I am no messiah by Sonu Sood with Meena K Iyer. Penguin Random House. Pages 256. Rs 399
Book Title: I am no messiah
Author: by Sonu Sood with Meena K Iyer.
Renu Sud Sinha
The lad from Moga finally found his ultimate calling in Mumbai on April 15, 2020, having landing in the tinsel town some 20 years earlier and carving out a hard-fought/won career in the film industry in between.
Till the pandemic struck, Sonu Sood, our homegrown superstar, thought his destiny was written only on the silver screen. The qualified engineer had already once indulged in the ‘lunacy’ of wanting to be an actor after spending four years acquiring a professional degree.
In a new book ‘I Am No Messiah’, co-authored by Meenu K Iyer, the star, however, confesses that stardom was not what fate ultimately had in store for him. “I found my karma on the streets of Mumbai during the lockdown after the Covid-19 pandemic, when I went to distribute food packets to migrants.”
Two weeks into the lockdown, he had already heard his conscience’s clarion call and handed over a six-storey building, he owns, to the authorities for the use of health workers. But the man of action that he is, he wanted to do more. So, on a mid-April morning, he set out to do just that, comforting himself with “doing the soul-cleansing service of distributing food among the migrants, who were meant to walk”.
But the sea of despairing humanity that gathered at Kalwa Chowk, Thane, threw him off-balance. Their stoic acceptance made him question himself whether a food packet was any substitute or compensation for a weary tread back home.
The book is an account of what started as a one-off food distribution gesture but triggered a chain of events that has now become a life-long commitment. From an initial bus ride for 350 migrants to Karnataka to arranging international flights for Indians stranded across various continents, Sood has sent home over 1.5 lakh people.
Barely sleeping three hours daily, Sood and his dedicated Ghar Bhejo team responded to almost every message received on Twitter, Insta, FB, mail, texts, and even through word of mouth. There were hundreds who arrived at his doorstep seeking help. And not all messages were for a ride home — from seeking medical help to tuition fee, Sood and his volunteers have worked tirelessly to provide help.
And he hasn’t abandoned his extended family after providing them a safe passage home. Sood has set up a charity foundation and launched various websites and apps such as pravasirojgar.com and Ilaaj India to provide education, skills, jobs, medical care to this family which is growing by the day. Tying up with over 50,000 doctors and a large number of hospitals all across India, his foundation has got done over 600 pro bono surgeries.
Benefactors of his unwavering generosity may have named their babies and businesses after Sonu Sood, but there are many others who have trolled the title and questioned the timing of this hurriedly written book. There are other jarring notes as well. The narrative is full of homilies and the ‘quotable’ quotes are innumerable, some taken from elementary school curricular resources and even from Pintrest. But then, his acts of charity are humongous enough to overlook an error here or there.
