It's not easy being green...

Men may come and men may go... But only a few leave in us an impact so deep that you start following them unconsciously. In this post, I'm planning to talk about a few celebrities who left a deep impact in me not just by the virtue of excelling in their field but by being good individuals and people of character.

Swami Vivekananda
A man with a constant thirst for knowledge who re-discovered and reiterated the fact that Hinduism is not just a religion, but a way of life. I couldn't imagine the will power it takes to hand over a turban and speak with compassion to a stunningly beautiful girl deprived of any dress trying to seduce a man! An excellent orator, a great thinker, a man of values and a role model for so many youngsters who are impregnate with the thirst to achieve something in life.


Narendra Modi
A man who proved that it takes just the spirit, strong will, interest, inspiration, motivation and perseverance to really make an almost worn-out engine like an Indian state Government to come back to its full swing with a complete throughput. His guts, planning, versatility and dynamism has become a moral boost to the patriots and a nightmare to corrupt politicians scattered throughout the country. I've already spoken about him and Cho in one of my previous posts -
http://libran-mind.blogspot.com/2008/02/democracy-cho-and-narendra-modi.html

Adolf Hitler
It's quite a surprise to so many that I admire Hitler a lot. Thanks to the allied press - a tyrant, despot, ethnocentric, mass murderer is a common man's view of the Fuhrer. Personally, I believe in weighing everyone on a neutral scale. Hitler's mass murders could never be justified and it's true that so many innocent lives were sacrificed to please his animal instinct. But beyond that Hitler had just so many qualities that are almost absent in any other leader I've seen till date. This tee-totaler, monogamist, vegetarian, patriot who revolutionized the life of a German commoner who suffered horribly after the unreasonable miseries imposed on Germans by the first world war, is blessed with excellent oratory abilities, photographic memory, unbeatable strategy and so many other qualities that are mandatory for any great leader. I've always been amazed by the insight he had on so many topics that were of social, political and economical importance to Germany given that he was a high school drop out who started his life as a painter who marched his way to chancellorship of Deutschland. If alone, he had been blessed with some more humanity, he would've been the best leader of all times and who knows if Germany had won WW II, the heroes and villains would've interchanged positions.

Mother Teresa

Ha ha ha :) Accuse me of being crazy but still both extremes never failed to impress me. Mother is someone who proved humanity alone can elate a human being to Godliness. I couldn't imagine the empathy and the motherliness in someone which can go straight to a leper near a ditch and clean the wounds and worms on the exterior without a sign of embarrassment or revulsion! I'd be surprised if someone's heart doesn't carry this mother who carried every human in her heart.

Prakashraj

A surprise entry in this list and I'm not sure if I can compare him to the great people mentioned above. But nonetheless, he surely has impressed me. Beyond doubt he is a good actor but that's not why he is mentioned here. The way he takes life and lives it is a poetry in itself and when you read his narrations about his life, he justs carries you away with him and the clarity of thought & speech and the whole attitude he has towards life. His interviews, his choice of directors, his movies and every single move of his speaks for him. Even though I don't completely agree with all his ideologies (like atheism for example), I should accept that he really made me admire him. Even the way he explains atheism sounded just so good that for the first time I didn't feel the argument as nonsense.

There are still a few more in the list but this post has already grown a bit too long... May be some other time! :)