Ignited Minds

When A.P.J. Abdul Kalam wrote India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium with Y.S. Rajan in 1998, little did they expect the magnitude of the response they would get. The idea that India could actually be a developed nation in a short time rather than remain condemned to a subsistence diet of marginal improvements and promises struck a chord among readers. The book continues to be a best-seller.

Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India goes the logical next step and examines why, given all our skills, resources and talents, we, so obviously capable of being the best, settle so often for the worst. What is it that we as a nation are missing? For at the heart of Ignited Minds is an irresistible premise: the people of a nation have the power, by dint of hard work, to realize their dream of a truly good life.

Kalam offers no formulaic prescription in Ignited Minds. Instead, he takes up different issues and themes that struck him on his pilgrimage around the country as he met thousands of school children, teachers, scientists and saints and seers in the course of two years: the necessity for a patriotism that transcends religion and politics; for role models who point out the path to take; and for confidence in ourselves and in our strengths.

Who was he to write on so large a theme, he wondered as he started writing this book. But at the end, Kalam’s humility notwithstanding, this may well prove to be the book that motivates us to get back on the winning track and unleash the energy within a nation that hasn’t allowed itself full rein.

‘‘ ‘Though his speeches do not rise to heights of oratory, they do manage—like Mahatma Gandhi'''s mumblings—to get to the hearts of the common people…Ignited Minds will fire minds of the young to whom it is primarily addressed. It is written in very simple prose: like a school textbook the contents of each chapter are summarised in a few sentences.’ —Khushwant Singh, Outlook‘Genius, it is said, is the ability to reduce the complex into the simple. The strength of Ignited Minds, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam'''s latest assay at book-writing, lies in the scientist'''s ability to present some of the most tangled issues that confront the nation in easily digestible packages of information…Kalam'''s can-do approach even at his age (he turns 71 in October) is a lesson for all those who curl their lips at any talk of India achieving greatness in the near future.’ —Raj Chengappa, India Today‘ Ignited Minds is a feel-good book that can serve as a true patriot'''s self-help guide to a better nation.’ —The Pioneer