Real Heroes

The thought had crossed my mind several times during the past few weeks. Once when I saw on TV news the report about Colonel Vasanth laying down his life in Kashmir while fighting against insurgents from across the border. Again when crossing the the cantonment area around MG Road in Bangalore on a Saturday evening I saw two very young army jawans standing guard at an army building and longingly looking out at the weekend crowd in flashy cars and fashionable outfits. There was an article in the newspaper few days ago that the defence services in India are running very short of manpower. And why not, how many of us would leave our cushy, high-paying jobs and be ready to face hardships of the battlefield, where one wrong decision costs a life - either your own or someone else's?

There was a media frenzy to capture glimpses of Sanjay Dutt after his sentencing and news channels/papers were dishing out stories about his lucky kurta, his entire life history (including various marriages/affairs), how great he is as a person. There was also a national debate on one of the news channels to discuss if the sentencing was too harsh on him because he was a celebrity! We were so engrossed in reading/watching about this reel-hero that we hardly paid any attention to the real hero who did a great deed of sacrificing his life for his country. But all he got was a 15 second mention in the news or a 4x4 inch mention in newspapers.

There was a very thought-provoking article on Bangalore Metroblog from someone who knew Colonel Vasanth closely. Isn't it time we move on from worshipping screen gods & goddesses and start doing something for the real heroes of our country?