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| Image Courtesy: @NobelPrize |
The Nobel Peace Prize for this year was announced this week, and just like culture and history India and Pakistan now share a Nobel between them. The announcement is iconic in a lot of ways but very well deserved. Both the Nobel laureates continue to lead the world and act as shining lights in the lives of many in the world.
But, winning the Nobel doth not maketh a good leader, does it? So what is it in Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay that makes people follow them? Courage. A lot of courage.
From the day Malala was shot by the Taliban to the first day that Kailash saved the first child from bonded labor, they have done little else but spread the word of peace, education and human rights. Both are ridding the world of vices that take childhood away from kids and throw them into a world that they are not ready for - that the children should not be facing. Both, Malala and Kailash, are heroes.
There is something else they do though. They lead. Even against all odds and no one giving them a chance of being successful, they lead from the front and make sure that girls get a chance to education (in the case of Malala Yousafzay) and that children do not spend their early years, full of innocence, in bonded labor or being exploited (in the case of Kailash Satyarthi). They fight stereotypes. They fight regimented efforts by their own people to do the worst you can do to another human - ignore them. They fight, though, with peace and love and forgiveness. And they fight not for themselves, but for others. Oh, wouldn't Mahatma Gandhi be proud?
Both the newly honored Nobel laureates also teach a very valuable lesson. Instead of accepting the status quo or giving up due to adversity, sometimes we need people to say, in the words of Kailash Satyarthi:
If not now, then when? If not you, then who?Great words of a great human being. This week and forever, the world salutes and thanks these heroes of humanity.
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