There were many whose lives gave us more than they took. Their ways of living were different from others. They never thought of only themselves. They were very clear about what was right or what was wrong. And they remained stood with them even at the cost of their lives. They knew very well the proposes of their coming on the earth. One among those was Neerja Bhanot.
Being an air-hostess what maximum one could do that may or may not be remarkable but her endeavours during the time of adversity made the mark which is indelible. There are many instances of deeds of humanity but what she did for human-being irrespective of race or religion is a great lesson for us to follow. Today we face crisis in terms of human-values. It seems we have become stoic about killings of mankinds. There is not a single day without the report of killing of humane in the name of race or religion.
As a senior flight-attendant, she was on-board to a plane from Mumbai to America with 361 passengers and 19 crew members. In between the plane landed at Karachi airport for on-loading and off-loading of the passengers. The four terrorists captured the plane, with a view of releasing some of the incarcerated terrorists, before it flew. In that precarious situation she showed courage and informed the crew members who successfully ran away through a hatch in the cabin. At first she foiled their plan of forcibly flying the aircraft to Cyprus.
Later the hijackers wanted to identify Americans and kill them in a bid to pressurize USA. They ordered her to collect passports in order to identify American citizens. She, with the help of other colleagues, hid passports of all 41 Americans on-board under the seat and in the rubbish chute to misguide them.
When the terrorists remained abortive in all their wicked bids, they resorted to shooting. Bhanot flung open an emergency chute and aided passengers to come out. She was shot while shielding three children from a volley of bullets. She could have been first to leaped off the plane but she chose to be with the distressed passengers to rescue them. One of the children, the aged 7, now is a captain for famous airlines has said, “She has been inspiration for him and he owes everyday of his life to her.” There would not be any compliment greater than this.
The incident illustrates two major things- one, the terrorists wanted to impose their fanatical belief at the cost of lives of innocents and the other, a human being wanted to save humankinds at the cost of her own life. The terrorists wanted to safeguard the old beliefs whereas she wanted to save the spirits of humanity. Whom to be adhered? It could be realised better by understanding the value of humanity.
There are many Neerajas whose voices despite being correct are or have been silenced. They are not able to empower themselves or raise their voices in this prejudiced environment. So there is a need of an environment where we will have many Neerjas. We would see many Gods in the form of humane. And then only we will have right standard to measure what is right or what is wrong to have a balanced society.
