“A nation that does not honour its heroes, will not endure long” said the long-remembered legend, Abraham Lincon.
Though pretty true, let us ponder for a second and pry into the meaning of “an unsung hero “. Song, the sequence of fine notes generated by distinct periodic motion of waves, when arranged together, are appealing to ears.
Who is a hero?
the question needs no interpretation. Long back since our very youth, we grew up loving them in costumes, trying to save a nation from UFO attacks, and delivering promising speech. Thus, we sing in praise of our heroes as a form of a tribute being paid for their magnanimously selfless service to the society. Regrettably, not all Heroes are sung for.
They are the unsung heroes, making their way through life and hardships in the most subtle form possible, unnoticed and unrewarded. A mind with maturity is the “unsung hero” whose presence we all tend to pay no account of.
They do not seek popularity, but only focus on paying off their duties.
They are not worshipped, but responsible citizens on this planet
Impressively, their biography is not serendipitous, rather has been traced for centuries serving as the root cause for our survival since the very history of human evolution. Taking into account, Charles Darwin’s theory of adaption, these heroes have taken shape in all forms right from the very first stage of primates.
Our ancestors discovered fire and wheels for transport .Startled by nature’s wonderful creation “intelligence”, we took the next step required-being responsible .Intelligence is driven by presence of mind .It is rather an immediate reaction or response to unpredictable circumstances and situations ,something which almost every species seem to have at rudimentary level ,as a requirement to survive as preys to predators .But ,those were the ones with awareness and responsibility who sensed forthcoming dangers ,made long term plans, moved from hills to pastoral grounds ,made families and built civilizations. They were our earliest forefathers to represent heroism. They would not consume their meal soon after hunting, but save it for their loved ones. During tropical summer of central Africa, they went out in search of food grains amid the heat to store them in times of drought or storm. Among them, the worshiped minds who often fought out alien tribes of their colonies could not last long. It was those heroes coming to rescue when they crafted trade deals and dialogues of instead of fighting, because it made them realize the fact that, survival can’t made alone but only through co operations.
The children never notice them in costumes or with shields because they only went to war while everyone was asleep. Bloodstained and pushing off their edge till they took their last breath, they kept the town safe at night.
When warmth reached the temperate plains ,mounting a climate supporting cultivation and livelihood sparked with feudalism ,came the era of knights .Hailed ,they inhabited in castles won by victory and pride .Often by ,their empirical stories of warfare ,they tuned less promising to society while growing close to nobles and clergies .It was the labourers paying taxes ,keeping the economy in circulation while suffocating on their own expenses ,went in oblivion in the community .Unsung heroes were those common citizens .
Unsung heroes were those women workers and homemakers fighting for their voting rights until it was finally granted for the first time and men during the Jacobian rule making attempts to abolish slavery and declared human rights during French revolution.
Then began the age of discoveries and voyages where men started out across the globe in search of cotton, textiles and clove, colonizing, oppressing and turning less privileged into slaves. Few of them earned respect by joining hands with local nationalists abolishing evil practices and superstitions in parts of India.
Science began to flourish with Einstein getting known to the world for his theory of relativity but what many did not know was the supporting hand he held to Curie when she lost hope after the conference of 1911.This side of his personality went unsung and unrecognised.
When the world decided to divide into blocks in pursuit of competition and hegemony, so called leaders made endless speeches promising welfare. Unsung heroes were those militants relentlessly paying refugee to the victims of the Pearl Harbour attack or the later Iran war until they succumbed to their own wounds.
In context of Indian nationalism, it was those peasants at grassroot level revolting against alien imperialism for the first time. Deprived of education and meal, they raised voices against unholy revenue system and taxes fixed by the Lords. These lords who were heroes of their own country, who portraits hung on crafted walls lost to the true heroes, not in conquest but in citizens’ hearts.
And once, when the war was over, leaders who met at the charter, invited signatories and had diplomatic conversations inside chambers, having tea. It was around that time when small and large industrialists joined hands serving as heroes building the two cities in Japan right from scratch, being shattered in carnages of the nuclear war. They did not wait further for loans or funds to be granted by international forums and ended up restoring its economy at the topmost position.
Be it the terrorism attacks of Mumbai in 26\11 where officers and hotel staffs served in the forefront, running errands until they evacuated everyone out or be it the global pandemic where doctors endangered their lives for the sake of infected crowd, unsung heroism is persisting all around us, everywhere and always.
These personalities are like oxygen, invisible but they keep us breathing.
An unsung hero is every mother, giving birth to a child even under enormously painful circumstances, every soldier patrolling on nation border while being high on fever, firefighters entering into buildings covered by smoke clouds above dreadful flames.
From every section of society, from every part of our being, there exists an unsung hero among us or within. Make sure you are one of them next.
By: Avilasa Maji
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