Ugrás a fő tartalomra

That’s when it became clear that I can be a hero, too…

Who do we consider to be heroes and why? For their acts, their qualities, their courage or their clothing? Often when we talk about heroes, superheroes, doctors, firefighters or policemen come to our mind. This story shows the heroism of an ordinary person.

My story goes back to when I was 18, and I lived in a condominium where a Russian lady, called Irina lived in the last flat. We were close to each other; her husband was even our distant relative. One day I noticed a lot of smoke coming from their flat. I ran to open the door and saw that their oven caught on fire and Irina was laying on the ground unconscious.

I had to act immediately; there was no time to hesitate in that situation. I poured water on the oven, I dragged Irina out of the flat and called the firefighters, who came and put the fire out. It’s important to add, that in case of a disaster, if the flat had blown up, more residents could have got hurt. While on my way to the flat, I kept thinking that I had to act so that no one would get injured. When Irina woke up, she was in tears, thanking me for my help.

For a long time, I didn’t think of the story as a feat. I thought it was natural to act in that situation like I did. 15 years have passed since then, when I applied to the trainer training held by the Independent Theatre Hungary, and there we were talking about heroes. We discussed who we think of as a hero and why. Our own heroes and heroism were put into focus. Someone asked the question: „When were YOU a hero?” – that’s when I remembered this incident and it became clear that I can be a hero, too…

Ferenc Varga 


Megjegyzések

Népszerű bejegyzések ezen a blogon

We Are Unstoppable

What does family, parents and siblings mean to us? What do we do for our family members and what does the family do for us? How can we help each other in life? My story is about my younger brother, I consider him a hero in my life. Gábor is a simple man with a huge heart who is very honest and enduring. His endurance in work makes him a real hero. He works 16 hours five days a week as a cook; he gets up every morning and goes to work because that’s his job. He was 18 when he got a great opportunity to work abroad as a chef, naturally making much more money than here, at home. Had he accepted it, his life would have changed radically, but he didn’t want to leave me and our mom alone. It is just the three of us and we would never leave each other. He has superhuman strength. He moved in with Mom who had to be cared for because of her health, but we never felt that is a burden; we are one and everyone does their bit without complaint – Gábor works, Mom takes care of the household, I s...

Be better than the others! – Dijana Pavlovic in conversation

The actress, now living in Italy but coming from the former Jugoslavia, had given up socio-political activism for a while as she had experienced too many losses because of her activism. She wanted to be ‘just’ an actress. However, she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the injustice both in her homeland and in the country of her choice, to the communities left alone, to the stories never told. Her play presented at the festival,  Speak, my life!, shows the decades-long genocide of Jenish people in Switzerland, which was surrounded by dead silence, through the eyes of the author Mariella Mehr, who herself was one of the victims. As an activist, Dijana fights against the discrimination that Roma communities face and strives to establish and put into action the European Roma Institute, the goal of which is to promote the creation and dissemination of works by Roma artists. In all her life, Dijana have found it important to fight instead of pitying herself whenever she faced any challe...

If you can’t find a book, write it yourself! – Richard R. O’Neill in conversation

The Hungarian premier of the play ‘ The Hardest Word’ by the British writer and storyteller took place at Roma Heroes Festival. The story is about a Scottish woman who gets it into her head to force the first minister to apologise for the centuries-long discrimination of Scottish travellers. His other play, ‘ The Management Reserves the Right’ focuses on the everyday practice of Scottish barmen not letting Traveller guests enter the pub. The heroes of his plays, just as Richard himself, turn to other people as equal partners with smiling firmness – no matter whether the other is the first minister or the barman. Richard believes that  –  even in hard times  –  it is indispensable to keep our sense of humour and respect each other: that is how we can get on. Books and writing have outstanding importance in Roma and Gypsy communities: the world will get to know our point of view, our children will find plays or even tales portraying their own culture only if we ...