Ten year
old Chintu was very excited to go to school, or let’s say ‘super’ excited to go
to school. Why wouldn't he? He had worked very hard for this. Only last evening he noticed his power. He checked it by lifting
his dad’s car. He saw a truck parked on the roadside. He wanted to check
his power once again. He looked around, there were not many people. He quickly
went to the rear side of truck and put his hand to the cargo. With a small pull
truck’s rear axle was off the ground. Assured of his super power he slowly kept
the truck back. There was a small dent on the cargo of truck where Chintu had lifted it. It was clear, now Chintu was a super-boy.
We all had wished for a superpower when we were young. But as we grow up we realize there is
nothing like a superpower and we are all at almost same level. OK, some may be
more powerful than others but overall our maximum powers are limited.
Even as now we know that there
are not super powers, we all still enjoy the comics, cartoons and movies based
on them. I have been fan of superhero movies. I know a lot of them. We all
know, to name a few these are Superman, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and
Spiderman and so on. And for today’s kids there are some things like doremon,
pokemon etc.
I am still thrilled when superhero
beats the bad guys, or aliens or even gods and saves the world with his
powers. Sometimes I dream that I also have the powers of superman or Ironman,
this happens a lot when I had recently seen a superhero movie. :)
But this all settles down soon.
Because such superheroes do not exist Or do they?
They do exist in reality. But
they do not wear any special costume, cape or metal suit. They look just like
us, dress like us but do extraordinary things.
Superhero Name: Mittal Patel, Superpower
: Giving identity and helping the ignored communities.
This lady has single handed worked
a lot for the communities which were ignored. She had started alone in 2006 and
now formed VSSM – Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch.
She has worked to provide
identity for more than 20000 people. That is actually a lot of work, especially
in our country. Here is the Youtube link to her inspiring video.
Just one of the many inspiring
stories of VSSM is the story is of nomadic tribe “Sarania”, from Vadiya village of Gujarat, where the women are
forced into prostitution by the male members of their own family. Girls are not
married in this village. And this is going on from generations. The new
generations are born without marriages. How can they have an identity. As a
rule of their community if a girl is married she is not brought in to
prostitution. But this is seriously resisted by the families themselves as prostitution
is the only income source for many of them.
VSSM came forward and arranged
marriage of 8 girls, and engagement of another 12 in this village in 2012, to end
the prostitution, bring this tribe to mainstream and enable them live with
dignity.
To do this huge amount of work,
you got to have super-powers.
I hereby salute to the Superhero
of Gujarat, Mittal Patel. She has inspired me to again look for a superhero in myself, like I did when I was a kid, as we need more superheroes.
This post is written for Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012.
