It has been little over a week now since we lost our “People’s President”.  We have been going through all kinds of emotions since Dr Kalam’s demise.  We are blessed to have lived during the times of Dr Kalam.

The Facebook and WhatsApp are flooded with messages, forwards, photographs, tributes, wish list in terms of what we want the Government and Government departments to do in memory of Dr Kalam.

These are all mostly from young people and students – Dr Kalam’s target audience, who are active in Social networks.

As of now the wish list includes:

• Memorial at Rameshwaram like the one at Kanyakumari in honour of Sri Vivekananda
• Dr Kalam’s image in Currency notes like Mahatma Gandhi
• University in the name of Dr Kalam
• Postal stamp honouring Dr Kalam [Dept of Posts has already confirmed that there will be a commemorative stamp in honour of Dr Kalam]
• Introducing a course on his Biography in the School syllabus
• Instituting awards in his name for perpetuating excellence in science and technology in institutes of higher learning

The list goes on.  It is fine.  These are all the demands we are putting forward to State and Central Governments.  As we all know,   it takes a lot of time for all these things to be in place.  Perhaps, it may or may not happen before Dr Kalam’s first death Anniversary.

Incidentally, it was good that the Tamil Nadu Government has already instituted an Award in Dr Kalam’s name and said his birthday, 15 October would be observed as “Youth Awakening Day” every year.

It was heartening to note that an Auto driver gave free ride in his auto rickshaw on 30 July.   Commercial establishments closed their businesses on that day. Cinema houses closed too on that day.

According to a post in Facebook, SBI staff worked on Sunday 2 August 2015 to pay tribute to Dr Kalam.   I read in the newspaper that Madras High Court is working this week for 15 minutes extra in the evening.

I understand some of the Government departments in Kerala worked on Sunday 2 August 2015 and a few other Government departments would work on Second Saturday, i.e. 8 August 2015.

There may well be others paying tributes in a fitting manner.

While the Governments at the State and Centre are making their own efforts to ensure what they can do, we should tell the world regarding our contribution in memory of Dr Kalam.

We the public have not come forward with anything to match. No one has said what he/she would do by way of tribute to Dr Kalam.  That is, how we are going to follow Dr Kalam’s advice and be a responsible citizen of India.

We should tell the people concerned or the Lawmakers that we are not going to stop with just sharing and forwarding messages in Social networks. We should demonstrate that we are serious in taking forward Dr Kalam’s advice.

Perhaps, from Dr Kalam’s messages, quotes, etc., I think we can draw our own list of objectives for us to achieve. Our commitment needs to be demonstrated, otherwise we will be criticised that we only make demands.

Perhaps each one of us could think of 10 objectives to start with.  Besides, we should encourage our friends and relatives to have their own objectives, as well.

The following is a suggested list and it is neither comprehensive nor in any priority order:

• Spend quality time daily with our children and grand children, as appropriate. I wish to bring to your attention a recent Post in Linkedin titled Your Child’s potential depends on academic leadership–“Leading a business, organisation, or government is hard but it is not the toughest leadership job.  The toughest leadership job of all is parenting – coaching, teaching, mentoring – any leadership role that involves developing young people, including your own children, so they can reach their full potential”.  ……………adding to the challenge is the danger of wasting potential while leading adolescents………… a crime greater than with any other group in any other leadership role.  There is nothing worse than a young person wasting potential”.
• Read x number of books including Classics and Dr Kalam’s books.
• Visit our School/College and meet our teachers to thank and pay respect to them
• Visit our Parents/in-laws , at regular intervals, if they are living elsewhere
• Discourage relatives/friends from smoking & consuming alcohol
• Be kind to others
• Plant x number of trees
• Obey traffic rules [it is unfortunate that many of us do not stop at “stop line”]
• Do not indulge in drunken driving
• Avoid using mobile phone while driving
• Do not allow our children below 18 years old to drive scooter, motorcycle or car [we see of late a lot of youngsters who are below 18 years age driving scooters and motorcycles posing a huge risk to themselves and other road users]
• Do not waste water [this has become already a scarce commodity, at least in Chennai]
• Do not waste food
• Have the culture of queuing
• Conserve energy, especially electricity both at home and in offices [as we all know, energy saved is energy produced without any environmental degradation][Useful tips on energy saving in home appliances and electricity safety given at http://www.mercindia.org.in/pdf/TIPS_ON_ENERGY_SAVING.pdf%5D
• Review the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) structure in our homes/offices [ideal to do it well before the monsoon starts]

As I said the list is not exhaustive, just an example.  I am sure people can come up with their own lists.  We all can share our lists so that others can add to their lists, should there be something missing in their lists or something new to add.  The multiplier effect would be huge and enormous if those on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc., cascade this. I understand Dr Kalam had more than 1.4 million followers on his Twitter account.

Most of them are simple and easy for us all to follow.  These simple steps would help us all to work towards achieving Dr Kalam’s 10 Points (see below…)

Dr Kalam’s 10 Points (Oath for the Students and Youth)

1. I will have a goal and work hard to achieve that goal. I realise that small aim is a crime;
2. I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity;
3. I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the Society, a good member of the Nation and a good member of the World;
4. I will always try to save or better someone’s life, without any discrimination of caste, creed, language, religion or State. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind.  That is “What can I give?”
5. I will always protect and enhance the dignity of every human life without any bias;
6. I will always remember the importance of time. My motto will be “Let not my winged days, be spent in vain”;
7. I will always work for clean plant Earth and clean energy;
8. As a youth of my Nation, I will work and work with courage to achieve success in all my tasks and enjoy the success of others;
9. I am as young as my faith and as old as my doubt. Hence, I will light up then, the lamp of faith in my heart;
10. My National Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my Nation.

For those of us who are not already aware:  since February 2011, Dr Kalam had been regularly posting his views on contemporary issues facing the country besides sending out inspirational messages on Twitter.  I understand, in memory of Dr Kalam,  former President’s Twitter account to remain alive in the new form.  Let us await the details.