Heroes

I’ve become a fan of East India Comedy, a group of Indian comics with an active YouTube channel. Even when I don’t get a lot of the jokes (which is most of the time), I still find their material entertaining.

This video, however, isn’t merely of mainly funny, it’s a tribute to good people, people who do things that deserve credit and admiration, such as Bijendra Singh, a retired soldier now employed as a security guard, who spends his nights teaching homeless children. Or Udai Bhai, who drives a taxi but asks people to pay what they are able and think is fair. (The Sanskrit phrase mentioned, Atithi Devo Bhava, is an admonition to treat people with hospitality. It means, “The guest is equivalent to God.”)

Not all are heroes in the classic sense, but Bipin Ganatra is. When he was a teenager his brother died in a fire and in the forty years since then he has been risking his life to fight fires and save people from them, though he is not a professional firefighter. He says he does it because he has nothing to lose.