Aping He-Man hurts

(He-Man)

The recent Indian blockbuster films, Dhoom 3 and  Krrish 3, became the talk of the town. I heard almost everyone talking about the fascinating stunts in both films. Thankfully, there was no news about kids getting hurt trying those stunts.

I was worried about it, because I’ve heard many incidents of children who have hurt themselves while practising dangerous stunts that were performed by superheroes like He-Man, Spiderman and Superman in cinema.

Some of those incidents still linger in my memory.

I can’t forget the one involving a child who used to live with his parents and elder sister in a high-rise building.

He was always in search of a chance to try the stunts performed by his favourite He-Man. Once his parents were out and his sister was sleeping.

He realised this was the chance he was waiting for and leapt out of the window just like He-Man. Many people came to his rescue but he got badly hurt.

Recently, our teacher was narrating a story similar to this one. She said, “A boy was captivated by the stunts of He-Man and always wanted to try them. One day he jumped out of the bus thinking he would land safely but unfortunately had a hard landing on the road.”

“He lay there unconscious with a cut chin, a broken tooth and a fractured hand. Luckily for him, an ambulance was passing by, which carried him to the hospital where he had to stay for almost a month,” she concluded.

I also remembered my cousin who at that time was in the first standard and had just begun to read comics. One day, he came across a comic book of He-Man and was extremely fascinated by the stunts. He too wanted to try them out. He, therefore, climbed up on the cupboard and jumped down.

The moment he landed on the floor, he fell unconscious, his legs were numb and his hand was fractured. Fortunately, he was alright soon.

Hope every child will realise that those stunts are performed by experts who learn the tricks for years before enacting them in front of cameras.

(Published in The Gulf Today on January 18, 2014)