, there was no such news.
I also took that short-cut several times after that
(still fearfully, because the image of a massive
charging cow is not easy to erase from a child's
mind!) to see if I could spot that woman, but I never
saw her again. Proverb
To this day I do not know who she was. But who- Pocket
ever she was, she was an Angel. Someone who put
her life in danger for an unknown child. Expecting
no thanks in return. The tar of my country
In a similar situation today, would I display the is better than the
same courage that she showed then? To be honest, I
doubt it. honey of others.
(The writer is a senior journalist and From Morocco
Content Curator for billion beats.)

Mailbag
Magic at Pune hospital: If we decide
collectively and constructively, we can
change the ugly picture around us.
Such a good example has been set
recently in Sassoon Hospital, Pune
Noise, quarrels, jostling due to
absence of queue, and complete
chaos used to be the regular scene at
the Out-Patient Department. It used to
be difficult and time consuming to
collect medicines and get procedures
done, such as getting seals and sig-
natures of doctors on documents.
But now, magically, the scene has
changed completely. About 50 well
educated volunteers of 'Shree
Aniruddha Seva Pratisthan' are there
every Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday from morning to 2 pm.
They help OPD patients in every man-
ner, by giving them correct informa-
tion and guidance and ensuring disci-
pline. Now there are no quarrels, and
no chaos. All this is being done with-
out expecting any returns. Hats off to
the volunteers of 'Shree Aniruddha
Seva Pratisthan', Pune! Jai Hind!
Shailendra Krishnarao Deshpande
Wear blue for our troops:During my
recent US visit, I observed that every
Friday, office-goers wear red coloured
clothes to show their support to their
army fighting in Iraq. It is amazing to
find that the people are united irre-
spective of their race / community /
religion / gender towards a common
objective. This gives a morale boost
to the troops who are fighting in Iraq.
I suggest that we copy this formula in
India to not only delight our troops but
to give them a sense of pride for
doing their job. (In fact, spending a
single night in the hills of Kashmir is
equivalent to fighting for life in Iraq.)
This will also encourage more young-
sters to join the defence forces.
Blue being India's favorite colour in
cricket, let's use it to show our soli-
darity with our troops.
Rangarajan M
Let's talk cleanliness: I strongly feel
that if we take one step together, we
can definitely bring in change and
achieve our goal. This is an appeal to
all readers to lend a hand and change
our India in our small way. Would it
be a great contribution from our side?
Definitely it would, and I am sure Dr
Kalam would be happy to see us work
in our small way. I had received mail
from Dr Kalam stating I should start a
Cleanliness Mission in Mumbai. This
is my request to all readers: let's take
up one issue at a time and start think-
ing and pool our ideas. Through bil-
lion beats, I would like to request all
to take up the issue of CLEANLINESS
and start thinking about how to make
our place CLEANER. New ideas can
be tried out and implemented. Please
mail me at manjunair87@gmail.com.
Manju M Nair
billion beats is designed and uplinked to www.abdulkalam.com from Bangalore every fortnight. Chief Editor Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, National Affairs Editor Anantha Krishnan M,
Content Editor V. Ponraj, Copy Curator Vinaya Hegde, Creative DesignV. Jayaprakash, Stills Robert, INSPIRATION The Bold Billion
Y O U R P A G E FEBRUARY 27, 2008
Celestial Euro lab
makes history
S
pace does not belong to any and working in the space station is
one country, but is truly glob- S PA C E TA L K a stepping stone for astronauts to
al. It belongs to all nations prepare for a prolonged stay on
and each of them has the right to By Srinivas Laxman the moon and subsequently
have a place in it. This was proved embark on a mission to Mars.
recently when space history NASA plans launch of a manned
crossed a major milestone. lunar mission by 2020.
Interestingly, this neither hap- To make this space station proj-
pened on the launch pads where ect more global, it got a new addi-
rockets take off nor in conference tion recently. What is it? It is the
rooms when delegates make first European laboratory called
important announcements. Can
Columbus. Scientists are expected
any of you then guess where this
to carry out experiments in impor-
global space history was made? It
happened recently nearly 400 km tant fields like life sciences and
2010. The nearly 130-billion-dollar material sciences in the Columbus
above the earth, when most of you space station will remain opera-
were either studying or playing. laboratory. Built in Turin, Italy,
tional till 2016. Astronauts from 15 the Columbus laboratory is con-
Zooming at a whopping speed countries and five space tourists trolled from a centre near Munich
of nearly 28,000 km per hour, com- have visited it so far. in Germany. It is the European
pleting 16 orbits daily, is a home- What is the significance of the Space Agency's biggest contribu-
cum-workplace in space called the space station? Here, astronauts tion to the space station which is
International Space Station (ISS). It learn to work and live together in now playing a major role in the
can be described rightly as a weightlessness and do scientific field of science and technology.
United Nations in space. This experiments. Some of these exper-
massive structure weighing 19 iments could help people on earth.
metric tones, is a joint project of 16 Indian-American astronaut Sunita The writer is a Special
countries, which includes the US, Williams, broke the world space Correspondent with The Times of
Russia, Japan, Canada and a num- record by becoming the first India, Mumbai and is the author of
ber of European countries. Its con- woman to spend the longest time the book Dr Abdul Kalam: Dreams
struction in space started in 1998 in space: six months. to Reality. You can reach him at:
and is expected to be completed in The tough experience of staying moonmission.srinivas@gmail.com
INDIA OF MY DREAMS
The Most Beautiful…
I seldom see a part of you,
Now found on the Earth,
Thousands of colours…green, yellow, blue,
You are very precious and that's what is worth!
God bless you dear trees, I want her to
I often see you in my dreams,
You are reducing due to deforestation,
be the best
As a citizen of India, I would like to
Let's transport you from the train before it leaves the see my country at the highest
station. level. I would like to see develop-
ment in the agricultural field.
God bless you dear Sun, Even though the evils of the
You always give me light, society have been destroyed, I do
not think they have been totally
Your rays want to feel the fun,
abolished, because there are still
You charge a huge price for the flight! child-marriages happening in
God bless you dear sky, some parts of India. The elements
of evil practices of our country will
Birds are chirping & are your friends, keep multiplying till we lose our
One day I will touch the place that is very high, fame. So I request the Government
of India to take immediate action
Music is what the birds want to lend.
to discourage such practices.
You are the only beauty, As tourist spots in India are
famous and people from all over
That has so many things , the world come to these places,
This beauty no one has, truly, the tourism department could take
My brain has started to ring! steps to make the tourists' stay in
India more interesting by launch-
You are the most beautiful, ing holiday packages, fairs, fests,
You have thousands of colours, etc.
I would like all Indians to try
I am really very thankful, their best to abolish poverty and
To dearest Nature. hunger in India.
This is my vision for my India.
Astha Wadhwani
Class V, Avalon Heights Int.School, Kris Oommen Jacob
Class V, Abu Dhabi Indian
Navi Mumbai
School, Abu Dhabi, UAE