“Khudi ko kar buland itna, ki har taqdeer se pehele bande se khuda khud pooche, bata teri raza kya hai!”
Confused? It means be as worthy a character that the creator himself asks you what he must destine for you.
This week’s Monday Truclusions is about a few champions who refused to bow down to challenges, but were able to create their own identity. But before I tell you about them let me narrate to you a story that I read sometime ago.
The Third Kind Of People!
It so happened that there was a differently-abled person who worked in a multi-national company. He was a really hard working man, but never got his due recognition. He never bothered about it, as he just wanted to do his job to the best of his abilities, not worrying whether he would be recognized for his efforts.
All his friends in the office knew he wasn’t getting his due but they wondered why he didn’t raise his voice against what all of them thought was injustice. One of them finally asked him during a casual conversation- “Why do you shy away from demanding for what you deserve? Why don’t you stand for yourself?” The man smiled and walked away leaving the group intrigued, that is when another person who knew this fellow in and out gave a totally new dimension to the silence. This person’s response was something that blew the minds of his friends, he said –
“There are two kinds of people in this world of whom everyone knows. One who bows down to various types of pressure and fails to fight for their rights. The other set of people are those who exhibit the quality to stand up for themselves. Yes it is true that it takes a lot of courage to do so. But there is a rare breed of people who showcase invincible strength and possess a mind of steel to perform to one’s best of abilities with the least of expectations and still be consistent at it. They carve a personality for themselves to which god himself makes them legends! This guy belongs to such category of people.”
According to me such acts need much more courage than that for standing for your own rights. Because there is no doubt that it breaks one’s heart when you don’t get what you deserve. But it takes a lot out of you to perform at your best even when you know things will not go your way.
Now let me tell me introduce to you two such real champions who have indeed done so!
The Man Who Teaches Music And(/With) Passion!
Goa, for most of us is where we party like there is no tomorrow, but for Mr. Augustinho Fernandes that was not the case. When he was a child he once suffered a fever, one that was life altering. He was treated with the wrong medicine that made his lower body absolutely useless. During the early years of his life his mother carried him to school and helped him study. But as he grew older he had to walk on his hands all the way to school.
There were times when his hands would tire from walking and he would stop to rest, people would think he was a beggar. But nothing deterred or distracted him from focusing on his life. He was determined to scale up his life to dignity. He says- “If I had given up thinking nothing would go my way, I would not have been leading a life I am today. I never bothered what people thought of me. I only did what I was supposed to do with no expectation of rewards. What has to come my way will come sooner or later.”
Today he is a fine music teacher to more than 40 students and he does this out of pure passion and nothing else.
Isn’t this the sign of a true champion?
The Real-Life Swades Heroes!
The other champion I was talking is Amith Kumar from Bihar. He is a follower of the legend- Dashrat Manjhi. If you do not know who Dashrath Manjhi was, he was the man who took the sole responsibility of getting access to basic amenities for the people of the village of Gehlore, by carving a path through the hill. Inspired by his life, Bollywood made a biographic movie too!
But what does Amith have to do with all this? Amith, being a student of sociology, nurtured an activist in him. Though Gehlore had grown into instant glory because of Manjhi, its people still hadn’t gotten access to clean drinking water. Though repeated complaints were lodged, the local authorities hardly paid attention to these complaints. That is when the spirit of Manjhi helped Amit.
Gehlore has turned into a tourist attraction after the movie was made on Manjhi’s life. Amit utilised the opportunity and screened the troubles of the locals to the tourists when they arrived. After years of continuous effort, the move finally paid off, as it generated a lot of public interest, and because of the fear of a public outrage the local authorities acted.
All they had to do was to repair the pipelines costing a mere INR 10,000. But it never got attention from the people concerned. It was only Amit’s struggle that got the problem the required attention that solved the problem and got the people of Gehlore some respite.
Leaving you this week with some food for thought- Had Amit given up thinking he had nothing to gain from all that he had to do or by losing hope as nothing good happened for a long time, could the water issue have ever been solved? How can we apply the learnings in our life and context?
Liked reading this? Then you might also like to read Monday Truclusions – Challenging The Status Quo For The Betterment Of The Society
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