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(2002-2007) Books and publications Associated projects
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Indomitable Spirit is a book authored by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the former president of India. The cover page of the book says it "brings together the values, thoughts and ideas of President Kalam as reflected in his speeches and addresses. Interspersed with interesting anecdotes and observations, Indomitable Spirit represents the quintessential APJ Abdul Kalam - the man, the scientist, the teacher and the President."[1]
The book begins with reproduction of a sentence from President's address to the nation on the eve of 57th Republic Day: "The basis of all systems, social or political, rests upon the goodness of men. No nation is great or good because parliament enacts this or that, but that its men are great and good."[2] The book ends with these words of Sir C. V. Raman, the Nobel laureate from his address to a group of young graduates in 1969: "I can assert without fear of contradiction that the quality of the Indian mind is equal to the quality of any Teutonic, Nordic or Anglo-Saxon mind. What we lack is perhaps courage, what we lack is perhaps the driving force which takes one anywhere. We have, I think, developed an inferiority complex. I think what is needed in India today is the destruction of that defeatist spirit."[3] The President Kalam winds up the spirit of the Indomitable Spirit from these words of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:[4]
- Give me the strength never to disown the poor
- Or bend my knees before insolent might.
- Give me the strength
- To raise my head high above daily trifles.
- And give me the strength
- To surrender my strength to Thy will with love.
- ^ Cover page of Indomitable Spirit (ISBN 978-81-7028-654-7)
- ^ Address to the Nation by President Kalam on 25.01.2006
- ^ Address by the President at Veda Vyasa Vidyalam, Malaparamba, Kozhikode: 25.09.2003
- ^ President Kalam's address at Visva Bharati University: 01.10.2004