Excerpt: Keynote by J. R. D. Tata

[This is from a speech J R D Tata gave extempore at the Juhu airport when he landed after re-enacting his historic flight from Karachi to Bombay. The occasion was the Fiftieth anniversary of that flight. He was seventy-eight at that time (1982). He gave three reasons for attempting the flight, this excerpt is the third one. Emphasis is mine.]

I also had another reason. As I got older, I felt distressed that in recent times there was a growing sense of disenchantment in our land, that the hopes, the aspirations, the enthusiasm, the zest, the joy with which freedom was received in our country some thirty-five years ago, and even before that, the achievements that we had participated in, including the creation of Air-India had faded, that there was a loss of morale, a loss of belief in ourselves.

When you talk to young people today, their main worry is to get a job. I don't blame them. It is a real worry. But also, there seems no longer to be the feeling that we can do things as well or better than others or even things that others haven't done. So I though that, perhaps, this flight would rekindle a spark of enthusiasm, a desire to do something for the country and for its good name and that it would show that even in these days, when aviation is no longer an adventure but only big business, the times for pioneering are not gone. There are many other things that can be done and many things that the young of this country can do and must steel themselves to doing, however difficult, however discouraging at times the environment, the conditions may be.

And so, in a small way, this flight of mine today was intended to inspire a little hope and enthusiasm in the younger people of our country. I want them to feel, those who are today at a stage of their life I was at in 1932 (fifty years ago), that when they are seventy-eight -- and I hope they all will live at least to seventy-eight -- they will feel like I do, that despite all the difficulties, all the frustrations, there is joy in having done something as well as you could and better than others thought you could. I thank you all for your presence.

Keynote by J. R. D. Tata, Edited by S. A. Sabavala and R. M. Lala, published by Rupa & Co, ISBN 81-291-0495-4