The Unknown Hero

Readers Digest is one magazine where I have read a lot about unknown heroes. They are the small people who do big things and make this world a better place to live in. I am an avid fan of these people, but I would personally like to be in the well known sphere if ever I do anything big. My whole motto for life is, if you do something worth 10 rupees then give publicity worth 100*.

On my way to office the other day, I was crossing a road. Now, “crossing a road” might seem to be very trivial, but try doing it at the Madivala market near the police station at rush hour and you will find that climbing Everest could be an easier task. I, on average take more time to cross this road than to walk from my house till there. That road is a one-way and vehicles just do not stop for you.

The whole crossing exercise is like a foot ball game. You go in to the other side almost till the end and then you are pushed back due to a speeding vehicle back to your side. I went in about 3 times and had to come back on all three. Totally disgusted, I tried out the last trick up my sleeve. I call it “blind-walking”. The idea is that you look straight ahead instead of to your sides and just keep walking. It takes a lot of guts and even more faith in the expertise of some Indian drivers and their braking capabilities. It helps if you are deaf too, coz normally you get cursed at a lot if you do this.

Thus, I had just started my blind walking and reached a quarter of the distance when all of a sudden I feel a touch on my right elbow. It’s was a frail old lady who, under the impression that I am a responsible crosser, had tagged along! Now, things were a bit more complicated, coz blind walking requires that you be in prime physical form to jump away from a braking vehicle, do a jig and maybe even a partner-less salsa by the time you reach the other side. I normally end up jumping the last quarter of the road to escape unhurt.

But in one way, I was pleased. After all, I had seen so many movies where the lead helps out old (and usually blind) ladies to cross the road. Here was my chance to play the role. I took it in full seriousness and with some heavy hand signaling (including the rude ones) managed to reach the middle. Now, we were really trapped. There was traffic behind us and ahead of us. To move an inch this way or that was a straight ticket to the hospital. The only thing left was to wait for the rush to clear a bit.

As I was waiting, I also did some heavy scanning. As I said earlier, I don’t dig being the unknown hero, I like being appreciated you know. But the filmi touch ended with the old lady I guess. There was no heroine watching my heroic actions on either side of the road! What a tragedy!

If I knew a bit of Kannada, I would have asked her, whether we could repeat this whole charade a few times till the right “environment” was available…:) Finally, after an eternity of waiting, the vehicles in front of us cleared a bit, but not enough to do an easy cross. I had run out of patience by then and decided to take the plunge. By the tightness of her grip, I could understand the poor woman’s tension. Maybe, seeing the old lady or whatever, the rest of the vehicles fortunately slowed down and let us cross, without us having to resort to any fancy acrobatics.

I was still scanning the surroundings when we reached the end of the road, but lady luck stayed away and there was not a girl in sight. But then, for my heroic efforts, I was awarded with an extremely sweet and toothless smile from the old woman. To hell with the heroines! I felt right on top of the world just seeing that smile.

*Nishanth, don’t dare to comment that this post was for cheap publicity…. Well, even if it was, I wont admit it….:)