Unity of Minds - Speech by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam - Summary

2002 Independence Day Speech 

Abdul Kalam greets all Indians who are in India and abroad on the 55^th Indian Independence

He thanks the armed forces for protecting our borders

He appreciates the farmers for working hard in the lands

He greets the technicians for making the industries work 

He also conveys his thanks to teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists and technologists and other professional. 

He recollects his meeting with a group of freedom fighters who fought for the Indian Freedom Struggle.

He remembers the supreme sacrifice that the freedom fighters made to get our Independence 

He also talks about the vision-driven movement which created many leaders in different spheres of life.

He shares his idea of integrating people from various fields of life to make India move from a developing country to a developed country. This will help to remove poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. 

He is surprised by the paradox that is present in India - On one side we can see droughts and the other side we can see floods. 

To solve this problem, he recommends a water mission which will make sure that the water will be available in the fields, villages, and towns. He says we can also use desalination techniques to create more water. 

He also gives short term solutions like - water harvesting by revitalizing rural ponds and water recycling to water conservation. 

He stresses on the phrase - Unity of Minds which is essential for the development of the country. 

He says that it is India’s greatest strength - A unique fusion in terms of multiple religions, cultures, ways of life. 

He remembers the noble minds of Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhai Patel, and Vikram Sarabhai. 

He reminds every one of us to work for a larger cause which will give us happiness. 

He reminds us also about the values Gandhiji taught us - Non-violence, tolerance, acceptance of all religions and different ways of life, search for truth and fearlessness. 

He urges everyone to have role models in our lives. It is not enough that we have role models from the past. We also need role models from the present. 

 

Speech by Barack Obama - Summary

A speech delivered by him in St Paul Minnesota on June 3^rd 2008. 

Great Orator and a great president

Great voice and great human being

A nationalistic speech 

Make America great again 

Two-party system – Democrats and Republicans

The Primary is within a political party to select the presidential entail candidate of the party. 

Presidential debates are quite famous during the election campaign. 

Summary of the Speech: 

He announces that he is elected as the Democratic party nominee for President of the United States 

He thanks all the Americans for standing with him and the party. 

He directly addresses the three main ethnic groups in the US – Blacks, whites and the Latinos

He acknowledges the presence of Hillary Clinton who lost the primary.

He talks about the great historical step that she took in terms of being a woman.

He talks about the health care system which later on became Obama Care

(Page 53 is dedicated to her 9 offline tasks will be based on that) 

He attacks the George Bush presidency 

His political campaign caption was ‘Change you can believe In’

He talks about bringing the US troops back from Iraq

He says – they should start leaving Iraq

He talks about the common threats of the 21^st Century – terrorism, nuclear weapons, climate change, poverty, genocide and disease. 

He tries to define change by talking about how to provide better care for the American people.

He criticises his fellow Republican candidate – John McCain – who claimed that he has travelled to Iraq many times. Obama asks him to visit the poor states of the USA first to know the situation of poverty. 

He talks about a health policy and a new energy policy 

He talks about early childhood education 

He says that’s the reason why he is running for the President. 

He says that Americans may call themselves as Democrats or Republicans – He strongly tells them that they are all Americans. ‘We are always Americans first’ 

People who belong to different groups or opinions have come together for a common cause. 

He ends the speech by calling everyone to create a
better health care system, provide jobs, climate protection, and end all wars.  

Vikram Sarabhai - Summary

 

Vikram Sarabhai 

 

1.     Born on 12^th August 1919, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 

2.     Born into a rich family, father owned many textile mills in Gujarat 

3.     Many leaders of the Indian freedom struggle used to frequent his house like Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore. 

4.     He went to England for higher studies at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge 

5.     Due to WWII he came back to India and joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore along with C V Raman.

6.     Once the war was over, he went back to England and completed his PhD in 1947

7.     Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai. He got married in Chennai. His daughter Mallika Sarabhai is a renowned dancer. 

8.     He founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947. 

9.     ISRO was established by him and he was supported Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha who is regarded as the father of India’s nuclear science programme. 

10.  ISRO was set up near Thumba in Kerala, Trivandrum 

11.  The inaugural flight was launched on November 21, 1963 - Sodium Vapour payload. 

12.  With the help of NASA, he set up the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) which brought education in 2,400 Indian villages. 

13.  He was the force behind the first Indian Satellite Aryabhata in 1975.

14.  He was interested in the study of Cosmic Rays

15.  He was instrumental in establishing the IIM’s - world-class centre for management studies 

16.  Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award

17.  Padma Bhushan 

18.  Padma Vibhushan 

19.  VSSC - Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre - Trivandrum is named after his memory

20.  He died on 30^th December 1971 at Kovalam, Trivandrum  due to ill-health 

 

 

 

Speech by Narayana Murthy - Summary

Delivered at the New York University on May 9, 2007 

He talks about four events from his life and the lessons he learned from these five events

 

Event 1: When he was a student at IIT Kanpur how he had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist from a U.S University who was visiting IIT Kanpur. The scientist was giving an informal talk to the students while he was in the cafeteria. Narayana Murthy went from cafeteria to the library and read all the five articles suggested by the scientist. He left the library determined to study computer science. He tells that sometimes valuable advice can come from unexpected sources. 

 

Event 2: He was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my hometown. He was travelling through Yugoslavia (now Serbia) and Bulgaria in the year 1974. He took the Sofia Express and met a girl. He started talking to her in French and the talk was political. Policemen who came inside summoned by the fellow passenger took him and locked him in a prison. He was inside the prison for 72 hours without food or water. He was bundled into a train leaving for Turkey. As he left the Railway station, the police told him that it was only because he was an Indian that they are letting him go. This experience made him hate the ism of communism and he decided to become a compassionate capitalist. He wanted to be an entrepreneur and provide jobs for people. He believed from that day that is the only way we can remove poverty from society. This led to the founding of Infosys in 1981. 

 

Event 3: When all the five of the seven founders met in an office room in Bangalore. They came together to sell Infosys for $ 1 Million. He took an audacious step when he offered to buy the shares from each one. He didn’t have a single penny with him. This made others think and they decided to reject the $1 million offer. Infosys’s net income became $800 million and it created 70,000 well-paid jobs and created millionaires. 

 

Event 4: 1995 Meeting at the Taj Residency where he was able to negotiate a business deal with a Fortune 10 company. This became a turning point for Infosys. The crisis that happened in 1995 was a blessing in disguise. 

 

He talks about the four lessons that he learned from these events:  

 

1.     Importance of learning from experience 

It is not important where you start, it is more important how and what you learn

2.     Power of chance events - The way we respond to the chance events is very crucial. 

3.     The growth mindset leads you to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism. 

The fixed mindset a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore feedback

4.     Self Reflection - In other words Self-Knowledge - Greater awareness and knowledge of oneself which will lead to courage, determination and humility. 

The best use of your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate - It is a sacred responsibility

Ideas and main themes in Ozymandias

 Important lines to be discussed and memorized 

1.     a traveller from an antique land

2.     a shattered visage lies,

3.     Three emotions on the face: frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

4.     Sculptor well those passions read

5.     yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things

6.     The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed 

7.     Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

8.     Nothing beside remains.

9.     colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

10.  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 

Five important ideas:

1.     Temporality of life 

2.     Time is the greatest healer 

3.     Arrogance Vs Humility 

4.     Contrast - Happy Prince

5.     A fable/ Moral of the story

You can listen to the audio version of the poem by clicking on this link 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/play/75866

Main themes: 

Theme # 1 - The Transcience  (the state or fact of lasting only for a short time) of Power

 

1.     The writings on the statue and the destroyed statue creates irony. 

2.     Great rulers and their kingdoms will fall into the sands of time

3.     Even the king of kings is destroyed by the merciless passage of time 

4.     Not just the statue but the entire kingdom which existed around the statue 

5.     How powerless time and decay can make everyone 

6.     The cruelty of the ruler exists only in the shattered face of the ruler. 

7.     Shelley reminds us that history is full of the rises and falls of the empire. 

8.     No power is permanent. 

9.     Today maybe you are a king of a king, but tomorrow you may become a relic

 

Theme # 2 - The Power of Art: 

 

1.     There is one thing that has withstood the centuries – Art 

2.     Art as a tool to preserve human history and legacy 

3.     The statue shows the skill of the sculptor 

4.     The sculptor was able to copy the exact emotions of the King 

5.     This is the way the world knew that the King of a cruel king 

6.     The writing on the pedestal( inscription)  also is an art which has survived the sands of time.

7.     A possible link with the poem Digging 

8.     Art as a means to immortality.

9.     Art inspires future generations

Ideas and main themes in Digging

 

The most important lines to discuss and memorize are 

Between my finger and my thumb   

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound   

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:   

My father, digging. I look down

By God, the old man could handle a spade.   

Just like his old man.

But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests.

I’ll dig with it.

You can listen to the poet reading the poem by clicking on this link: 

 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/play/76727

Ten main ideas from the poem digging which is useful to everyone 

1.     Think different 

2.     Develop your own perspective in life 

3.     Keep Digging - Keep Swimming - Finding Nemo and Finding Dory 

4.     Think beyond the existing framework of life

5.     Son and Father - Mutual respect in whatever they are digging 

6.     Window as a metaphor - Exploring and looking out

7.     Move away from the comfort zone

8.     Hard work - Dream Vs Action 

9.     Taking a risk, gambling with life

10.  Love what you do 

Theme # 1 Labour and Craft

 

•      The poem is about work

•      Manual labour is made into a craft. 

•      Blue Collar Jobs and White-collar jobs 

•      Digging presented not as a repetitive task but as a craft. Like an artist, his father is digging. 

•      The technique used by his father even though it was a physically demanding job

•      The physical act of digging becomes the inspiration for writing the poem

•      The craft of writing 

•      The final stanza when he says – I will dig with it – the poets decides to write 

•      Father and grandfather has become the inspiration for him 

•      One work is manual and the other one is imaginative   

 

Theme # 2 Family and Tradition 

•      Three generations represented in the poem 

•      Grandfather, Father and Son 

•      The tradition of farming – one of the earliest forms of livelihood. 

•      The new profession of writing 

•      The poet is trying to be like his father and grandfather 

•      The use of tools – spade by his father and grandfather 

•      The writer’s tool is a pen 

•      Hard work, grit, concentration, and persistence – Values that he learned from father and grandfather. 

(The themes are culled from LitCharts)