By Jagdesh Singh | Opinion |
Many times in life, you tend to get messages from the universe about your journey here in this plane of existence as a human. For me, I interpret these light bulb moments as teachings from my Guru and Master. They would come in any manner at any time. A conversation with a child or with an old friend. Lyrics from a song that you hum. Or even from a movie dialogue or plot.
Allow me to share two light bulb moments that came to me, as always, unexpectedly, these past two weeks.
The World Cup 2026 held in the US, Mexico and Canada. The narrative was set that Lionel Messi was the deserved winner in the prior installation of the World Cup four years earlier in 2022. Argentina and Messi entered into the tournament as favorites again. His genius and mastery, idolized by millions, including myself. He was a hero.
Somehow, by the end of the tournament, this narrative pivoted into the opposite direction. I witnessed this swift change myself, with my social media feed bombarded by opinions that rapidly snowballed this change. Suddenly, as if a curtain was peeled away, half the world realized that maybe, just maybe, Messi and Argentina have been assisted by the powers that be (FIFA in this case) in their ascent in the footballing world, and into the Finals of the tournament. And this was demonstrated quite blatantly as well.
Messi, from beloved hero, transformed into a despised villain. Argentina became cheats and sore losers. Whether this was the honest truth or not, there were millions of cameras at the stadiums, broadcasting videos and images to even more millions of eyes around the world that made it almost impossible to refute as propaganda. He is a villain.
The Odyssey is a movie directed by Christopher Nolan with a stellar cast of actors and actresses. It’s the retelling story of Odyseus, the wily intelligent warrior king of Ithaca and his journey home after the Trojan war. You might have heard of the Trojan Horse and how it was used by the Greeks to win the war ultimately. The Trojan Horse was the brainchild of Odyseus and thus made him a hero for the Greeks. This made him arrogant and his hubris angered the Gods who wanted to teach him a lesson in humility. After all, he was only human. And so, as punishment, Odyseus gets detoured in his journey home for 20 years. There’s more to the story, of course. His wife and his son, and his people were also part of this epic story. The people at home have heard about his brilliance in winning the war. He was a hero.
Towards the final climatic act, the movie then paints a different perspective from other movies that attempted to tell the same story. It made me take a step back. It was really food for thought. Odysseus’ Trojan horse was deceptive and caused the horrors of war that weighed heavily on his shoulders. He betrayed the law of the Gods where trust, honesty and honor are meant to be upheld. The Trojan Horse was deceptive and malicious more than a brilliant tactic that many celebrated. His guilt made him a villain.
Both these narratives were very similar in that the turn of events drastically changed a hero into a villain.
I’ve always believed that a person’s worth is always based on his or her brilliance that leads to materialistic outcomes. For example, a rich successful businessman because of his or her smartness and hard work. But these narratives are teaching me that it’s not what we are or we do but how we do it. As my Master Baba Nanak has said, “Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living”.
It’s not the outcome that is important. It’s the journey for the outcome – building something honestly and with honor, causing no harm to others – that is the more important path towards being the real hero.
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Jagdesh Singh, a Kuala Lumpur-based executive with a US multinational company, is a father of three girls who are as opinionated as their mother
* This is the opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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