The real Heros..

Out of the many questions a person is asked in his life time one question is asked a fair number of time. And the question is,” who is your role model or who inspires you to get going in the tough road of life?” In my early school days my teachers used to tell us about the freedom fighters like Gandhi, Nehru, Shastri who fought against the British in a non violent ways and I was very impressed by the tales. Then after some days he taught us about the other people who fought against the British in a violent way like bhagat singh, sukhdev, rajguru who were hanged on the premises of Lahore central jail in the wee hours of 23^rd March 1931. There were many young man and woman who gave their life for Indian independence. History books don’t have the space to accommodate all the names. Many people remember the satyagrahis but not many people remember the nameless persons who dared British raj with all guns blazing. There were hanged and no record book shows their names. I was impressed by the dare devil freedom fighters and I idolized the freedom fighters. It was the early nineties but as the time passed the freedom fighters went in to oblivion.

When I first started to play cricket at an age of 9 or 10 I was learning how to bowl. One day I came across a magazine which showed the ace Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble’s bowling in 3 steps. I followed it and emerged out as a good leg spinner with flying colors. My tricky bowling played havocs in the mind of the batsman but sadly this new found feat of leg spin couldn’t last and sooner I was at the mercy of the batsman. To enhance my cricketing skills I followed many cricketer’s (Lance Klusner, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad) bowling technique and got mixed results. They were my role models at that time.

When I entered in the engineering studies I read the book “The wings of fire”. In that book I read about the birth of Indian missile system and knew about the man behind this development who in the later stage became one of the most famous and active president in the living history of Indian civilization. Many of the young Indian idolizes him.

But one question still pops up in my mind that is it fair to idolize a person who is in the media glare? They are in the media glare because of their achievements and the portfolio and posts they hold. They may be cricketers, other sports stars, film stars, playback singers who get whooping money for every event. The amount of money is such that one average Indian who lives by modest mean can’t even think of earning that kind of money in his entire life time. No doubt they toil hard for that money; they sacrifice their personal life, their security for the sake of name and fame. But is it worth to idolize such person? They have name and fame because with their hard work but some one worked harder from behind the stage.

Why don’t we look to the achievements of a common man who perform extra ordinary work with ordinary resources? What about some one who spends his life time for rural development, woman empowerment, wildlife and environmental restoration, health care, primary education, agriculture, sanitation? Those persons who are working at the grass root level are not in the media glare but they are the real heroes and they are worth idolizing. They face a lot of hurdles like red tape of the government organization, muscular threats of different powerful people, loop holes of RTI act and Indian Constitution. There are thousands of soldiers, para-military forces, police personnel posted in naxalite infected regions of the country who die while trying to save the country, their mission and their friends from enemy bullets and the gorilla warfare strategy. They bother least about their life and battles not only the enemy bullets but they also face sever weather condition, red tape of corrupt Indian bureaucracy and crocodile tear from the politicians. At the end their families don’t get anything except a pension that can only feed them for half of the month and that too they have to pay some thing for chai pani for the clerks sitting behind the desks of the government offices. Why the children don’t idolize the heroes of kargil who battled with lion heart in sub zero temperature against the Pakistan military supported fidayeens? The average age of the soldier who died in kargil was a mere 19-21 years. Some of them were taken hostage by the Pakistanis and were tortured inhumanly to death. How can we forget the 26/11? The entire world watched as NSG, Indian Commandos and Marcos entered Hotel Taj, Oboroi to save innocent peoples from the terrorists. Capt. Sandeep Unnikrishnan of NSG the elite commando force of the country laid down his life while trying to evacuate an injured friend. He is the real hero for me.

Apart from the soldiers there are many persons who work day and night to make their and others life a little hassle free. There are people who run schools, hospitals for slum area students, provide help to high way accident victims, and fight against the red tape through RTI act. They are the common man, who tries to change the system while living with the system. I salute those persons who are trying to renovate the system with a revolution. They are the real heroes of India.