Address and Interaction With School and College Students at Jnrm Auditorium, Port Blair
Port Blair : 05-05-2005
Creativity adds beauty to Human Life
I am delighted to address and interact with the students of schools and colleges of Port Blair. My greetings to the Principals, teachers and students of this beautiful island. I would like to discuss the topic "Creativity adds beauty to Human Life".
Creativity
I was thinking about creativity.
1. How it is created?
2. What is the source?
3. Is it genetic? Or
4. By learning, can it be created?
Dear Children, can you tell me three important events which happened during the last two centuries that changed the human life in this planet? Any one of you?
CHARLES DARWIN, who propounded the theory of "Natural Selection". He made us think differently about how the evolution of human being took place. Thomas Alva Edison, who invented electricity, which is, indeed revolutionized every field of science and technology and human life. Electricity is indeed the foundation for the growth of human life today. Mahatma Gandhi, whose Ahimsa Dharma movement against racial discrimination in South Africa and fought against British rule in India through non-violence. These three events of 20th century are the results of creative mind.
Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and the sky, and questioned why the sea should be blue? This led to the birth of Raman Effect, he found the blue of the sea was due to the molecular scattering of light and was not a case of reflection of the sky in water as most people imagined.
One of the major breakthroughs in science in the 20th century that had an everlasting impact on the human kind is the most celebrated work of Einstein. Einstein explained, for the first time in 1905, the principle of the inertia of energy as a universal law. The famous energy equation E=MC2 was given to the world. This equation has become the basis for converting matter into energy ? giving birth to a new avenue called the nuclear energy for producing electricity to light up our cities and villages.
After this event, Einstein looked up to the space and saw millions and millions of galaxies and he noticed that we belong to one of the smallest galaxy. In the smallest galaxy, sun is the smallest star. In this smallest galaxy, we have 9 planets and the planet in which the human race lives is an insignificant planet. But yet we have all types of lives, including human life. This led to creative astronomers like Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler who had given a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. We are not alone. Human race is not a unique race in the universe. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeeds.
Story of Bumblebee
(According to the laws of aerodynamics) the bumblebee should be unable to fly. Because of the size, weight, and shape of its body in relationship to the total wing span, flying is scientifically impossible. The bumblebee, being ignorant of scientific theory, goes ahead and flies anyway ?.
JOHN MAXWELL -
Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence. In 1890, a great well-known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, "any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown." With in two decades Wright Brothers proved man could fly of course at heavy risk and cost.
Remove the word Impossible
On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1969, Von Braun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said "If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible".
In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The three great astronomers Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeeds.
Now I would like to talk to you about the Evolution of enriched societies.
Evolution of enriched societies
We have multiple societies in every nation starting from agricultural society, industrial society, and information society leading to knowledge society. During the 20th century, societies underwent a change from the agricultural society, where manual labour was the critical factor to the industrial society, where the management of technology, capital, and labour provided the competitive advantage. The information era was born in the last decade. Networking within the country and with the other nations and the software products drove the economies. Some of the nations including India utilized this opportunity. In this decade we are just entering into knowledge society era.
The uniqueness of knowledge society is enriching the information society with innovation and value addition of products. The knowledge also enables value addition to the other three societies. In knowledge society, knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital or labour. I would like to discuss with you how we can work together to make our societies enriched by knowledge and transforming them into knowledge society.
Knowledge can create a comprehensive wealth for the nation and also improve the quality of life, in the form of better health, education, infrastructure, and other societal needs. The ability to create and maintain a knowledge society infrastructure, develop the knowledge workers, and enhance their productivity through the creation, growth, and utilization of new knowledge, will be the key factor in deciding the prosperity of this knowledge society. Whether or not a nation has developed into a knowledge society is judged by the way, it creates and deploys knowledge in the sectors like ICT, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Services, Education and Healthcare.
Societal transformation
The whole purpose of education in a country like India is to develop and enhance the potential of our human resource and progressively transform it into a knowledge society. The knowledge society will be a society producing products and services that are rich in both explicit and tacit knowledge, thus creating value added products. The real capital of this knowledge society will be its knowledge workers. The society will be highly networked to create knowledge intensive environment along with enabling process to efficiently create, share, use and protect knowledge. Our education system should re-align itself at the earliest and promote creativity and innovation among youth and equip them with skills to participate in the societal transformation, since these characteristics will be needed in producing, finding innovative applications and marketing in a competitive environment.
Conclusion: Indomitable spirit
For success in any mission what we need is indomitable spirit. Let us study the characteristics of indomitable spirit. It has two components. The first component is that there must be a Vision leading to higher goals of achievement. I would like to recall a couplet from Thirukkural by the Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar written 2500 years ago.
Quote:
It means that whatever may be the depth of the river or lake or pond, whatever may be the condition of the water, the lilly flower always comes out and blossoms. Similarly, if there is a definite determination to achieve a goal even if it is impossible to achieve, the man succeeds.
Many of us have gone through large programmes and projects. We would have experienced that success is not in sight and there are many hurdles. The same poet reminds us at this point of time through another couplet:
We should never be defeated by any problems. We should become master of the situation and defeat the problems. I consider these two Thirukkurals characterize the indomitable spirit.
Ten point oath for enlightened citizenship
1. I will love whatever profession I take up and I will try to excel in it.
2. From now onwards I will teach at least 10 persons to read and write those who cannot read and write.
3. I will plant ten saplings/trees and ensure their growth.
4. I will go to rural and urban areas to reform at least five persons from the habits of addiction and gambling.
5. I will take responsibility for removing the pain of ailing persons.
6. I will participate in the mission of realizing the economic strength of India by combining it with an education with value system and by transforming religion into a spiritual force.
7. I will not support any differentiation on account of community or language.
8. I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a transparent way of life.
9. I will always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and I will work hard to make them feel normal.
10. I will celebrate the success of my country and my people.