Please read this article by giving 10 minutes from your busy life. Really good.... * The President of India DR. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam 's Speech in Hyderabad . * Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse acknowledge them--- Why?

We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan , he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit.

There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T. Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture,when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India . For her, you and I will have to build this developed India . You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation.

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours. YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore . Give him a name - YOURS. Give him aface - YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores.... YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchard Road(equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?

YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai .

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah .

YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds ( Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'

YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop,'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.'

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand .

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston ??? We are still talking of the same YOU.

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India ? Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay , Mr. Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan . Will the Indian citizen do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.

We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin.

We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.

We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related towomen, dowry, girl child! and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse?

'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU.

When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England . When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a greatdeal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J. F. Kennedy 's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians..... 'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY' Lets do what India needs from us. Forward this as a mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk mails. Thank you, Dr. Abdul Kalam

‘Feeling fine’, Buddha tiptoes through meet

Bhattacharjee holds the rail as he climbs the steps to the Milon Mela stage. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya) TT, Calcutta/Siliguri, Sept. 12: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, looking tired and walking slowly, returned to Calcutta today from north Bengal “feeling fine” and straightaway headed to a fairground for an inauguration. Bhattacharjee had spent the past four days at a forest resthouse in Mongpong, about 30km from Siliguri, addressing a rally and holding a meeting but generally recovering from ill health. “I’m now feeling fine; very good,” he told reporters after inaugurating a textile fair at Milon Mela this afternoon. “I spent a pleasant vacation.” Bhattacharjee, accompanied by wife Meera, drove to the venue from the airport after his flight from Bagdogra landed. Coughing occasionally during his brief speech, he did not mention the setbacks over Wipro and Infosys. Instead, he said: “Small and medium industry too employs lakhs of people; it isn’t only the big ones that do so. The handicrafts and textile sectors too employ a large number of people.” He conveyed his “good wishes, beforehand, for this festive season”. Earlier, the chief minister had mentioned, in an obvious reference to his breathing problems, that small-scale industries and tourism minister Manab Mukherjee had told him not to make a speech if he did not feel up to it. “Manab told me it’ll do even if I don’t give a speech,” Bhattacharjee said. “But I have decided to do so, though I have just reached Calcutta and am not fully prepared.” He briefly visited a couple of stalls, preferring to travel the 50-odd yards from the podium in his car. He declined a request by Mukherjee to visit some stalls further up, saying: “No, I won’t go that far.” He then left for home. The chief minister had put off his return by two days because of breathing problems. Sources in his secretariat have said he suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a respiratory ailment common to smokers. In Siliguri, urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said: “The chief minister had been feeling weak after a recent bout of fever and also had breathing problems. So he rested for a couple of days and, feeling better today, left for Calcutta.” A CPM state secretariat member said: “Doctors had advised him (Bhattacharjee) a few days’ rest in the hills. Poll today in Siliguri TT, Siliguri, Sept. 12: The Left faces a test tomorrow in stronghold Siliguri where the Congress had for the first time snatched a slice of its pie in June. Siliguri Municipal Corporation goes to the polls months after the elections to the Siliguri mahakuma parishad — the equivalent of the zilla parishad for Siliguri subdivision — in which the Left lost three of the seven seats. Like the parishad, which the Left has controlled since its formation in 1988, the Marxists have always been in power in the Siliguri civic body. But the big question being asked is: will it slip out of the Left’s grip? The election result will be out on Tuesday and the town will be agog till then. Had the Congress bagged one more seat — where it had never won a single seat before — it would have been in control of the parishad now. Like in the parishad polls, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress are fighting the civic elections unitedly.