Be unique to succeed, Kalam tells students

Kolkata, Jan 4 (IANS) Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Friday urged students to be unique, instead of emulating others, to succeed.

Inaugurating the Children Science Congress on the sidelines of the centenary session of the Indian Science Congress here, Kalam said: "I have met 15 million youths in India and abroad in a decade's time. I learnt that every youth wants to be unique, that is, you. But the world around you is doing its best to make you just everybody else."

He said that parents, teachers and society always cite examples of others and want students to emulate them.

"Why do you have to become like someone when you are unique?" he said.

"Look up, what do you see? Lights, the electric bulbs. Immediately, our thoughts go to the inventor Thomas Alva Edison (for inventing electricity)," he said.

"When you hear the sound of an aeroplane, you think of the Wright Brothers, who proved that man could fly. Who does the telephone remind you of? Alexander Graham Bell," he said.

Kalam said there is a paradigm shift in science and technology and a new trend is emerging where the aspect ecology is being introduced.