The Right Thing to Do.

I've had the fortune of watching two movies in a span of 24hours. The Blind Side, thanks to Netflix and Airlift, courtesy a family outing to the the theatres.

There's nothing in common between the two. One is a Hollywood flick that earned Sandra Bullock an Oscar and the other a Bollywood new release, which Akshay Kumar may soon be able to add to his collection of patriotism invoking films. And probably if I had seen them even a week apart, I would still have been moved by their underlying message but not so much so as to pen down a post here.

The Blind Side is a sports drama based on the real life of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who was blessed to be taken in by a Christian philanthropic family and went on to be a renowned American football player. Its a classic story of a homeless child being given a second chance to life. The moment we see Michael being taken in by the Tuohy family, we know this'll be a good ending. Its predictable.

But what I never saw coming, hit me like a train till the very end. It was the weight of being a Christian that the Tuohy family carried on their shoulders throughout the movie. 

Cut-to Airlift. 

The movie is based on the efforts of a Mathunny Mathews (portrayed as Ranjit Katyal) who along with some friends took it on themselves to help the many Indians stuck in Kuwait during the Iraq war. I had heard about the Iraq invasion from my uncle and aunt who themselves had to come away from there because of the unrest. But to see it on the big screen, I was out of words. While I'm nobody to comment on the production and directorial quality, I was again able to take back from the movie what I had learnt about the spirit of the protagonist.

Michael Oher did not make it big because he had the potential to be an ace offensive lineman. He rose from his misery because a few people took their Christian duty very seriously. At no point in the film were the Tuohys seen reading a Bible, attending Church or  engaging with pastors. They were all about being the message themselves. They constantly reminded each other what being a Christian meant. 

Mathunny Mathews did not stay back in Kuwait to be glorified as a hero 20 years on. He recognised the need to be responsible for those around him. His conscience did not allow him to just look out for his family and get them out of the war torn country and leave behind many others who didn't even know him then. For those unfortunate many, he would have been just another lucky person who made it to safety. Many things could've gone wrong. Many things did go wrong. But we know the end result. Hundreds and thousands of Indians today still owe their lives to the grit of Mathews, Harbhajan Vedi, Thomas Chandy and the ones who never gave up on them.

Which brings me to the point of this entire post. 

When was the last time we were selfless for someone who was of no consequence to us? Does our conscience twitch when we hear stories of simple people who in their own simple ways made big differences in the lives of others? Have we in the race to survive our daily struggles kicked off the strand of humanity in our DNAs?

Not all of us are endowed with riches, I agree. But it doesn't take a fortune to share a smile, share that untouched tiffin you're taking home or to just handover a bag of goodies to the kids you see at the traffic signal every evening. You might just give someone a new reason to live.

These movies speak of a conscience we all need. Next time you're waiting for the traffic ahead of you to clear, try not to overtake from the wrong side to get ahead. Wait it out....or even better, step out and try to clear the cause for the block if you're the gutsy types. But whatever you do, don't be the reason for that teenager in the next car to believe that taking the wrong side is the perfect solution out of the mess. Our actions are the message people take home everyday.

Its what defines the nature of tomorrow. A million things could be beyond our control today. Oil prices, inflation, cost of living, work pressures, traffic, social ills and everything else in Pandora's box. But how we let them affect our conscience is what defines our SELF and the world our children will grow up to see.