26 February 2007 | A Report
The College security was beefed up full-throttle, even days before the visit of the First Person of the Nation - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, and car passes, vehicle passes, staff passes, student passes, visitor's passes, press passes, alumni passes, resident staff passes etc etc were implemented in right earnest and every Tom and their whereabouts were monitored with utmost care and caution!
The First Person of the Nation stuck to his punctuality. Just this morning I saw him live on DD addressing the beginning of the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the budget session. And evening we at MCC had the lovli privilege of seeing the FIRST PERSON at close quarters, face to face, and this was the first time i was seeing a reigning President at close quarters.
The moment the MC asked the students and the assembled audience to kindly stand up for the arrival of Dr APJ, there was a thunderous applause, and a standing ovation. For anything that he said, there was a resounding and convincing applause. When the National Anthem was sung, he gestured with his hands to the students to join along in singing the Anthem.
The Man was his usual self, casual, calm, serene, composed, with not an air on him.
Dr. Ganesh - my kindred spirit - who was sitting next to me, said, "Rufus, Look, how innocent he looks! A True Gem of India." He was indeed innocent and charming too.
Dr. Kalam explained the values of science in two lovli phrases, with two lovli persons, both Nobel laureates.
One was Sir CV Raman, and the other Prof. Norman Borlaug, who partnered the first Green Revolution in India.
Raman was on the first list of Bharat Ratna awardees. When Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India invited him to be his personal guest, Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter declining his invitation, and the reason was that, he had a student to guide who was on the verge of completing his thesis. THIS IS THE TRAIT CALLED VALUE OF SCIENCE, he said.
Prof. Borlaug, at a function to honour him, introduced his fellow scientists, who had also partnered along with him for the success of the Green Revolution. THIS IS SCIENTIFIC MAGNANIMITY, he said.
Amar, my student in the second year BA Class, visually challenged, made use of the opportunity to get Dr Kalam's autograph and shared a few words with the FIRST PERSON too, to our sweet joy and pride.
Some of his golden words were -
DREAMS TRANSFER INTO THOUGHTS
THOUGHTS TRANSFER INTO ACTION
SO DREAM
He also administered an Oath of Courage to all our students -
Courage to think different,
Courage to Invent,
Courage to discover the impossible,
Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
Courage to share knowledge
Courage to remove pain,
Courage to reach the unreached
Courage to combat the problems and succeed.
As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to to achieve success in all my missions.
The full text of his Address to MCCians HERE
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