Haunted by Mahatma in Noakhali, Kalam seeks ‘second vision’

Visions of the fluttering tricolour and the barefoot Mahatma walking through Noakhali continue to haunt President A P J Abdul Kalam. At his ...

Visions of the fluttering tricolour and the barefoot Mahatma walking through Noakhali continue to haunt President A P J Abdul Kalam. At his first official Press conference, he had spoken about this image etched in his mind.

Two weeks ago, during the September 14-15 weekend, he penned a poem — The National Prayer — and handed it over to a city artist, asking him to interpret his message in a painting. The painter’s work is complete and the President put it up in his study at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday.

The painting inspired by Kalam’s poem

The poem was written 10 days before the Akshardham temple massacre in Gandhinagar but it shows that the President is focussed on the issue of communal harmony.

His poem begins by reminiscing about how the Mahatma walked barefoot in Bengal for ‘‘peace and harmony’’. He asks at the end of the third paragraph, ‘‘When will be the dawn of second vision?’’ The talk of a second vision is reiterated in the last stanza which asks for blessings for the people in helping them transform our country from a developing into a developed nation:

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‘‘Oh Almighty, bless all my people to work and transform/ Our country from a developing into a developed nation./ Let this second vision be born out of sweat of my people,/ And bless our youth to live in Developed India.’’ He insists that ‘‘leaders and people’’ should realise that the ‘‘Nation’’ is ‘‘bigger than the Individual’’. That the issue of communal violence is preying on his mind is apparent from two lines:

‘‘Give strength to all my religious leaders to bring/ ‘Unity of Minds’ among all our billion people.’’ ‘‘As of now the President has not yet decided what to do with the poem,’’ said a Rashtrapati Bhawan source.

Says 34-year-old Manav Gupta, the painter who has interpreted the President’s work on the canvas: ‘‘I think the words of the poem send a very strong message to all citizens. It is a plea to all those spreading communal disharmony in the country that they should tread the path of a tolerant Indian like Gandhi.’’

Gupta says he felt proud after presenting the painting to the President. ‘‘He placed it in his study, he called it a beautiful poem,’’ he says.

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THE
NATIONAL PRAYER
The grand scene of birth of independent India,
In that midnight, the flag of the ruler of two centuries lowered;
The tricolor Indian flag flaps in the Red Fort in the midst of National
Anthem.
The first vision of Independent India was dawned.
They rejoice everywhere, happiness all around,
There was a tender cry: Where is the father of the nation?
The white-clothed soul walking in the midst of sorrows and pain,
Injected by hatred and ego, the result of communal violence.
The father of the nation, Mahatma, walking barefooted
In the streets of Bengal for peace and harmony.
With the strength of blessed soul of Mahatma
I pray the Almighty: When will be the dawn of second vision?
Create thoughts in the minds of my people,
And transform those thoughts into action.
Embed the thought of Nation being bigger than
The Individual, in the minds of leaders and people.
Help all the leaders of my country to give strength
And bless the nation with peace and prosperity.
Give strength to all my religious leaders to bring
‘Unity of Minds’ among all our billion people
Oh Almighty, bless all my people to work and transform
Our country from a developing into a developed nation.
Let this second vision be born out of sweat of my people,
And bless our youth to live in Developed India.