- As you all know, the earth rotates on its own axis once in a day having 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Earth itself orbits around the sun. It takes nearly one year for an orbit. With the completion of one rotation of earth around the sun, your age is added by one year as you are living on planet earth. Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we can navigate the time. “Let not thy winged day, spent in vain”.
___________________
by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
“There are many Everests in the life of man.
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”.
(June 21, Khurja, Seri Lanka Guardian) I am indeed delighted to meet and interact with the Students of various schools of Khurja. My greetings to all the Students present here. Now I would like to discuss on the topic “Knowledge makes you great”.
While I am with you, I would like to talk about knowledge. Knowledge has four components, creativity, righteousness, courage and indomitable spirit. That the combination of these characteristics can generate enlightened citizens. Let us look at the first component Creativity:
“Learning gives creativity
Creativity leads to thinking
Thinking provides knowledge
Knowledge makes you great”.
The next component of knowledge is righteousness. The power of Righteousness is described in a divine hymn, which is as follows:
Righteousness
"Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world".
The third component is courage, which is defined as follows:
Courage
"Courage to think different,
Courage to invent,
Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
Courage to discover the impossible,
Courage to combat the problems
And Succeed, are the unique qualities of the youth.
As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all the missions".
Let me now talk to you about two great minds having special traits in acquisition of right knowledge that led them to great heights. Let us go into details.
Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation
Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, harvest, take it to miller to be ground. From the flour, he made bread dough, which he took to the baker to be baked. He also remembers helping to make wine. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out. He began four years of wandering. He was four and a half years old.
He headed south, sometimes living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for malnutrition that would never be cured, since he, like the other children, was given only one cup of coffee and a small crust of bread every day. He wanted desperately to escape. Scores of beds lined the rooms and corridors of the hospital, one bed touching the next. No sheets, no blankets. That was where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to America to join his uncle and aunt. His mother had a psychological set back due to her life in prison and her subsequent search for Capecchi. The day after he arrived, his uncle and aunt sent him to the third grade, although he'd never before been to school. Nor did he speak English. The teachers allowed him to play with paints and make murals, enabling him to learn socialization and the language.
Capecchi became very active in sports, playing on four varsity teams: football, baseball, soccer and wrestling, where he was team captain. Capecchi says that sports are important from a psychological point of view which enables you to learn about human psychology, things that you later transfer to relationships: perseverance, pushing yourself beyond certain limits. The sense of social responsibility permeating the atmosphere at school also influenced him. There was a cognizance of world problems. It wasn't taught, but it was felt that one should do something to make this a better world. This led Capecchi to take up the study of political science. But after one political science class, Capecchi found there wasn't anything to bite on. There was little science in politics. He switched to science and math, graduating in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry.
Capecchi never took a Biology class; he learned about biology in the labs. For his practical experience, he worked several terms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Once, he worked with Charles Pop Kettering, a very curious man who dismantled an experimental machine Capecchi had worked three months to construct. Incredulous, Capecchi watched, later admitting that it was fun watching Kettering and his excitement at seeing how it worked. Although he really liked Physics its elegance and simplicity, Capecchi realized from his lab experience that everything we learned [in Physics] was only up to the 1920s. It was still classical education. Physics lacked the excitement in his time that Capecchi sensed in a new science being developed: molecular biology. He knew he would switch to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson. Watson taught him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.
After earning his doctorate in biophysics in 1967, Capecchi was a junior fellow at Harvard for two years. The next four years, he spent on the Biochemistry faculty at the Harvard School of Medicine, but realized that science was losing something. While in search for new topics, Capecchi found University of Utah in Salt Lake City to provide the right atmosphere to work on projects whose outcome may take 10 years. The main strength of Capecchi was his focus in science. He also wanted to know where his work fits in.
From then on, his objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980, despite NIH's refusal to fund the work. By 1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In 1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse which was considered not worthy of pursuit by National Institute of Health. It may seem like science fiction, but by manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize. You see young friends, how Capecchi defeated the problem and succeeded eventually in getting the Nobel prize?
Let not thy winged days, be spent in vain
As you all know, the earth rotates on its own axis once in a day having 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Earth itself orbits around the sun. It takes nearly one year for an orbit. With the completion of one rotation of earth around the sun, your age is added by one year as you are living on planet earth. Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we can navigate the time. “Let not thy winged day, spent in vain”. Young friends, all of you have to have a mission in life and work for it by navigating the time towards the mission.
Conclusion
Dear friends, let me administer a seven point oath.
1. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is “What can I give?”
2. Whatever the mission I will do, my motto will be “Work with integrity and succeed with integrity”
3. I will always remember that “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”.
4. I realize I have to set a great goal that will lead me to think high, work and realize the goal.
5. My greatest friends will be great human beings, great teachers and great books.
6. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.
7. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.
My best wishes to all of you for success in your educational mission.
(Dr. Kalam is one of the most distinguished scientists of India with the unique honour of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions. He has been awarded the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). He is a recipient of several other awards and Fellow of many professional institutions.Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India on 25th July 2002. His focus is on transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
___________________
by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
“There are many Everests in the life of man.
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”.
(June 21, Khurja, Seri Lanka Guardian) I am indeed delighted to meet and interact with the Students of various schools of Khurja. My greetings to all the Students present here. Now I would like to discuss on the topic “Knowledge makes you great”.
While I am with you, I would like to talk about knowledge. Knowledge has four components, creativity, righteousness, courage and indomitable spirit. That the combination of these characteristics can generate enlightened citizens. Let us look at the first component Creativity:
“Learning gives creativity
Creativity leads to thinking
Thinking provides knowledge
Knowledge makes you great”.
The next component of knowledge is righteousness. The power of Righteousness is described in a divine hymn, which is as follows:
Righteousness
"Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world".
The third component is courage, which is defined as follows:
Courage
"Courage to think different,
Courage to invent,
Courage to travel into an unexplored path,
Courage to discover the impossible,
Courage to combat the problems
And Succeed, are the unique qualities of the youth.
As a youth of my nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all the missions".
Let me now talk to you about two great minds having special traits in acquisition of right knowledge that led them to great heights. Let us go into details.
Birth of Creativity in a difficult situation
Mario Capecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian Alps. When World War II broke out, his mother, along with other Bohemians, was sent to Dachau as a political prisoner. Anticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, harvest, take it to miller to be ground. From the flour, he made bread dough, which he took to the baker to be baked. He also remembers helping to make wine. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out. He began four years of wandering. He was four and a half years old.
He headed south, sometimes living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalized for malnutrition that would never be cured, since he, like the other children, was given only one cup of coffee and a small crust of bread every day. He wanted desperately to escape. Scores of beds lined the rooms and corridors of the hospital, one bed touching the next. No sheets, no blankets. That was where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. Within weeks, the Capecchi and his mother sailed to America to join his uncle and aunt. His mother had a psychological set back due to her life in prison and her subsequent search for Capecchi. The day after he arrived, his uncle and aunt sent him to the third grade, although he'd never before been to school. Nor did he speak English. The teachers allowed him to play with paints and make murals, enabling him to learn socialization and the language.
Capecchi became very active in sports, playing on four varsity teams: football, baseball, soccer and wrestling, where he was team captain. Capecchi says that sports are important from a psychological point of view which enables you to learn about human psychology, things that you later transfer to relationships: perseverance, pushing yourself beyond certain limits. The sense of social responsibility permeating the atmosphere at school also influenced him. There was a cognizance of world problems. It wasn't taught, but it was felt that one should do something to make this a better world. This led Capecchi to take up the study of political science. But after one political science class, Capecchi found there wasn't anything to bite on. There was little science in politics. He switched to science and math, graduating in 1961 with a double major in Physics and Chemistry.
Capecchi never took a Biology class; he learned about biology in the labs. For his practical experience, he worked several terms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Once, he worked with Charles Pop Kettering, a very curious man who dismantled an experimental machine Capecchi had worked three months to construct. Incredulous, Capecchi watched, later admitting that it was fun watching Kettering and his excitement at seeing how it worked. Although he really liked Physics its elegance and simplicity, Capecchi realized from his lab experience that everything we learned [in Physics] was only up to the 1920s. It was still classical education. Physics lacked the excitement in his time that Capecchi sensed in a new science being developed: molecular biology. He knew he would switch to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson. Watson taught him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.
After earning his doctorate in biophysics in 1967, Capecchi was a junior fellow at Harvard for two years. The next four years, he spent on the Biochemistry faculty at the Harvard School of Medicine, but realized that science was losing something. While in search for new topics, Capecchi found University of Utah in Salt Lake City to provide the right atmosphere to work on projects whose outcome may take 10 years. The main strength of Capecchi was his focus in science. He also wanted to know where his work fits in.
From then on, his objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980, despite NIH's refusal to fund the work. By 1984, Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In 1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created by Doctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse which was considered not worthy of pursuit by National Institute of Health. It may seem like science fiction, but by manipulating gene sequences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What the research of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, his work with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s disease or even Cancer. The innovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize. You see young friends, how Capecchi defeated the problem and succeeded eventually in getting the Nobel prize?
Let not thy winged days, be spent in vain
As you all know, the earth rotates on its own axis once in a day having 24 hours or 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. Earth itself orbits around the sun. It takes nearly one year for an orbit. With the completion of one rotation of earth around the sun, your age is added by one year as you are living on planet earth. Seconds fly, minutes fly, hours fly, days fly and years fly. We have no control over it. The only thing that we can do is, while the time flies, we can navigate the time. “Let not thy winged day, spent in vain”. Young friends, all of you have to have a mission in life and work for it by navigating the time towards the mission.
Conclusion
Dear friends, let me administer a seven point oath.
1. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is “What can I give?”
2. Whatever the mission I will do, my motto will be “Work with integrity and succeed with integrity”
3. I will always remember that “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”.
4. I realize I have to set a great goal that will lead me to think high, work and realize the goal.
5. My greatest friends will be great human beings, great teachers and great books.
6. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.
7. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.
My best wishes to all of you for success in your educational mission.
(Dr. Kalam is one of the most distinguished scientists of India with the unique honour of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions. He has been awarded the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). He is a recipient of several other awards and Fellow of many professional institutions.Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India on 25th July 2002. His focus is on transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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