Who Is Your Hero?

On a random evening when I and my toddler were having some play time on the terrace, in all innocence he asked me a question; “why are we so scared of corona Virus?” and for the mother that I am, I tried simplifying what a pandemic meant, the dangers that we are exposed to etc. My son quickly cut me short and quipped “we don’t have to worry; all we need to do is call captain America or spider man and they will catch hold of corona virus and throw it out of the universe.”

How I wish! Though I had a good laugh and continued playing with him, his idea and belief about solving a problem lingered in my mind for a very long time. We could easily brush aside his idea as a fantasy or imagination, but is our thought process any better?

This pandemic has thrown all our lives upside down with physical, emotional and psychological pressures and challenges, that we were hardly prepared for.  Testing times often make us yearn for some gigantic shoulders we could ride on, some strong hands we could hold on to and wade through a rough wave. Do we have in our life some heroic figures who would help us anchor the ship of our life which would otherwise ramble against the tsunami of uncertainty?

Many of us have often celebrated movie stars, fashion divas, sports icons, celebrities so much in our lives that we tend to consider them heroes. But are we celebrating the right heroes? The stories we tell our children and the people we celebrate in our life go a long way in helping them choose the right heroes

  Could our so-called heroes lift us from a place of distress and dismay and place us in a position of harmony and peace? Do they lift us from the abyss we have fallen into and elevate us to a better position?  We might be in awe with their fame, appearance, popularity and wealth but do these inspire us when we are facing the challenges of our life? The obvious answer is NO! Glorifying fame, appearance, show-blitz as heroic is a bubble we should burst.

Going back to my childhood, my family always celebrated and honoured stories of people who were around us, of people whom we knew. These stories were real, their struggles relatable, their personalities reliable and their attitude worth emulation. We could have them as a referential map in navigating through our life.

We were often narrated the story of my grandfather’s sister who was known for her grit and tenacity. An illiterate widow, who was thrown out of her only son’s house but refused to utter a single lie even for her livelihood. Of her courage and attitude to face life and an axiom she supposedly lived by “life is meant to be difficult; we need to deal with it!”.

My father would talk a countless time to us about the story of his own elder sister who at a tender age of 15 selflessly sacrificed her studies and career to step in to the role of her mother who passed away. His own story of how he failed his PUC but never let that dishearten him, instead took it as a challenge and went on to bag a gold medal in his masters. He would honor the stories of valor, pride and love our soldiers have for our country. My mom would never fail to highlight the attitude of our dutiful maid who always worked with a smile on her face, though her life was full of problems. We looked up to our grand- father who would never fret or frown about the difficulties of life even after he lost his wife, daughter, son and daughter-in-law before his eyes. These stories helped us acknowledge the fact that true heroism did not mean fame, appearance or money but it meant attitude, perseverance and humanity.

 While celebrating celebrities as heroes will always make us feel inadequate and emotionally bankrupt during distress, honoring and emulating the right heroes will help us discover a new-born hero in us which is a well prepared and stronger mind which is ready to face life as it comes.