Everyday Heroes

Can you tell me who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine this year?

For economics?

For peace?

Well! Nor can I. 

But why is it so?

Why is it that we don’t even know the names of the biggest contributors to humanity?

I have a theory –

It is because these people belong to a different turf, a different class from that of ours.

Because they are so mammoth that we simply don’t feel anyhow connected to them.

However, the very premise of my theory gets broken by my next question – 

“Who is the lead actor in Sultan?”

I am not surprised if all of you know his name.

So why do we remember the name of “Salman Khan”, but can’t recall the names of Nobel Laurates?

When all of them have an impact on humanity one way or the other. Even if it is by ramming the car onto a destitute sleeping on the footpath.

Well! The reason is –

We have wrongly chosen our heroes. We always had.

Heros are not the big names who we can rarely connect to. 

They are the regular guys who touch our lives on a daily basis.

They never made it to the silver screen. They never made it big, but they enabled us to make it big.

They are the ones who make it possible for us to stay in comfort at our homes while they run the errands.

The actor who makes it into the news every other day is not your hero; the newspaper boy who enables you to get all the news in the comfort of your home is.

No matter how cool he seems, Pierce Brosnan doesn’t ensure your security, your local watchman does. 

So, next time he opens the gate for you, at least acknowledge him.

Instead of ogling your eyes on TV about how Virat and Anuska got married, take out some time and ask your maid how is her daughter going to get married. Or better still, should she be married at all at her tender age.

Irrespective of how many times you say it, Sachin was never your God, your Dad is your God. Because he was the one who wrote your destiny.

So instead of worrying about the retirement plan of the former, pause for a moment and think about your Dad’s retirement plan.

And of course, the shitty questions from KBC, stretched and dramatized for 1 hour don’t prepare you for the entrance, a conversation with your retired professor does.

No matter how harsh this might sound, for all these so-called stars, you are just another number who adds up to their endorsement revenue. 

Sounds scary?

The good news is – You still have a choice.

You have a choice to follow these businessmen faking up as heroes or to actually bring a smile on the face of your real hero, whom you encounter every day. 

You have a choice to be obsessed with the signed marriage contracts, scripted as a romantic love story; or to utilize the same time in knowing the people who actually love you.

You have the choice to actually be human, instead of following the gossips around someone who just wears the tee-shirt advertising it.

These are the people, whom you never acknowledged as human beings and who were to you, just “Oye Chotu”, “Arre Bhaiyya” and “Ohh Hello”. But irrespective of how you address them, they are real people with real families to serve and real obligations to meet.

But as we are all programmed to follow only the big names, let me reinforce my appeal with a beautiful quote from the only person to be ever awarded both a Nobel and an Oscar- George Bernard Shaw.

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that’s the essence of inhumanity.

Let us, my dear friends vow to be a little less inhuman.

Do me a favor, next time, you come across them, nod at them, acknowledge their hard work with a smile, talk to them. 

Ask them about their family, about how are kids doing?

As you realize that, they still send their kids to school despite their poverty, that they don’t want their kids to spend their lives like them; you will be filled with respect for them.

As they narrate their struggles with a smile, you will realize that they are the real heroes. That the shine of hope in their eyes far outshines that of the silver screen.