“I’m always going to make this little light shine!”

75th Independence Day | 

- An Inspirational

13th August | II MA English Class

Dear all,

We are so blessed and privileged to be part of this momentous historic moment of our beloved India’s 75th Independence Day, ain’t we?

As young Indians, we all have a great responsibility towards contributing to our nation’s growth in our own sweet ways.

With this in mind, on 13th August 2022, in our II MA English Literature class, we had a few valuable nuggets of inspiration, and a host of patriotic thoughts for our class, followed by an oath, and a candle-light pledge!

The question posed to the students at the outset, was this –

1. What is the contribution that I am going to make to my Nation, that nobody else has already made?

So to begin with, everyone in class was given a sheet of paper that had a wondrous Independence Day-Inspirational package printed on it!

Then we proceeded to quote from the epigraph to the opening chapter of Dr. Kalam’s Ignited Minds, which also happens to be the oft-repeated mantra of Dr. Kalam’s –

Dream, Dream, Dream!

Dream transform into thoughts!

And thoughts result in action!

Secondly, the class read out from the epigraph to the second chapter of the same book [by Mahatma Gandhi], after asking our vibrant kids in class to replace a few words with the pronoun ‘I’ and then read it aloud -

Humans (replace it with I) often become what they (I) believe themselves (myself) to be. 

If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. 

But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Thirdly, our class students were asked to write down their own names above the name of J.R.D. Tata, Vikram Sarabhai et al, and re-read the sentence again!

Here goes the lovely sentence from Dr. Kalam’s Ignited Minds!

Vision ignites the minds. 

India needs visionaries of the stature of J.R.D. Tata, Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and Dr Verghese Kurien, to name a few, who can involve an entire generation in mission-driven programmes which benefit the country as a whole.

Fourthly, we had a rendition of Tagore’s ‘Where the mind is without fear’ played out for the entire class, through the Sound Box we had brought along exclusively for the purpose.

Where the mind is without fear

Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Fifthly, the students were asked to repeat after their teacher, the inspirational Oath of Courage administered by Dr. Kalam, when he was in MCC on 26th February 2007, which goes as follows -

Oath of Courage to the Students

Dr. Abdul Kalam

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 achieve success in all my missions.

Sixthly, we had a beautiful rendition of the English version of the immortal inspirational song, Sare Jahan Se Acha, composed by the poet Muhammad Iqbal – An Anthem of opposition to the British Rule in India.

Even while the music to the song was playing on in the background, Jean Elizabeth Mathew gave a bold and beautiful rendition of the lines of the song in English, which goes as follows -

Better than the entire world, is our Hind,

We are its nightingales, and this is our garden

If we are in an alien place, the heart remains in the homeland,

Know us to be only there where our heart is.

That mountain most high, neighbor to the skies

It is our sentinel; it is our protector

A thousand rivers play in its lap

Gardens they sustain, the envy of the heavens is ours

O the flowing waters of the Ganges, do you remember that day

When our caravan first disembarked on your waterfront?

Faith does not teach us to harbor grudges between us

We are all Indians and India is our homeland

In a world in which ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome have all vanished without a trace

Our own attributes (name and sign) live on today.

Such is our existence that it cannot be erased

Even though, for centuries, the cycle of time has been our enemy.

Better than the entire world is our Hind,

We are its nightingales, and this is our garden.

Finally, each of the students was given a beautiful little candle, and the teacher proceeded to light one candle in each row, which soon saw the whole class being lit up with such lovely radiant lights!

Then I proceeded to give them their pledge by candle-light –

“I’m always going to make this little light shine!”

I shall never ever look at the light in the candle of my friend.

I shall never ever be envious of the light in the candle of my siblings, cousins, or neighbours.

Because,

I too have a lovely light on my own sweet candle!

A light that’s so uniquely mine and mine alone!

I shall strive to make this little light in my cute candle shine alwaysss!

Well, on the delightful occasion of our 75th Independence Day, if we can take a resolve to make our lovely little light - that’s contained in our own cute candle - to shine its brightest, all of the time, I’m sure that this would be the bestest contribution that we can give to our mother India on this momentous occasion.

Jai Hind!