Who is your hero?!?

Who is your hero?

THIS is not a question to be trifled with. It is by no means an inane query that is the exclusive domain of a beauty pageant.

It is in fact a question that merits deep introspection, because behind its innocuous facade, it hides, to some degree, the answer to that eternal question ‘who am I?’ It is the embodiment of what we are, of what we want to be.

A hero – someone admired, adulated, revered, emulated. If one could be close to what his hero is at some point in his life, he’d reckon, he’d done a rather good job in the one shot at that roller coaster ride that we call life.

More often than not, it is not the person, but a particular trait or facet that allures us, that stands out, that to us maketh the man. And that, more than anything else is indicative of what we truly treasure, the personification of what we have grown to value.

So next time someone asks you this question, beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I was asked this question once, to which I honestly answered I’d have to think about it. Thus started my search.

It was something I read about a year ago that rudely interrupted this incessant quest, that made me sit up and take notice. When I read of it, it struck a deep chord.

RECAP – A while back there was this story of a man called Gopichand (I confess his first name eludes me at the moment) who had been offered an undisclosed, but I gather a rather large sum of money to advertise for a cola. (He had just won a very important badminton tournament) it went on to say that he politely turned them down, citing something about it being harmful to kids.

I had found my hero.

Here is a man, who in this day and age when people would sell their souls, even their mothers, for the right price. Here is a man who refused to do a 30-second spot with a bottle of cola in his hand for a sum, which I dare say, would probably amount to a large fraction of his career earnings. All for something he believed in, for some principles he stood by. Who does that!!?

This man was either incredibly stupid or, deserving of that word that gets trashed around all the time- Great. Great in every sense. I settled on the latter (no one could be that stupid!!)

This man is truly a diamond in the rough, a beacon. He has, in his own unassuming way become an inspiration, a testament to the fact that the most difficult of feats is not impossible to achieve.

A man who refuses to be solicited, who lets no man put a price on that most valuable of assets – ones integrity.

May his tribe increase.

Every night before I sleep, I pray to god. I ask him for two things, the second of which is to help me be a better person tomorrow. And if I, someday find myself standing at a fork, as Mr. Gopichand once did, and I choose to walk down that hallowed path that he chose, that path so few have ever tread, ill know that my prayers were answered.



I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence,
Two roads diverged in a wood and,
I took the one less traversed by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost