BEYOND OUR REMOTE CORNERS AND PADDY FIELDS












Like the entire country did, I, too, rose to give a standing ovation to Hima Das, when she did what she did. For a moment, I went blank and speechless… I knew, that a new teenage-star was born in a remote comer of my county, to keep inspiring hope and confidence in my life…

The goose bumps are still not gone… Pray, they won’t!

But, public memory – which includes mine, too – is very short. We have almost forgotten Mary Kom, another young – bruised, battered and wounded - girl from a North East remote-village of our country. We needed a Priyanka Chopra movie to tell us the gutsy saga… But, like we all do in life… Mary Kom goes her way and we all go ours…


Now, this 18-year-old Hima Das has exploded in our consciousness, as they say, out of the blue… Wow! Wow!

A few days from now, we all will go our way… and, Hima will go her way… Life is such… True!

Do we need a Mary Kom and a Hima Das to energize us?

Yes, we do. I strongly believe, that such stories keep our faith in human spirit. Simple people that we all are… We all have come from our respective ‘remote corners’… An underdog is alive and still kicking in all of us… So, when Mary Kom sends her punches in the boxing ring, we all do… When Hima Das explodes on  track, we all do…

Yes, sir, in life, we need a Mary Kom and we need a Hima Das. Else, we will never know what is in store for us beyond our ‘remote corners’ and ‘paddy fields’…








Well, having said all that I said, let me say this, too: even though our ‘Boxing Rings’ and ‘Running Tracks’ in life are different, the source of fire that blazes in our bellies… yes, it cannot be different!







GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Internet

Videos:YouTube


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