Today I met a real hero.

Saurabh, a young naval Commander, came to my office this afternoon to understand the nuances of a contract. He wanted to clear some of his long standing doubts on the subject with specific reference to a particular case and I was only too pleased to oblige.

After going through the official work that he'd come for I'd casually asked him as to why he was sporting a crepe bandage on his right wrist. His answer was something that I was not expecting at all. About five years back, he was stricken with Dengue fever. His platelet count continued to be abysmally low over a period of time, that his doctor had almost written him off! He tried quite a number of variations in his intake of medicines and diet and he claims that the most effective of the entire gamut was the course of 'freshly germinated wheat grass' that he went for. He claims he has come a long way from those bad days and has calmly accepted the harsh fact that frequent pains around his joints were something that he'd to live with. To reduce the intensity of the pain, he wears appropriate caps/crepe bandages around his joints and even around his waist to support his backbone, during winters.

And mind you, during his student days at the Delhi University, he used to play cricket with the likes of Maninder Singh, L Sivaramakrishnan and others for his college. Saurabh is all of 42 years of age and is currently staying here, at Delhi, with his wife and two sons.

Throughout our interaction this afternoon, what was most striking was the positive manner in which he looked at life in general and his all pervading cheerful nature. He's instantly become my hero and here's wishing that he goes far ahead in life shedding the pains completely!