What about sports icons like Dhyan Chand and Milkha Singh?
I didn’t know enough about Dhyan Chand and Milkha Singh because the media in those days had not evolved as much as now. There were no stories about such achievers. In some ways, the media does contribute to the making of heroes. When you are growing up, your father and elder brothers are your heroes. In an ideal family, children usually look up to their fathers as their hero. But as you evolve and expand your horizons, you realise that there are other heroes. And your heroes keep changing with time. So, do you have a hero now? For me, Nelson Mandela is a true hero. He lived in jail for 27 years and when he came out, he showed no hatred for the people who kept him there. The same people, however, treated him with such respect in the end. Such heroism is easy to talk about but hard to achieve. Imagine spending a week in jail and the hatred that will spring in your heart. Imagine being made to stand on the last bench in class with your face to the wall or imagine being fired by your boss
