There was a time on Earth when little children could go on and become men and women, live lives happily and fully and die without having known the meanings of words such as �AK47�, �Terrorism�, �Al Qaeda�, �Terror Attack�, �Nuclear holocaust�, and the sort. And there is a time today when little children in almost every corner of the World have the non-stop rattle of guns and exploding bombs that keep them company when travelling to School. Today, half the world�s mothers do not know if their children would come back from School safe. This is not just in any corner of the dark world, but in such countries that are the leading beacon lights of the modern world. The entire world lives in constant fear not knowing what would happen the next instant. Children, at a young age when they ought to be in school learning the alphabet and playing run and catch, turn out to be human bombs. A human life has become as important as a rag of paper in a waste dump. The world, for all its wonder, is fast turning out to be a hellhole. Water is getting scarce day by day, pollution keeps turning beautiful valleys into arid deserts, and monsoons have been consistently failing. Soon one day there would be a time when we could claim famously, �If there is a Hell on earth, this is it� this is it� this is it��

The world has become an increasingly dangerous place. People kill one another as though it was their backyard�s weeds they were pulling out. Buildings are brought down by driving planes into them, people are terrorized by nerve gasses, chemical weapons, and biological wars do not seem to be a distant possibility, for they appear quite closer. Families are wiped out in the hundreds, innocent people become victims of fights that are not theirs, and the wails of the suffering render the air haunting. Children lose their innocence, freedom and in the process, their limbs. Wars do not set anything right � they only count what is left! War kills, war maims, war is pain. And this is what today�s World is abounding in�

Think about it � is this the World we all would like to live in? Is the World we would love to gift to our children? Is this the World where we would love to see our loved ones die in?

The Global war on terror has started. And it is time that all in the World, the rich and the poor, the weak and the mighty, the old and the young, understood that all these problems did not happen on their own. These are happening because man has been blind. Blind to the fate of other human beings, blind to the suffering of others, and blinded by the rage of religion, greed and hatred. The greed to master more than what one can control, the urge to achieve more than what one can be happy with� we are no longer heading towards disaster. We are staring at disaster in its face.

We, as the future citizens of the dying World need to act to stop killing this World, and give it back its life. Let us not just complain about the problems that plague our World. Let us see how we could ameliorate these problems. Let us not try to change the nations outside our own� All we need to do is to change our own selves and our immediate neighbourhood. All that is required is an understanding that people, no matter what colour, caste, sex or creed are all human. It is the same heart that beats inside every man and woman, be he or she black or white, rich or poor. Let us have a new sunrise, let us have a new day that is born where we treat all humans as equals and see none as being less equal than anybody else. Let us start the change from our very home. Let us not look down upon a fellow human being. Let there be no wall of segregation between people, a wall that segregates people on the basis of the family or religion they were born into. We need a world where understanding, tolerance and patience need to be the fuel, engine and tyres that drive our vehicle of life. I know this thought would be forgotten once we are out of this room. But this is for those handfuls of genuine people who want to see a change in this world�

All it needs is for us to understand that essentially it is a human heart that beats inside everybody.

When this change begins at home, it would spread soon to the street, and to the colony and then on the town. The state and nation would soon follow. And then would come the World as a whole. Imagine � if somebody could foment all the hatred on Earth so can all peace be too! And just think about it � we may just be a small group � but even a journey of a million miles begins with a single step. And that is close to us. Let us attempt it. Let us go on the journey spreading the message of peace, planting flags in white that would flutter in unpolluted breeze. Let us plant seeds of harmony that would be watered by the life-giving waters of the world�s unfought-over rivers.

Let us go to those White Mountains where the deity of peace is worshipped. Let us travel to those days when children do not hear the sounds of gun-battle for lullaby, let us make the change to restore to this world of ours its lost glory.

The answer for the change is right there � right in front of us all! It is blowing in the wind, and yet we cannot hear it. We cannot hear it because we have all been rendered deaf by the battles that wage day in and day out. We do not hear it because we do not want to hear it. But, when one day, if all fighting ceases and when we listen hard, we would be able to hear the hymns of peace that would blow to heal this world. If we do not act fast, we may not be around to see that happen. Let us strive to pledge our commitment towards maintaining peace on Earth and to root out all evil, to shuttle them to where they belong � the nether world! Let our hands ache in the pain of the toil, let our sweat wet the Earth, let our feet be soiled as we travel all over spreading the message of peace, let our voices give out on us as we shout for the voice of peace. Yes, my friends, the fruits of this hard labour would be sweet. And we would have seated peace on the throne of this world. What better a gift to our coming generations than a world of bliss where innocence and love brighten the lives of children? This world is possible. Let us make it.