Some people are born heroes. Most of them are unsung heroes. This is the story of one such man.
His mother belonged to one of the most well known and affluent families in a bustling town of Kerala. They owned the biggest hotels in town and the many buses named after His mother that carried people across the town, made the fiery young lady gloat with pride. When she was married off to His father, the dowry passed on, was enough for generations after them to live off in luxury.
Fights over property are a part of every family in Kerala. And, without an exception at that. The naïve young couple had no option but to continue with tradition. They fought off a lot of competition and emerged winners. They got more than what they deserved. They deserved nothing. That was the beginning of doom. They would have to pay for every single penny they weren’t worthy of. The curses of the deprived were out there, to haunt them to death.
His father was a noble man. He succumbed to greed just once. He was the most magnanimous amongst all his brothers. He was the only one who would enquire after everyone’s well being. He would help without hesitation. He would give without any second thoughts whatsoever. He thought a thousand good deeds would make up for the only wrong he did. He was being too optimistic. God had decided otherwise.
Abundance soon changed to adversity. My hero wasn’t born into it, but grew into it. He was good at a lot of things he did. There were no takers. The fate of His folks and Him was sealed. The judgment had been passed. But he was born to salvage. He was born as a respite from doom. He was born to win amnesty for damned family.
He met his conscience early on in life. He decided to be answerable to it. Being elder to his two sisters and five brothers, he became the father figure. He can easily claim to have brought them up single handedly. He would bathe them, cook for them, teach them, drop them to school, advice them, correct them, love them, mother them…
He topped his school, one of the best schools in the town in the SSC examinations. His name still remains inscribed on the toppers list at the prestigious school. I have heard stories of how he would have to beg his parents into buying him books and stationary and give him money to travel, stories of how he had walked down all the way from home to school, a good 10 km in the rain without an umbrella, to write the Mathematics examination for which he never studied and yet almost scored a 100. My heart aches even as I write this account.
He put an end to his academics prematurely. He knew he had to be fast. He left the town that brought about the fall of his family. He pledged to be the superman he did not know he already was. He went through hell. His days of struggle liberated him. He overcame everything, whether it was his best buddies cheating him, or his health letting him down on many an occasion and forcing him to forego the many brilliant opportunities that only splendid people like him deserved, or the conceited thankless acts of his siblings, or the uncountable tragedies life met out to him. He never gave up on anything or anyone. From not being able to speak a single sentence in English to being the most well read and amazing users of the language, from being in a situation where he could only ask, to being the one whom everyone asks from, from being inspired by Lincoln and Marx and the likes to being an inspiration for every single soul he meets, from being an absolute nobody in a self-centered society to being the most respected human being amongst his people, he has been the real winner. Modern in the real sense of the term, my Hero is the most selfless and vulnerable person I have ever met. His mother’s fire and his father’s magnanimity live on through him.
I know only a little about him, mainly through narrations from his close friends and his family, which is truly blessed. But every time I see the Man, I can feel the aura around him, I can see the Hero in him, I can feel the emptiness of my soul and the largess of his,
I can feel my heart tugging me to rise above the ordinary.
He has given me the parameter to judge myself. The day I can meet his eyes, I would have tasted success.
