Learning How to Fly: Life Lessons for the Youth

by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

I’d like to share this event that I witnessed when I was a young boy of about ten years. In our house, periodically I used to see three different unique personalities meet. Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal, who was the head priest of the famous Rameshwaram temple and a Vedic scholar, Rev Father Bodal, who built the first church in Rameswaram island and my father who was an imam in the mosque. All three of them used to sit and discuss the island’s problems and find solutions. In addition, they initiated dialogues between communities with compassion. These connectivities quietly spread in the island like the fragrance from the flowers. The memory of the three men meeting always comes to my mind whenever I discuss the importance of dialogue between religions. India has had this advantage of integration of minds for thousands of years. Throughout the world, the need to have a frank dialogue among cultures, religions and civilizations is being felt now more than ever.