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The first thing I noticed when I opened my browser today was Nelson Mandela’s birthday, also called the Mandela’ Day. A man who revolutionized the racial system in Africa. One is the greatest heroes the world has ever seen. He has received more than 250 honours and the winner of Nobel Peace prize, a man very well deserved right

On his birthday we bring out an incident from his life which makes us feel so strongly about him:

The man who strived hard for the rights and against racial discrimination of blacks spent 27years of his life in jail and he was 71 years old when released from jail. Here are his words from an interview when asked about his imprisonment: “Our spirit has been enriched. I come out of this with fresh ideas. There is a desire on both sides, blacks and whites, to reach a settlement. We want to establish a non-racial society in South Africa.”

This caught me thinking of emotional imbalance a person could undergo in this phase of life. Imagine, a man who was imprisoned for 27 years of his life, stripped off from his freedom at the prime age of his life where most of us would be battling the ideas of a family. And the moment he is released, these are the words he chooses to utter.

We have heard of a lot of incidents where people in jail upon released either exact revenge or kill themeselves unable to handle the emotional and social pressure. But here was a man for whom there was something bigger, something larger and he decides to look at it from a completely different view. We have always maintained that winners don’t do different things but do things differently but I guess in this case, there is a slight exception to the rule where a man does it both different and differently!

It is said that the true character and dignity of a man is known at a time where he faces adversity and this is one man who deserves complete respect for everything he is.

Taking the cue from him, if we put ourselves in his place fighting the emotions each day, holding on to hope when it feels to be drowning, keeping the spirits high to survive would have been like an impossible task. Imagine the mental trauma you experience, we would probably decide to kill the ones responsible for this or even feel like killing ourselves. Sounds scary! But look at what the man did. He reached out to the same people who were responsible for jailing him and got along with his supporters to fight harder for their rights.

When we see failures or things not working out as desired we feel low, exhausted, helpless, and terrible and also come up with questions like “Why am I even doing this?”. Well, I guess it is in those moments where a few people have to be remembered and those are the ones who have written and rewritten history each time.

Happy Bday to Nelson Mandela :)

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