Saleem

“Saleem” salutes the spirit of the everyday heroes, the ones, who, without caring about the adulation or fame, silently do their deeds of good. For such people, belief in the humanity is supreme. Saleem, the owner of a small time tea stall, keeps rushing to help the people meeting with accidents. And he keeps doing this at the cost of his livelihood and going through the hassles attached with helping an unknown person in today’s world while the others merely look on. A schoolgirl takes the same route everyday watching Saleem’s humane act all along. Her own father has told her to be careful as nobody comes forward to help others in today’s selfish times as everybody is merely concerned about their own respective interests and for them an accident is a spectacle, nothing more. And she indeed observes the same to be true in the behavior of most of the people. And then she also witnesses Saleem, who has this unshakable faith in the humanity. He lives by the simple philosophy that we all are the children of god and if one doesn’t help the others in the times of need, such a life is of no use. He is not someone who only preaches it, but practices it too. Saleem becomes the ‘hero’ of the impressionable mind and heart of this child, who starts putting him in the same category of other heroes who are famous. For this child, this does not make Saleem’s acts any less heroic that he isn’t famous as he keeps doing his heroic acts without caring for recognition, believing in the almighty and in the fact that no occupation is bigger than a human life. For him, his business can never suffer, as suggested by others, as long as the grace of god is with him. Finally, on the day of Rakshabandhan, she ties Rakhi on her Saleem Bhai’s hands, in a way, saluting the heroism of his as well as of many like him who are our everyday heroes.