On this New Year’s Eve, I was roaming in a market in Guwahati, where I met a ‘hero’ – who inspires me again and again, whenever I look at his picture. In a corner of the market, I saw a boy of fifteen, chopping meat. I felt pity on him. I wanted to talk, but was unable to, because the market was heavily crowded. The next morning, I went to meet him.
I asked what his name was – to which he replied Rajesh. Then, in order to interact more freely, I cracked some jokes. After a while, I asked till which class he had studied, and why he was doing such a job, instead of going to school. He replied that before his father’s death, he was studying in a LP School. After his father died, he and his mother shifted to Guwahati in search of a living. His mother does different jobs to earn a living and they live in a slum in Fancy Bazaar. He used to work as a shoe-shiner in Fancy Bazaar – now he works as a butcher.
He dreams of opening a school, someday, where children like him would study. So he saves money regularly – and said that till he grows up, he will have saved enough.
My eyes became wet on hearing this. But as the market crowd was growing, I bid him goodbye and promised to meet him again.
There are many people around us who are usually ignored, but are truly ‘heroes’ – although they didn’t commit any ‘showy’ deed of ‘bravery. But it is due to their day to day ‘struggles’, that they learn what ‘hardships’ are, and how to face them.
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