Spice of Life: Reel to real, realising unsung hero within
The hero is the one who makes sacrifices for his or her family and friends, or the one who inspires others to take up the challenges of life and applauds the achievements staying away from the limelight all along.
All of us love the hero. Of late, my thoughts have turned to the basic construct as to who is a hero after all, and why, we all aspire to be, and, be inspired by one.
My earliest thoughts of this enigmatic construct take me to the once magnificent cinema halls of the ’70s, when Rajesh Khanna was the cynosure of all eyes and the hero for an entire generation of young India. His on-screen mannerisms, including the almost magical nod of the head followed by the disarming smile, had all of us hooked. By the late ’70s and through much of the ’80s, the word hero was almost synonymous with Amitabh Bachchan. Who can forget his seething anger and intense portrayals on the silver screen? “Jahan hum khare ho jaate hain, line wahin se shuru hoti hai,” was a dialogue that would reverberate in almost every college canteen or hostel washroom of that time. The heroes always seemed to have the perfect one-liner for every situation and, not just that, they also managed to overcome the most difficult situations with a nonchalant ease.
Looking back, I have now discovered some interesting nuances about the hallowed image of the hero. Doing the impossible and taking up the challenge, in the first place, is the hallmark of a hero. Doesn’t this serve as an inspiration to us in real life?
The resilience portrayed by Rajesh Khanna in Anand, in the face of a terminal illness, does reverberate inside me when I find myself in a daunting situation. A calm mind and a positive attitude portrayed by Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots does help in soothing the nerves of my son in facing up to the pulls and pressures of medical college. Standing up to an injustice is what I have imbibed from so many of Amitabh Bachchan’s movies.
The construct of the hero does have another vital facet. Do we have heroes in real life? I am reminded of Mariah Carey’s iconic song:
“When you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you.”
Indeed, we all are unrecognised and unsung heroes for the people around us. One doesn’t need to have dashing looks, chiseled bodies, or the perfect one-liners to be a real-life hero. The hero is the one who makes sacrifices for his or her family and friends, or the one who inspires others to take up the challenges of life and applauds the achievements staying away from the limelight all along. The hero is the one who listens, and empathises with a friend in the throes of a crisis even though he/she can’t possibly do something substantial. A hero respects and cares for the lives of everyone in the community, including the voiceless angels, that is, the animals. We can all find the hero within each one of us.
(The writer is a Jalandhar-based psychiatrist.)
gulbaharsidhu@rediffmail.com
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