My hands refuse to type the two names together and the only reason their names will appear together is because it will show what ails us today….
Bhagat Singh was the freedom fighter who was hanged by the British regime when he was 23 for having killed a police officer John Saunders, who was responsible for the death of “Sher-e-Punjab” Lala Lajpat Rai. The way he walked out of his prison cell, to be hanged is the stuff that legends are made of – a boy of 23, knowing that a rich full life ahead of him was being cut short, having no fear of death, head held high knowing he did the right thing. A hero forever from that instant !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh
Cut to 2010 and a Nasscom summit in Bangalore and another man went up the stage, hailed as the “youth icon” of India. His last name is Bhagat… He is a writer, the new crop of writers who make sure they make money but don’t make the reader fall in love with reading or the language… His first book got adapted brilliantly by an amazing movie director and this non-entity tried to create a ruckus about not getting enough credit… Suddenly he is everywhere and being hailed as a “youth icon”.
Well, I suddenly believe in past lives and the continuity of good and bad deeds !!
The point is – today non-entities become youth icons past 40… And we have forgotten what a true hero looks, walks, talks and behaves like ! That is what ails the world today. We all need true heroes to inspire us, to show us that right wins over wrong, that there is justice in the world, that true greatness is being a great human being…. Can’t think of even one “icon” of today who fits the bill.
We get inspired by paper mâché heroes and then lament that they go up in smoke ! Paper is combustible, right ?