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.

Importance Of Teamwork

If you paid attention in your middle-school classes, then you must be well aware of the fact that most of the birds fly in “V”- Shape formation, because this somehow makes it easier for them to fly.

However, I was amazed to learn that not only they fly in this fashion but in their long journey they also honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Beautiful isn’t it?

Do you know what we do when  someone gets ahead of us?

We  criticize.

This amazed me so much that I went ahead to study all I could about geese.

Surprise awaited me as I learnt that when a goose gets sick and is

unable to keep up, two other geese follow it down to lend help and

protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or

until it dies. And only then do they fly again to join the group.

What do we do when we see someone falling behind? We say – “It’s not my problem”.

Seriously, we need to learn a lot from these geese.

But wait, this is not over. Why V-Formation? After all there are 25 more alphabets to choose from?

The answer lies in physics. As a bird flaps its wings, it creates a drag for the bird immediately following it. This way the “V-Formation” saves about 71% energy of each bird had they travelled on their own.

Surprise awaited me as I learnt that when a goose gets sick and is

unable to keep up, two other geese follow it down to lend help and

protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or

until it dies. And only then do they fly again to join the group.

What do we do when we see someone falling behind? We say – “It’s not my problem”.

Seriously, we need to learn a lot from these geese.

But wait, this is not over. Why V-Formation? After all there are 25 more alphabets to choose from?

The answer lies in physics. As a bird flaps its wings, it creates a drag for the bird immediately following it. This way the “V-Formation” saves about 71% energy of each bird had they travelled on their own.

In case you are an engineer and love physics more than philosophy, there is one more explanation – straight from high school physics.

When a goose, falls out of the formation, the drag and the resistance

created by the goose preceding it and the goose following it makes it

 difficult to get drift away.

Staying with people who share the same goals as you keeps you in track, even if it’s due to external factors.

Staying with people who share the same goals as you keeps you in track, even if it’s due to external factors.

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

One night, two frogs, who were friends, came across a farmer’s home. As they entered inside they accidently fell into a vessel full of milk.

It was winter, and the night was really cold. So, neither of them liked the situation very much. They both wanted to come out.

Frog 1 said – “Dude, we gonna die out of cold.

Frog 2 said – “Oh! Come-on, it’s not that bad. The only thing we need to do is to jump. And as you know we both are great when it comes to jumping.”

Frog 1 –“But, don’t you know that we can’t jump out of milk? We first need a solid foundation,   before we jump.”

Frog 2 –“But, at least we can try!”

So, they jumped.

They missed. – Just by few centimetres.

If you have studied high school physics; you will know that, one can’t jump out of a liquid. You need something solid to generate the force. If only they could find something SOLID to hold on to; they would have made it.

They tried once again – It was of no use.

They tried jumping out again and again and again.

They couldn’t make it.

They were fatigued by this.

Frog 1 –“Hey, I can’t do it anymore. I give up.”

Frog 2 – “Wait! Let’s give one more try. Let’s take a deep breath, muster all our strength and jump, just one more time.”

They then decided to give a try for one last time.

They failed again.

They then decided to give a try for one last time.

They failed again.

Frog 1 –“I am totally giving up now. It’s better to die in peace then to die panting and breathless from the exhaustion of jumping.”

Frog 2 –“You know what! We can swim. We can swim on and on till morning; till the farmer arrives and then he will save us.”

Frog 1 –“I don’t have any energy left.  I am already fainting.”

But, then the frog 1 decided to swim.

So, they swam and swam and swam.

 However, it was winter, and the night was so long that it seemed to be endless and milk was too cold.

Besides, they both were already exhausted. It was really tough for them to continue to swim.

So, frog 1 decided that he just can’t swim anymore. Frog 2 tried to encourage him, but what could he do? – He had no energy left.

Frog gave up to be drowned.

Frog 2 even though, he was devoid of any energy due to exhaustion and loss of a friend swam and swam. He thought that his friend was right. That he was going to die; so what’s the point in    trying?

Just when he came across this thought – he landed up on something SOLID.

This is all he needed to make it.

He sat on that solid thing and jumped.

Needless to say, he made it.

Apparently, continuous swimming by these two frogs had churned

BUTTER, out of  milk, a lump of which was floating on the top of the milk.