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Humour:A conversation between Presidents Kalam and Musharraf that never happened

(Indian President A.P.J Abdul Kalam invited President Musharraf of Pakistan to a meeting. For good measure he suggested the meeting be organized over video-conference. Since Aiwan-e-Sadr did not have VC facilities. Bush bailed him once again and Musharraf took a flight to DC to take the VC from the White House)

It was 6:30 PM IST, which was 9 AM EST.

Kalam: Good morning Your Excellency.

Musharraf: Good morning President (Musharraf forgot the time difference). Kashmir…..(cut short by Kalam)

Kalam: Yes, Kashmir. Few minutes back I was in the herbal garden of Rashtrapati Bhawan, where we have some of the herbs especially brought from Kashmir. The ancient science of Ayurveda, emphasized a lot on the importance of herbs in our life. They give you vitality(pauses and sips something, which he emphasizes is Kashmiri drink Kehwa, organically grown). Infact, you must take a pledge that you would only consume herbal products. I have a pledge for you(picks up a card next to him but is cut short by Musharraf)

Musharraf: Mr. President, my entire country right upto every single child wants….

Kalam: Ah, children. In my last five years, I have met two lakh children every year and conveyed the value of science, human values and hard work. Infact, hard work can shape up your destiny. A girl from Meghalaya asked me recently…

Musharraf: Your Excellency it would be better if we…

Kalam: Yes, agreed. Telemedicine is better. In my country, there are 250 districts and 4679 blocks and 8374529 villages. Not every village has a primary health centre. So, we have positioned telemedicine vans which travel the interiors and through remote telemetry via low orbit satellites connects the patients to the best of the specialists operating out of any part of the world. This way mankind can tremendously leverage science and….

Musharraf: Your Excellency, small request.

Kalam: I was coming to all things small. Infact, in the times to come, Nanotechnology would play such a vital role in what we do, even the ordinary cars would have lot of nanoscale parts. The applications of nanoscale are diverse. In my country, we have set up four advanced centers to research on nanoscale applications. Not just nanotechnology, but biotechnology….

Musharraf: For strategic reasons, I…

Kalam: Infact strategy, vision & core competence and have to be interlinked. I have visited all the states of India. Few days back, talking to students at an IIM I came across a physically challenged student who had topped the class. Can you tell me why he succeeded?(Pauses and resumes) He succeeded because he had a vision from his childhood, had a strategy to get there using his core competence, which was quantitative techniques. Infact, in India, we have been blessed with a lot of ancient time mathematicians such as Aryabhatta, and in modern times such as Ramanujam who under the guidance of …..

(Musharraf forgets his agenda and realizes the knowledge overflow. He starts seeing lot of value in what Kalam is speaking and asks his ADC, “Have you taken notes properly?”)
gets up from his seat and bids goodbye to . And adds, "No need for any notes. The entire conversation would be up on Rashtrapati Bhawan website in about 15 minutes. Infact, an MPEG file would be emailed to you in the next thirty minutes. Or would you prefer to have it on YouTube, Your Excellency?”

Comments

Anonymous said…
Excellent post! I really liked the use of humor to subtly out forth the point - how different one President is from another.

Its sad that none of the political parties are ready to support His Excellency, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for a second term; but anyway that was expected ever since Dr. Kalam showed everyone what powers a President really has (remember the Quota and Office-of-Profit cases??)

What I also liked about this post is it is not offensive to either party!
Anonymous said…
Hai Rajesh,

This is an excellent post.
In fact I am flattered.......
Gud Going Man.

And Second thing APJ is a gr8 man.
I think he deserves a second term.
mini-Andy said…
Rajesh maybe you can help me. I was in India in December and January and, being English as I am, I had no idea that India even HAD a president...

...until I MET him driving a rickshaw around Delhi!

Can you take a look at this post on my site www.andytgeezer.com and post a comment on there to tell me what you honestly think! The jury is split at the moment and I just can't believe it's him!


Cheers

mischief/mini-Andy
Rajesh Kumar said…
@mini-Andy: You met some look alike of Dr Abdul Kalam. As I have written in another post of mine here he is very popular and it is just natural for people to build their association with him.Like presidents of all respectable countries, he gets driven around with the respect and dignity befitting the stature of president of India.
And BTW, mini-Andy, most people in India would not know Spain is a kingdom!
Unknown said…
Wish all political discussions could be scientifically and technically driven!!
Sajid Azmi said…
Good post rakesh
Andytgeezer said…
Yeah I agree Rakesh - I didn't know Spain was a Kingdom until I came here either!

He was SUCH a good lookalike of Abdul Kalam though that even to this day I am not too sure if i can believe it WASN'T him!
Abhay Babbar said…
Hi
I just read half of your blog and it sounds creative to me...keep going man. This is working..
Abhay Babbar said…
Hi
I read few of your latest posts and honestly, the work is creative. Keep going, the thump is relevant..
Anonymous said…
Hey good post and nice blog!!! Man how could I miss this blog for such a long time... now you have a frequent visitor :)
Anonymous said…
Very funny and very well thought out post.
Double thumbs up!

Cheers.
-Balaji S.
PS: How about a meeting of Ms Patil and Ms Clinton?