Alert Awards 2025-- Acts of Selflessness Being Recognised--

 

A small break from my Gratitude series—

This post is also in a way Gratitude to several heroes. 

The Alert Award 2025 stayed true to its character of bringing out great acts of selflessness that reflect acts of kindness performed without any personal gain or benefit. From a total of 349 application that were received, to prune to less than 15 or so must have been a tough act for the Jury that did that job for the Alert Awards 

Some of the acts and the awardees are listed below:

The first of the awardees were the Conductor and Driver of Kerala Road Transport who showed extraordinary presence of mind to rush a pregnant lady who nearly delivered the child in the bus to a hospital that they had just passed by. The lady did deliver the child in the bus but was taken care by the hospital staff. It was a  sight to see a Government bus in the lobby of the hospital and medical help rushing in to the bus (CCTV had captured this). 

The next one is about the JCB operator (PWD) who took to flood waters to reach nine people stranded on a bridge which was getting flooded and with water levels increasing. Having failed in his first two attempts to get through the water, for the third time, he decided either he will get them or he will go  with them in the water. He was able to reach them through his JCB and bring all of them to safety. 

The next one is about a nurse who volunteered to cross over a landslide created river filled with slush, mud and raging water through a zip-line. Several people on the other side needed medical assistance. Although the call was for a male nurse, she took the decision to cross over and was able to save 35 people with her first aid and attention. This was at  Wynad. 

Mahesh Shelke saved a child who had fallen in the platform against an onrushing express train. Mahesh, a Railway employee was on duty when the child slipped and fell in to the track (the visually challenged mother could do nothing) Mahesh raced down the tracks and was able to pull the child and himself out on to the platform in the nick of time. The time between him scrambling on to the platform and the train passing through was 1.17 secs. The CCTV at the station captured this whole incident. Mahesh showed extreme courage and all he wanted to do was to save the child. He says “I thought , would I allow this to happen my daughter ?  and then there was no second thought. 

The next one is about an old couple who in the middle of the night heard a big thud and found a tipper lorry overturned and fallen on to the Railway track. Quickly aware that a train passing by could get in to a disaster , they ran on to the track with just a torch light to stop an oncoming train. How brave was that of them ?  Luckily due to track maintenance , the train was travelling at reduced speed and the train driver noticing the two people rushing towards the train, stopped the train in  time. This probably saved a terrible accident that could have occurred and affected several lives. The old couple just had words saying that they did nothing – they just wanted to save several lives at risk and were willing to put their own lives in danger. This act was widely covered in the Internet and the couple were recognised by the CM of TN state. 

I have just called out these – there were others who displayed the same valour ,courage and acts of kindness.

All of them displayed 

  1. Great act of Selflessness
  2. No one asked them to do what they did but they were ready all the time
  3. They did not worry about what would happen to them – they worried for others
  4. They were simple human beings who did extraordinary acts
  5. I do believe there was a divine intervention in what they did
  6. They did not look for recognition – they just moved on 

Alert does a stupendous job in identifying, bringing these real life heroes to the forefront and deserves huge kudos for what they do. This is the 8th Annual edition and such great work by the Alert team to keep this going annually. 

At this award function, two programs supported by CSR of Ford was launched  -- 1. A  learning module that will train people on first aid and emergency response was launched 2.  A Bot developed in WhatsApp that can be used as ready reckoner in case of emergency. One needs to chat to get details. Both these are cool tech leveraging  developments that will enhance the cause for which Alert exists. Ford CSR team rocks 😊 

To me personally, it was just as it was in the previous years - a grounding. humbling  experience. I did write in my last blog on this topic, your eyes will be moist as you watch these stories, but this year, tears came through - My wife kept telling me to be normal but I could not … And it is ok to show these tears….Each story was so emotional and it was true (not a movie climax)…

A Saturday morning well spent .. 

May this tribe of Selfless people continue to grow in our community !

You can watch the awards here—

https://youtube.com/live/hrfJcD6EIWI

Comments

Padmashree said…
Thank you for sharing Sri, all the stories are heartwarming and humbling:)
8:07 AM
Laxmi Bitra said…
The best blog Sri, kudos to the Real life Heros....... and Spl Thanx to ALERT for bringing this stories to inspire others.
8:44 AM
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