THE HERO
Parents of children who were saved by fisherman Abdul Sattar flocked the Triveni Kala Sangam on Wednesday afternoon to greet Abdul Bhai, who rescued most of the children in last week's school bus tragedy.
Abdul was awarded the Times Hero Award by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson, Najma Heptullah. "I see a God in this man," said Raj Kumari Devi, whose ten year-old son, Arun, was rescued by him. "This man emerged like an angel. None of us knew swimming.We did not know how to reach the scene of the accident, which was in the middle of the river,"said Arun's father.
Chand Sharma was another happy soul. Her two sons were saved by Sattar. Chand says,"We were helplessly roaming about on the riverbank, while this man was struggling to save my children. I shall never forget the contribution of this man to our life. We go to the temple, but these are the true Gods amongst us. I wish I could give him every little belonging that I have. He is great."
Abdul Sattar is a simple fisherman. He has spent twenty five years of his life worrying over his daily meal, what he wears and a fixed dwelling unit for his family. But the man made a mark when the recent school tragedy occurred in Yamuna. He saved the lives of most of the children, who were drowning in the river.
In fact, he emerged as a hero in the middle of the tragedy. Suddenly the whole world, the anxious parents, the confused policeman, the media and the various recue operations, were all after this man, who in a mad zeal had dived into the water to pull out the endangered children. "I was not tired. I found great satisfaction in the fact that I could do something for the children who were battling for their lives. I could not sit back, while they were helpless and dying."
Brought up on the banks of the Yamuna, Abdul Sattar spent his childhood swimming across the river. " The most fantastic days were when the river was flooded. We would jumpwith joy and play in the water. Hordes of women and children would struggle around in the water and try and wade out on to the banks. We children used to jump in to help them out. But then, at that time in my life, I did not know what a tragedy meant. The flood was fun. The crowd looked exciting. In theses forty years, I never saw such a tragedy. When I was trying to rescue them there was no fun anymore. My wife and children were in tears."
Sattar lives in Jagatpur village. All his life, he dreamt of a decent life on the banks of the Yamuna. "Yamuna is my heart. Yamuna has been my life always. I became a fisherman as my father was in this profession. I have a leaking boat. I spend my days and nights in netting fish," he says. " God could have given me this money on some other occasion. But Unfortunately, I became a hero at a moment when hundreds of parents were crying for the little ones, who will never come back home. Life is an irony. Life is so unfair."
Q 1.) How did Abdul Sattar spend his childhood?
Q 2.)What was Abdul Sattar awarded with ?
Q 3) What did Chand Sharma have to say regarding Abdul Sattar?
Q 4)Why do you think Abdul Sattar finds the heroic moment "an irony"
Q 5)Pick out a word from the passage which is the antonym of:
a)scatter
b)disinterest
Q6.Pick out a word from the passage which is the Synonym of:
a)crowd
b)conscience
No comments:
Post a Comment