everyday heroes...

recently attended the launch of a music group....featuring a differently abled person aided by his sister, also a very good singer...yet another of innumerable occasions to feel inspired by the human spirit...so many odds, the struggle, the hope....

the recent deluge in mumbai was an opportunity to watch such spirit at work....csws(commercial sex workers ) helping people tide over; i myself was helped by a group of slum children who guided me through a difficult lane , indicating where the storm gutters were, so that I did not slip into it....was often left wondering, they probably had their homes washed off in the deluge...

that may challenge deep set stereotype positionalities for some...

the mumbai riots and its aftermath, the bomb blasts also brought so many touching human expressions to the fore...like a lady i remember in Dharavi, Khaleda.....who would dare to go to the streets and pick up the injured all by herself...and bring them to the local mosque compound which was a point of collection for our rescue teams....neither , the wo/menfolk of her locality nor the clerics supported her.... she was a one man army who might have enabled the saving of more than a 100 people....irrespective of their religious or other denominations...

have often observed street children get together to save one of their fraternity who might be ill...normally, everyone is a threat, a competition...a spare shirt is given to the laundry and never collected..because it may get stolen while they sleep....but i remember this boy, murugan, who took seriously ill and needed hospitalization...grant road station....a helpline outreach had got in touch from nana chowk...when i reached the place and organized some adhoc donations to enable the boy's admission.....a few of those kids who already knew me...came up to me saying they would like to contribute....it was a dilemna...knowing their states...but then not giving them an opportunity to help one of their fraternity to me did not make sense....they spread a handkerchief; everyone ran here and there; and they brought out various resources from their various hiding places....i knew the extent of saving of some of the boys....i saw them give off everything....holding nothing back....

to my suggestion that they give only a part of it, they just nonchalantly said, "fikar mat karo...kal phir haath paiir chala lenge...." they earned money through various loading jobs....

I dont know about you guys, I still do not have the capacity to give off all I have materially to anyone...there is always a hold back....

the human spirit..always throbbing, if we only pause to hear it....

for me, given a long period of association with the ngo sector, both organized and ad hoc....my contributions would never match my personal enrichment..it has been invaluable...and when i experience my own roadblocks, it serves me well, when i see the odds stacked against some of these guys....