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The Luminous Sparks kindles the ‘dreaming gaze’ of an inspired leader into a powerful vision. A vision that makes the seer and the scientist say, “Blossom we will”. For the process he envisions to effect this change constitutes harmony, gratitude, love that is ‘continuum’ and a “life of giving”. Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam once again ignites the minds of readers through his biography in verse and colours.
More importantly, here “the poet’s saplings of love meant to change the hearts. The sparks to ignite the inner divinity. A hidden energy vibrates in the lines of the poems. The poems are as simple and ideas as transparent as is the persona of the poet. The transparent persona and simple but inspiring thoughts are the first lessons of leadership that the poems give to the reader”.
A P J Abdul Kalam selects interesting but earthy episodes from his life that motivated him in his musings. The moving anecdotes are followed by the inspirational verses replete with nature imagery. The vivid illustrations by artistes enhance the visual splendour of the book. The Luminous Sparks delights the senses as much as it stirs the inner fire in our souls because of this creative collaboration and “unity of minds”.
His inclusion of the poem on Bihar is particularly thought-provoking. Drawing inspiration from the great minds who took birth in this sacred soil - Buddha, Aryabhatta, Guru Gobind Singh, Mahaveera – he wrote this inspiring verse when he met the children of Bihar.
What moves us especially is the sensitive voice of the child that speaks against communal disharmony and intolerance – “These educated serpents separate our souls. They give not the knowledge but hate and defeat…” The young child also identifies the true leader as he saw Mahatma Gandhi who was always there “where there was pain”. For leadership is about selflessness, “elevated thinking and concern for human beings”.
It is a collection of poems that essentially reflects the President of India’s love for children and his sincere faith in them as the most precious assets of a nation. Their years of growing may be fraught with uncertainties, conflicts and angst as he says in Pursuit of Happiness but it is they who will fulfill his second vision for our “developing nation” to become a “developed nation”. He instills a sense of the responsibility in the young minds as he speaks of the “mission of humanity – you learn and learn, my best of creations”.
After reading the verses, we are reminded of Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore’s impassioned words to his countrymen.
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Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into
fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless strivings stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its
way into the dreary sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into
Ever-widening thought and action –
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
Let my country awake.
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It is this “heaven of freedom” that is reaffirmed to young India through the simplicity and spontaneity of The Luminous Sparks - a perfect gift for your children who will shape the future of a new tomorrow.
Satarupa Ray
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