PTI

Silicon Valley, Sep 19: What happens to Indians when they cross the Atlantic ocean.

This is a question Dr A P J Abdul Kalam will be exploring during his current visit to US, his first foreign trip since laying down office of the President in July last.

“What happens to people when they cross Atlantic ocean, they change. They change in their profile, they change their dream, they change their way of working and they change finally in succeeding and become champions of success,” he told a cheering audience of Indian professionals, technologists and entrepreneurs here.

He said he asked this question to his good friend Cisco systems CEO John Chambers, who explained that the US worships best performers and people are not afraid of failure.

Kalam said it reminded him of a great piece of advice from his mentor Prof Satish Dhawan who had once told him, “the problem should not become the captain. You should be the captain and defeat the problem.”

Talking about India, Kalam told the large Indian gathering in bay area that the country was on an ascending economic trajectory and he was confident that it will become a developed nation by 2020.

But it will be a developed nation that is based on a value system that is rooted in its rich heritage.

Kalam said that by 2020, India will be a country where the rural and urban divide is reduced to a thin line. It will be a nation where there is equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water, a nation where education is not denied to anyone because of societal and economic reasons.

He received a big applause when he said he saw India as a nation “that is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists and industrialists.”

About the primary school syllabus in the country, the former president said it has to be changed. “It must be changed to help kids be more creative.”

Kalam said three people play a very important role in a child's life - the father, mother and the primary school teacher. He said it was the responsibility of these three to instil and build confidence in a child.

“If a child becomes confident, the citizen becomes confident. If a citizen becomes confident, the nation becomes confident,” he said.

The event, jointly hosted by the Indian institute of science alumni association of North America, the pan-IIT alumni and tie (the Indus entrepreneurs), was held at the newly-built India Community Centre (ICC).