The future is out there

Cynicism comes easy to us. As a people we tend towards adulation easily. But we condemn with equal ease

RECENTLY Abdul Kalam stepped down as principal scientific advisor to the government for the purpose, purportedly, of concentrating his energies on his much touted mission to transform India. Some months ago prior to the event, a friend had sent me an e-mail with a speech made by Kalam in Hyderabad.

In the speech Kalam had talked about his dream of seeing India as a developed nation. He had pointed out the country’s many achievements — in the development of remote sensing satellites, wheat production and so on — and had asked why we tend to be negative, despite these achievements, rather than positive.

He had talked about the Indian tendency to complain endlessly about everything, quoting examples such as, for instance, people who saw no contradiction in letting their dogs defaecate freely on the roads while complaining about the lack of cleanliness in India as compared to more advanced nations. And it had ended with an appeal for all Indians to do their bit towards making his dream of a developed nation a reality.

The speech came with a message that maintained it was a ‘must read’ for all Indians. The speech was admittedly touching in its sincerity and the familiarity of its references. Yet, I must confess to reading it with a twinge of scepticism, given how rarely in these individualistic times, one hears anybody talk with such emotion of serving the nation. Anybody except politicians — to ludicrous effect.

Kalam is, of course, no politician. One may or may not share his hawkish stance on matters such as the bomb but there is no denying that the simple and modest scientist has an inspirational value and a substantial following. And over the last several weeks catching glimpses of him racing all over the place — being felicitated, distributing prizes, inaugurating events and arduously courting children who he considers to be the potential force behind his India Millennium Missions 2020 — one wonders if he could actually pull something off.

That feeling grew stronger last week when I dropped in at the ongoing National Children’s Science Congress 2001 in Pune — an event at which, incidentally, Kalam had been prominently present. The Congress was a bit of an eye opener for me. More so given the widespread representation these days of the urban child as a brat and an avid consumer — of fast food and other things — rather than an entity with a useful role to play in society.

Bright eyed schoolchildren had gathered from all over the country. There were participants from Bhuj, Surat, Allahabad, Lucknow, Pune, and so on, including a boy who in addition to being the ‘youngest software engineer in the world’ had turned down, I was informed by eager children, a hugely lucrative job with Bill Gates to stay on in India.

Apart from actively participating in discussions and quizzes and exhibiting their projects, the young delegates confidently held forth on complex subjects such as the intricacies of DNA replication, various kinds of pollution, food groups and pest control methods for the benefit of the lay public that had streamed in to visit the Congress.

One section that I found particularly revelatory was an exhibition of entries for a project that had had as its theme the subject: ‘India of my dreams’. There were several projects — all widely varying. Many of them were displayed in the form of posters. There was one, for instance, that showed a rustic scene with water being drawn from wells, farmers tilling the land, bullocks, poultry and so on; it talked of using technology for ‘rural progress’.

Another entry was a contraption that consisted of an exercise bicycle that could be used to produce energy. Two kids from Pune displayed a parabolic dish that was rigged up to be used a solar heater to facilitate the mass production of ayurvedic medicines. My favourite was by Jigisha Patel of Gujarat. It was a poster of a girl in an astronaut’s costume floating in space with India prominently painted in the left hand corner.

Cynicism comes easy to us. As a people we tend towards adulation easily. But we condemn with equal ease, finding fault, mistrusting motives, intentions and capability. The times, too, do their bit to strengthen this streak of pessimism. How can one hope at a time when talk of war and violence is so much in the air? One way would be to notice that despite all this, all the gloom and the obstacles, pockets of idealism and optimism do exist. And acknowledging them might not be a bad way to begin a new year.

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