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Ignited mind of the youth is Most powerful resourceon the earth
Address and interaction with the Students during the Archbishop Benedict MarGregorios Award 2008 at Mar Ivanios College21/Feb/2009 : Thiruvananthapuram
Knowledge makes you great 
I deem it a great honour to receive the “Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios Award2008”. My greetings to all the members assembled here. On this occasion, I recall thecontribution of Archbishop Mar Gregorios to peace and welfare in the society. Hewas a messenger of God and worked ceaselessly for the service of mankind withcompassion and love. I thank the organizers for giving this prestigious award to meduring the Diamond Jubilee year of Mar Ivanios College. Since I am in the midst of Students of the college, I would like to talk on the topic
“Ignited mind of the youthis most powerful resource on the earth” 
My experience in Greece
Friends, let me share with you a beautiful experience when I visited Greece in April2007. I was negotiating and climbing towards Acropolis mountain top in Athens andcame across a group of 150 Greek students. They threw a spontaneous smile on me;the teachers came forward and introduced the students. They said, they were veryhappy to see the Indian president and that the children would like to hear from himfew words. My mind at that time was thinking about the great personalities, the landof Greece had given to the world: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The words of Platowere ringing in my mind when I saw the young students. Plato brings out that
“Our aim in founding the State was not the disproportionate happiness of any one class,but the greatest happiness of the whole”
, 2400 years ago. Similarly, around the same period Tamil poet Saint Thiruvalluvar said, That is, "the important elements thatconstitute a nation are: being disease free; high earning capacity; high productivity;harmonious living and strong defence". We have to find how we can provide all theseelements to the citizens of every nation on an equitable basis for happiness for all.With these thoughts, I made up my mind, of what to say to the students and the youthof Greece. I slowly repeated line by line, a hymn which I normally hear in Indianspiritual centers.RighteousnessWhere there is righteousness in the heartThere 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 an order in the nation.When there is order in the nation,There is peace in the world.When the students and the youth repeated with me, the tourists around at theAcropolis also repeated and there was all round ovation. Then I realized how peoplefrom multiple nations, young and experienced were influenced by the thought of righteousness in the heart irrespective of their nationality. You can see how therighteousness in the heart generates beauty in the character in the human beings and beauty in the character leads to harmony in the home. Harmony in the home in anintegrated way generates order in the nation. Of course the order in the nation finally blossoms peace in the world. The righteousness in the heart is the starting point for great individual, great family and great nation and ultimately great planet earth. Now the question is: How do we inculcate the righteousness in the heart. In myopinion, there are three sources which can build a youth with righteousness in theheart. One is mother, second is father and the third and the most important is theteacher, particularly primary school teacher. Also to provide righteousness in theheart to the young minds, we should have an environment of great education and aspiritual way of life and spiritual environment. Friends, in the school environment,you have to acquire knowledge which will be useful to you in your later life.Knowledge consists of creativity, courage and righteousness.
Creativity
“Learning gives creativityCreativity leads to thinkingThinking provides knowledgeKnowledge makes you great”Another component is courage, which is characterized by:
 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 allthe missions.Combination of creativity + righteousness + courage is knowledge. Howwill you acquire the knowledge up to the age of seventeen? You can certainly acquireknowledge from home, good books, teachers and teaching environment and studyinggreat minds. Let me share with you three great minds who have made importantcontribution to societal welfare. First let me talk about Nobel laureate Mario
 
Capecchi.It does not matter who you areMario Capecchi had a difficult andchallenging childhood. For nearly four years, Capecchi lived with his mother in achalet 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 theGestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raiseher son on their farm. In the farm, he had to grow own wheat, harvest; take it tomiller to be ground. Then, the money which his mother left for him ran out and at theage of four and half years, he started sometimes living in the streets, sometimes joining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and mostof the time hungry. He spent the last year in the city of Reggio Emelia, hospitalizedfor malnutrition 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 hisuncle and aunt.He started his 3rd grade schooling afresh over there and started hiseducation, interested in sports, studied political science. But he didn’t find interestingand changed into science, became a mathematics graduate in 1961 with a doublemajor in Physics and Chemistry. Although he really liked Physics, its elegance andsimplicity, he switched to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of James D Watson, who advised him that he should not be bothered about small things,since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.His objective was to do gene targeting. The experiments started in 1980 and by 1984,Capecchi had clear success. Three years later, he applied the technology to mice. In1989, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. The technology created byDoctor Capecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere theychoose in the genetic code of a mouse. By manipulating gene sequences in this way,researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal subjects. What theresearch of Mario Capecchi means for human health is nothing short of amazing, hiswork with mice could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s disease or even Cancer. Theinnovations in genetics that Mario Capecchi achieved won him the Nobel Prize in2007. Noble laureate Capecchi life indeed reveals: -“When you wish upon a star,Makes no difference who you are”
Planting of trees is the planting of ideas
I would like to talk about Prof Wangari Maathai’s who has a passion for environmentand bio-diversity and is contributing to the sustainable development and growth of  planet Earth. Wangari Maathai Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya(Africa) in 1940. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn adoctorate degree and to become chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy andan associate professor. Wangari Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya and was its chairman in 1981-87, where she introduced the idea of  planting trees with the people and continued to develop it into a broad-based,
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Deekshana Chandramohan

nice information.but not related to the topic abdul kalam's views on education wate of time i read it.its really bad.

reply04 / 14 / 2012
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