Real Life Story of Tripura's Super Hero Swapan Debbarma
Sukla Singha
If you'd watched his interview on PB-24, you would realize how down-to-earth the man is. While the newsroom was flooded with good wishes and applause for his extraordinary act of saving more than two thousand passengers on a June afternoon, the hero sans a cape (title courtesy: Virender Sehwag) and a so-called 'linguistic sophistication' was only quietly listening to the umpteen number of phone calls pouring in at the studio.
But trust me, all this while, HE didn't blush even for once! It was as if he was pondering about why the people of Tripura were suddenly going gaga,congratulating, appreciating and showering him with all love, affection and attention, addressing him as their superhero, wanting to meet him, hug him and even finance his daughter's education! Why? Because perhaps our man didn't even realize what a saviour really meant. Because perhaps he didn’t know saviours are to be hero-worshipped. Because perhaps he was just being one without any brouhaha!
He didn't want any recognition or bravery award from anyone. He didn’t even want to go find food for his hungry family on that humid afternoon. All he wanted was to alert the people on the passenger train, of the impending danger. And he did that with whatever stuff he had access to at that point of time. He couldn't afford to wear a wrist watch but still could guess the exact time of the train's arrival. In fact, instead of moving ahead in the woods, he chose to stay back with his little daughter and never lost sight of the broken railway track. He didn't carry a mobile phone that could give and take lives through a WhatsApp ping, but flaunted only a torn dusty dirty old magic towel sans jingoism and vote bank politics. He saved those people, not because he wanted to become a hero in the public eye, but just because he felt he must do so, even if it meant risking his own as well as his little daughter's life. And look at the courageous little one who decided to stand by her father's side!
I wish our hero gets all the recognition and honour that he truly deserves. I wish him a financially stable and peaceful life. I wish his family be healthy and his children receive a good education. I wish he remains this shy and humble. But at the same time, I have my fears too.
What if, in the middle of all such recognitions, awards and applausescoming his way, he becomes a victim of the country's politiscape? What if such newfound material prosperity makes him cut off the umbilical cord with his natural world – forests, hills, rivers,where he grew up and learnt that he doesn’t at all require modern gadgets to keep himself updated about the events of life and death? What if his innocence and simplicity is lost in the hullabaloo of heroism?
I wish he goes on saving hundreds and thousands of lives like this, without caring for his own. I really wish he never realizes his true worth, forthe moment he indulges into that sort of a thing, I fear, Swapan Debbarma –the man who defied death, the saviour, superhero and master magician, would meet Irom Sharmila's fate.
23 June, 2018
Agartala, Tripura.
Author-Bio:
Sukla Singha teaches at a school in Tripura. She can be reached at shukla.singha85@gmail.com