The real-life heroes of India many forget to thank

The news of 174 migrant laborers returning to Jharkhand from Mumbai Thursday is heartening. Not having the strength to walk all the way till Ranchi and unable to get on to a train, they simply took a flight back home. They could take a flight.

From not having ever dreamt of touching an airplane to actually flying in it was simply an unbelievable feeling for all of them.

The credit for making the entire exercise possible went to the members of the Alumni Network of National Law School (ANNLS), Bengaluru, who had arranged the money for the chartered flight and coordinated with the Jharkhand government, including Chief Minister Hemant Soren directly.

As the plane carrying the laborers landed at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport — just about the same time 1,332 migrants deboarded the Shramik special train from Borivali at the Jasidih junction railway station in Deoghar, further away from Ranchi — Soren expressed his gratitude to the over 80 alumni for their initiative.

The former law graduates are not the only ones who are doing their bit to help the poor and needy stranded in big cities with no means or money left to return home.

Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has emerged as a real-life hero for many.

Arranging food, sanitizers, and most importantly, buses for the migrant laborers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Sood has garnered a cult following in the past few weeks.

His message for a laborer on Twitter, ‘Paidal kyu jaoge dost? Number bhejo’ (why would you walk back home, my friend… Just send me your number), went viral on social media.

Many would’ve thought of it as a one-off PR stunt by a celebrity but Sood proved everyone wrong by arranging multiple buses for the migrants throughout the ongoing nationwide lockdown period.

“The visuals of migrants, especially babies and the elderly walking a deadly distance with bruises on their feet, really made me feel very sad. It becomes necessary to spring into action at times rather than just cribbing and simply feeling bad for them. I am extremely happy that I could help the migrants in my own way and I shall continue to help as much as I can,” Sood has been telling everyone.

Not just that, the actor also provided meal kits to over 25,000 migrants in Mumbai during the holy month of Ramadan.

Impressed with his charity work, celebrity chef Vikas Khanna prepared a special dish and named it ‘Moga’ after Sood’s hometown in Punjab.

Many even want a biopic to be made on him while politicians—from Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to Minister Smriti Irani—are patting Sood’s back.

Sood or the law school alumni aren’t the only ones lending a help during the challenging times of Covid-19.

There’s a long list of samaritans and organizations doing some exceptional work – hope you’ve heard about the help being extended to the stranded migrants by the Goa Humanitarian Helpline (GHH).

Maybe, once the novel coronavirus pandemic becomes history, the noisy debates on prime time can take a break and stories of these everyday heroes be told to the nation.