Kindness Beyond the Call of Duty - Four Indians Worth Emulating

Ashok Nagar Police Station, Chennai

Stevin Mathew, a 19 year old with Down's syndrome who adored the police after watching his favourite film stars don the uniform was given the opportunity to be a policeman for a day by the Ashok Nagar police station in Chennai. 

When they received the unique request from the boy's parents, police commissioner A K Viswanathan heartily agreed. They visited the boy and made arrangements for him, including measuring out a uniform for him, giving him his own desk and walkie-talkie. He even got to go in a patrol jeep for duty, accompanied by two constables.

P Sukumaran

47 year old Sukumaran was a murder convict from Pattambi, Palakkad, serving a 10 year (reduced from life imprisonment) sentence for killing his uncle during a property dispute following a fist fight. For him, that was not enough and he wanted to do more.

"One life was lost because of me, so I should give a life to someone else. My family as well as my victim’s family were shattered after the incident. So, if I can save another family, it would be nice.” 

- P Sukumaran

After getting parole, he found a recipient from a poor family who was a match. But there were no laws supporting organ donation by prisoners. His long battle which began in 2015 extended beyond his parole and eventually in January 2018 resulted in the law changing in Kerala. On April 19, 2018, P Sukumaran successfully donated a kidney and saved a 21 year old woman's life.

"He wasn’t just a donor. He participated in the campaigns to collect money for the treatment. He helps us get medicines and other things for our daughter. He has come wherever we called him without any hesitation. We will be grateful to him till we die." 

-Father of the woman who received the kidney.

Radhakrishnan Nair

Working in Gujarat as a businessman, Radhakrishnan Nair hailing from Kasargod in Kerala,  was so distraught when he saw birds dying following tree-felling for a road project 6 years ago that he contacted Akira Miyawaki, a renowned Japanese botanist, famed for restoring native forests on degraded soils. 

Learning from him, Nair grew his first little forest in Umbergaon, Gujarat. The quick regrowth got him a call from the state of Maharashtra to do something similar on a chemical dumping yard. That land is now a forest with 32,000 trees and plenty of birds.

The next call he received resulted in an island being created on water for the Chhattisgarh government, containing over one lakh trees. Since then hes created forests in Andhra Pradesh, Bengal and Rajasthan too. Till date, RK Nair has planted over six lakh trees across seven states.

His most recent project was the Pulwama Shahid Vann, creating a forest of 40,000 trees in 40 days for the martyrs of the Pulwama attack. 

Shaik Saleem

With temperatures reaching as high as 40 degrees, Hyderabad is one of many places in India that struggles during the summer. Auto-driver Shaik Saleem too would get dehydrated while on the job as ferried passengers throughout the day. 

Realizing everyone else was suffering just like him, he attached a water cooler and two 20-liter cans of water to his auto, serving cold water to everyone - not just his passengers - for free. 

“I once came across a couple of daily wage workers looking to quench their thirst after a hard day’s work. So, I just offered them some water. They asked me how much it was, but when I told them it was free, they thanked me for the gesture. Their reaction made me feel good and gave me more reasons to continue what I am doing.” 

- Saleem, auto rickshaw driver

Heroes of Kindness:

Since 2017, every year, I take up the #BlogchatterA2Z & #AtoZChallenge and focus on showcasing lovely real-life heroes from around the world. The aim is to remind you that there is still plenty of good human beings all around you... to inspire you to smile once more.

You can follow my 2020 Edition of Heroes of Kindness here.

Want more stories of compassion? I have Hundreds of 'Heroes of Kindness' to brighten your day here:

2017 edition (Articles - 40, Heroes - 67)

2018 edition (Articles - 34, Heroes - 52)
2019 edition (Articles - 31, Heroes - 42)

Heroes of Kindness - Indian edition
Heroes of Kindness - My Interviews