DREAMS DO COME TRUE...

In 1954, on the lonely corridors of the Madras Institute of Technology, an introvertive young boy used to sit silently, away from the chaos of the college. His fresh little eyes gazed constantly at a miniature aircraft parked in the premises, under the ambiance of the setting sun. The atmosphere was filled with dullness, darkness and restlessness; but his mind flowed with energy, hope and enthusiasm. He had decided then: he wanted to fly; fly very high into the future, with the hopes of the nation right on his shoulders. It was a dream, a dream that very few from such a humble background would dare to take! 

Slowly and steadily, he went on to change the face of the nation. What then sprouted as a small indigenous missile program in his mind, which he fondly called Agni, today held its roots to make India the possessor of the indigenous Agni V, one of the only five countries in the world to possess an Inter Continental Ballistic Missile with a range of 5000 kms, developed completely on our own. Our defense arsenal then rose leaps and bounds, with India now inaugurating her indigenously built nuclear submarine INS Arihant, completing a powerful nuclear triad of nuclear deterrence from air, land and water, one of the only countries in the world to achieve so, apart from US, Russia and China. We should remember, that only strength respect strength; and India is on the threshold of a technological leap in defense with we developing our selfly built aircraft carriers, the new INS Vikrant and INS Vishaal, shortly to give valour to our lady. 

A short time before, our nation launched her tricolour outside the earth's gravitational influence area for the very first time, when our very own Lunar Probe landed on moon, sending us first pictures of her terrain, much to the jubilation of hundreds of scientists who toiled day and night to achieve this feat on their own, making India's space agency only the fourth in the world to achieve the same after NASA, ESA and China. Our tricolour marks its presence on lunar soil, a tremendous achievement of a nation with a billion dreams!

Our nation has produced gems in R. Srinivasan, a man who was never understood by his generation. Aryabhatta, who calculated astronomical distances that even modern satellites couldn't. Sushruta, a medical prodigy who wrote tonnes of work on surgery by sacrificing his very own nerves. Tagore, whose words surpassed human imagination. Swami Vivekanand, who managed to move civilisation on both sides of the planet, E Sreedharan, who gifted India with a technically and emotionally challenging Konkan rail corridor and one of the world's largest Metro systems in Delhi. Gandhiji, whose mind traversed the emotional limits of mankind managing to break them down into reality.

At the very same time that we are reading this, scientists and engineers from ISRO are working sleeplessly on the October'13 launch of our most ambitious Mars mission, if successful making India the third country in the world to achieve it after USA and Russia. This very same time, we are developing our own telecommunications network, we are linking cities by futuristic metros, we are creating some of World's largest airports, we are devising our very own nuclear capabilities, we are attracting majority of the world population to our land in search of spiritual and technical competence, we are creating people who are working tirelessly to unfurl the tricolour at even greater heights.

Then why are we complaining? Why not support her giant leaps and the silently working men of our nation instead of always cribbing and opposing our nation? We are a nation of might and valour, of strength and power, of rich history and a promising future. We need the support of our youth. Because if the next 10 years move rightly, India is on the threshold of a tremendous possibility. It is our nation's independence, it is our independence. This is the time to nurture the wings of this nation, for we are going to take flight, a flight into eternity. The world is fearing us, why are we afraid then?

Dr Kalam still lives that dream and he sees it achieve materiality. The corridors of his college are still afresh in his mind, but India has declared herself; proclaimed herself to the world: that here is the next power, waiting on the tarmac, ready to take off! Then why are we nervous or scared? Let us join together in that dream of Kalam then, because after all, it is he who proved to us, that Dreams Do Come True!!!