The Tale of an Ordinary Hero
In the world of media, news and printed press all you hear is about the awful incidents happening all around you. But sometime there comes a surprising yet joyful news that fill your heart with happiness and restore your faith in human goodness. These silver linings provide us hope and motivate us to work towards making this world a better place to live. So when I heard the news about a hero I wanted to share his story and spread the message of compassion.
A teacher by profession Ali Mohammadian became a hero not only in Iran but in the whole world. Ali’s student Mahan Rahimi was suffering from a mysterious disease due to which he lost all the hair on his head. The rest of his classmates and fellow students teased him due to his baldness.
Ali saw the suffering that Mahan was going through. He understood the internal struggle and unhappiness of his student. But he also knew that he couldn’t stop the bullying just by punishing other students. They might not tease Mahan in front of him, but what will keep them from bullying Mahan behind his back?
He decided to do something different and set an example for other students. So he shaved his head. And this simple gesture made him a hero. After this his students not only stopped teasing Mahan but started supporting him. Other students followed Ali’s example and shaved their heads too. Ali decided to take this step because Mahan was very lonely and he was worried about Mahan’s performance in the class. And so he shaved his head, to support Mahan. He considered this his duty as a teacher.
This incredible tale of compassion spread worldwide when Ali Mohammadian uploaded his photo with Mahan on Facebook. The photo was captioned “Our heads are sensitive to hair”. This photo got thousands of ‘likes’ on Facebook. It became a sensation as people started sharing it with their friends. After this he became a celebrity in Iran. The global media is referring to Ali as the “Hairless Hero”. Even the Education Minister of Iran, Ali Asghar Fani invited both Ali Mohammadian and Mahan Rahimi to Tehran for a formal thank you. The Iran government also praised Ali and offered to help Mahan with the treatment and medical bill.
Stories like these remind us that teaching is the greatest profession in the world. A teacher not only holds the power to shape the life of his students but also the destiny of a country. Students nowadays have lost the respect for their teachers that our Indian culture teaches us. We had the great Guru-Shishya tradition that considered teachers equal to God. But now a teacher is just another paid employee. This mindset about teachers could change if we have more teachers like Ali Mohammadian. All the teachers in the world could learn a great lesson from Ali Mohammadian. He is a true hero in every sense of the word.
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