Mumbai kids win honours at National Bravery Awards

In a city known more for its callousness towards crime victims, the national award for bravery announced recently for two Mumbai children comes as a pleasant surprise.
The two children, Chinmay (10) and Charu (7), are siblings and students of Blossoms School, and they are being feted for their bravery exhibited during a chain-snatching bid on a Mumbai local train, on April 10.
That day, the two kids, accompanied by their mother, Neha Sharma, were going to Dadar. At Bombay Central station, two men entered the ladies'' compartment and began snatching the chains and purses of the women inside. When one tugged at Neha''s purse, her daughter Charu (who holds a brown belt in karate) grabbed his hand and started fighting him.
During the fight, the man repeatedly beat Charu and even slammed her on the ground, trying to push her out of the compartment, yet she refused to let go of his hand. When the man in question found himself in trouble, he brandished a knife. Rushing to his sister''s aid, Chinmay bit the man''s hand, who dropped the knife.
There was complete pandemonium in the compartment when the train stopped at Mahalaxmi, and the women began rushing out. The siblings chased the men out of the train but they managed to escape. Recalls Charu, displaying the scars on her hand, "Regardless of the risk to my life, I just didn''t want to allow any man to get away by robbing my mom in front of me. I think it''s plain wrong to give up a fight when you''re in the right, and allow some wrong to take place."
The kids believe in doing their bit whenever possible. Charu believes in helping out people in distress whenever possible. In February, Charu was in Delhi, when on an escalator, a woman fell down, and got stuck in the moving escalator. Charu grabbed the woman and struggled to pull her out, while Chinmay rushed down and with the help of a man, located the escalator switch, and put it off.
While Chinmay prefers being modest about his achievements, his mother feels that the award would be a great encouragement to the two children to keep up the good work.
Neha says, "The children are so young, and it''s nice to see that they have done us proud already. Hopefully, with this kind of recognition, more children will emulate them, and become better citizens." Bravo!