Who is the greatest Indian after Gandhi?

[abhisays]

Indira Gandhi

She did not believe in free thinking like her great father. She took a different route and hailed as the 'Iron Lady' of India. But, Indira Gandhi is remembered for liberating Bangladesh in 1971, pro-poor programmes like 20-20, Bank nationalisation, consolidating India's power at international level and the introduction of social justice in her party.

She gave a new direction and vigour to India. Was extremely adept at balancing two great powers during the cold war. Even though she is still criticised for the draconian emergency, she is also credited with unleashing many reforms that changed the lives of people from all sections of the society.

Perhaps the last Prime Minister who had absolute control over both party and government.

[abhisays]

Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan was the voice of the people during the Emergency. He mobilised the people against the dictatorial tendencies of Indira Gandhi.

He was known as Loknayak. JP was also an independence activist and political leader, remembered for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution during the 1970s. In 1998, he was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in recognition of his social work. He was a conscience keeper of the society.

[abhisays]

Kapil Dev

He won World Cup Cricket for India for the time in 1983.

Kapil Dev played 131 Test matches for the country and not even once he was run out, such was his fitness, judgment. It was the same fitness and judgment that helped him run a long distance and take a high-pressure catch to dismiss Vivian Richards which helped India on the way to becoming World cup Champions in ODI in1983.

Kapil Dev Nikhnaj was born in January 1959 in Haryana and perhaps this marked cricket taking roots in rural India.

In the same World Cup the Haryana hurricane scored 175 not out off only 134 balls with 16 fours and 6 Sixes, then the highest score in a ODI match after India was reduced to 17 for 5 against Zimbabwe. That Innings gave India the self belief they can bounce from any position.

Kapil Dev once hit 4 successive sixes that helped India avoid follow-on against England when he had Tail-ender Narendra Hirwani with him after losing nine wickets. Spectators in England voted this as the most spectacular event seen in Lords cricket ground.

In an age when India flourished mainly due to world class Spinners, Kapil was the first genuine medium fast bowler who went on to beat the then World record for highest number of wickets of Richard Hadley and went on to take 434 wickets.

He was one of the finest all-rounders of the game and is the only player to have taken 400 wickets and scored over 5000 runs.

In a heroic display that became his style, taking pain-killing injections for a serious groin injury Kapil came out to defend a small score of 143 and took 5 for 28 to help India beat Australia.

In a 1987 World cup match playing against Australia he agreed with the umpires that their original score of 268 should be increased by two runs as a Six was wrongly declared as four and hence was revised to 270. In reply India scored 269 and lost the match by one run. Wisden recorded that ‘Kapil Dev’s sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match’.

In 2008 Indian Army honoured him with a rank of Lieutenant Colonel of India’s Territorial Army.

[abhisays]

Lata Mangeshkar

For over 6 decades Lata Mangeshkar continued to be the reigning queen of playback singing, having sung for over a thousand Hindi films and in twenty regional Indian languages. Though a young Lata began singing at the age of 13, her breakthrough song was ‘Aayega Aanewala…’ from the film ‘Mahal’ in 1949 picturised on Madhubala, and there was no looking back.

Over the years, from SD Burman to AR Rahman, Lata has sung for every mainstream music composer and Lata Mangeshkar has lent her voice to both film and non-film songs. It is said that during the Sino-Indian War in 1963.

Mangeshkar’s rendition of the patriotic song ‘Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo…’ was so powerful that it brought tears to eyes of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Apart from the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Vibhushan and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Lata Mangehskar has also been honoured with India’s highest civilian award - the Bharat Ratna.

Nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1999, Lata Mangekshkar is the only Indian singer who has a perfume brand named after her. Few know that besides her accomplishments in playback singing, Mangeshkar composed music for Marathi films and also produced Marathi and Hindi films.

[abhisays]

MF Husain

As an obituary in ‘Guardian’ rightly puts it, ‘Faultlessly secular and a great promoter of Indian identity, Husain never let his Muslim background stand in the way of his celebration of what he saw as his own heritage of Hindu myth and religion'. With his usual aplomb, he turned his back on his detractors and continued to paint in the name of his multireligious India elsewhere’.

M F Husain was a star on the contemporary Indian art scene. He was a renaissance man, who got honour and money for the modern Indian art, which was earlier dismissed by the West as worthless.

He was India’s foremost modern painter. This barefoot artist produced over 40,000 paintings – ensconced in the past to which he belonged. Unfortunately the wave of bigotry that bore down on him from the mid-1990s kept Husain in the headlines for wrong reasons. Even after his death in exile, he continues to dominate the national imagination, both for those he outraged and for those who see him as a great secular cause. Husain refused to accept limitations on his freedom of expression. He will be remembered for that more than anything else. In a true sense Husain was an artist who had a brush with the nation.

[abhisays]

M S Swaminathan

Back in the 1960s, half of India was hungry. While 80% people in the country were farmers, crop yields were meagre due to the lack of infrastructure and modern technology. It was literally a ' ship to mouth existence ' for many Indians. India was at the mercy of donor nations like America. Our leaders were forced to go West with begging bowls. This changed due to the work of a team of dedicated scientists led by Dr M. S. Swaminathan. Supported by an outstanding Agriculture Minister, C. Subramaniam, and by Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, they successfully launched a Green Revolution that made the country self-sufficient in food.

Swaminathan and his fellow scientists adapted, for Indian conditions, high yielding varieties of wheat, rice and other food products. Because of their efforts, a once starving nation acquired a food surplus in a mere fifteen years. Now in his late eighties, Dr. M S Swaminathan is as devoted as ever to the Indian farmer, travelling across the country promoting sustainable methods of cultivation. In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the Time 20 list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.

[abhisays]

Milkha Singh

‘The Flying Sikh’ Milka Singh was the first Indian to win a Gold medal in Athletics in Commonwealth Games in 1958 with a timing of 46.16 Seconds. Earlier in Asian Games in the same year he completed a rare ‘double’ by winning both 200 m and 400 m in 21.6 and 47 seconds respectively.

When he beat Pakistan’s ace sprinter Abdul Khaliq in a 100m race in 1962, the then President of Pakistan Ayub Khan called Milka Singh 'The Flying Sikh’ an apt title for the best athlete in Asia at that time.

In his first outing in 1956 Melbourne Olympics, young Milka did not make a mark. But in Rome Olympics, he kept improving with each race and in the final he ran his best race of his career clocking stupendous timing of 45.6 seconds, his best ever, and finished fourth and missed the bronze medal by a whisker.

Milka Singh was born in 1936 in Faisalabad now in Pakistan. Considering he had no formal training in athletics in earlier years it is astonishing he could achieve so much. Having lost his parents during partition, he faced repeated frustration when his efforts to join the Army were rejected thrice. Finally when he joined the Army’s mechanical and Electrical wing in 1952, he started his training under Haviladr Gurdev Singh. From then on there was no looking back as Milka Singh came to the limelight in 1956 National Games at Patiala.

In a desperate effort to encourage young athletes Milka Singh had announced a lakh of Rupees to anyone who could break his timing in 400m. For years there was nobody who could accept the challenge and earn the money.

He was the Director Sports in Punjab after retirement and was awarded Padma Shri in 1959.

Milka Singh’s biggest contribution to this day remains the fact that he encouraged horde of youngsters to take up serious running after his success at Asian and Commonwealth Games and Olympics.

Rightly, an young director Rakeysh Mehra is making a movie on the life of Milka Singh, ‘Bhag Milkha Bhag’ with Farhan Akhthar portraying Milka Singh, which should now inspire the current and future generations.

[abhisays]

Mother Teresa

As she once said 'Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love', Mother Teresa was embodiment of love and compassion. This Albanian Nun who made India her home to care for millions of unfortunate people has not many parallels in history.

Her child like smile, generosity, care for the poor and the less fortunate made a great impact on generation of Indians and people in other parts of the world. Mother Teresa is the only Nobel Peace Laureate from India and entire South Asia.

She may have opposed abortion and family planning on religious grounds, but she was all for the education for girls, and employment for women. Teresa's Missionaries of Charities is now an iconic voluntary organisation working for the disposessed in the World.

[abhisays]

Pandit Ravishankar

Pandit Ravishankar is India's greatest living sitarist. His achievements in Indian classical music (such as developing new playing techniques, composing orchestral pieces using Indian instruments and adapting rhythm patterns from the south Indian classical tradition) are widely acclaimed.

He is also known as the godfather of World music. By collaborating with George Hamson, Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass and scores of other internationally famous musicians, he created music that appealed to audiences across the World, and inspired cross-cultural experiments of great significance.

American interest in Indian classical music exploded after his sensational 1969 performance at the Woodstock festival (USA). He made music for films (including those directed by Satyajit Ray and Richard Attenborough), served as music director for All India Radio (AIR), became a member of Parliament, and continues to perform well into his 90s.

Few, including admirers of his fellow-sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan, will deny that he has contributed magnificently to the creation of a classically inspired contemporary Indian musical culture.

[abhisays]

R K Laxman

R K Laxman, the creator of 'common man' is way and ahead India's finest cartoonist, and one of the world's best. Laxman's committment and curiosity, his unfailing humour and irony have elevated him to iconic status. It isn't easy to draw cartoons day after day for over 60 years. Laxman has done the job for 'The Times of India' like a true saint. He is one of the most incisive observers of post-independence India. He made millions of Indians smile every single morning for over 60 years and gave the common man of this country; a face, a voice, an identity and a consistent presence and importance in every aspect of our lives.

You may not always like Laxman's cartoons. Sometimes they may sound dry and lacking in zaniness, but you will definitely appreciate his mastery over the medium, his craftsmanship, and his unending search for humour in what may otherwise appear to be a humdrum life. All cartoonists, young and old, ridicule politicians. But the greatness of Laxman is that he never ridicules the poor and the underpreviliged. That makes him stand tall above many younger cartoonists. That's what makes him great.