August 15th. The one day of the year where my message inbox will be filled with messages from countless individuals proclaiming that India is great; every second channel will have a video of Rahman performing his rendition of Vande Mataram ; every beggar on the street will be trying to sell you a cheap paper flag; and who can forget the cribbing of some friends that the wine shops are closed on a day that seems perfect for a chilled beer.
If nothing else today is the day we pay tribute to the martyrs who managed to save our country from the shackles of slavery etc etc etc…. the same old stuff. Don’t get me wrong, most of them deserve to be remembered for what they did for us. Gandhi, Nehru, Bose, Singh and thousands of others who laid down their lives for protecting a country that mattered so much to them. But what about the others?
Who are the others you ask? It’s not surprising that you’ve no idea who I’m talking about. I’m not truly sure who they are either.
It’s been rightfully said that prevention is better than a cure. Isn’t it strange that we barely remember the ones who helped prevent a problem, but the men who cured it go down in the history of time?
26/11. The memory of the policemen who died fighting that day will not fade from our memories. Why should it really? They gave up their lives for it. But do you remember that random individual who might have prevented some major blast or attack just a month before that? Do you remember the good Samaritan who prevented the mugging and rape of a woman on the streets? Of course not! And why? Because we never manage to remember the men who prevented the danger, we only remember the individuals who proved their mettle after disaster strikes. We’re so caught up in the notion that adversity builds a man’s character, yet we so conveniently ignore the man whose character essentially helped him prevent such adversity.
This isn’t a post against patriotism or the right to freedom or any such crap. For all you know, the man who saves the lives of hundreds of people every day might just be the shabbily dressed man standing beside you on the bus. The nurse who sterilizes the hospital equipment. The street urchin who clears away all the garbage. The ticket collector who throws the screaming drunkards off the train. People who essentially save your life every day, without you having an inkling about it. True heroes. Ones who do what they do not for fame or money. No, to them it is nothing more than a daily chore perhaps. We barely know or even notice these people, even though they could be the very reason we’re still alive. So this Independence day, when we honor those who laid their lives down for us, let us also honor those who do so much for us without us even feeling their presence.
After all, they were the ones who ever mattered.
