Great Gesture by RCB: De Villiers and Kohli Change Names on Their Jersey

IPL has finally started after months of postponement. The games are being held without fans in the stadium due to the COVID-19 situation. So far two games have been played and both were quite nail-biting affairs. RCB start their IPL 13 journey today with a match against SRH. Today, the official twitter page of RCB posted a video of AB de Villiers and Kohli with Paritosh Pant and Simranjeet Singh at the back of their jersey.

Who are Paritosh and Simranjeet?

Paritosh Pant and Simranjeet Singh represent those individuals who have helped lessen people’s pain in these trying times. Paritosh is a restaurant owner from Mumbai who fed the needy in the lockdown. He started the initiative “feeding from far” which feeds poor people in the largest dumping ground and slum in Mumbai. So far the initiative has raised Rs 77 lakhs that would be used to feed the people in Govandi, Mumbai.

Simranjeet Singh is another such individual who raised Rs 98,000 to help the poor in the lockdown. Singh who suffers from hearing impairment along with his friends raised this money to help feed the poor. They did not belong to any particular organisations.

Praising the individuals who helped people amid the lockdown as heroes Virat Kohli has this to say, “In the past few months, whenever I heard the stories of the COVID Heroes it has given me literal goosebumps. These real challengers have made the country proud and inspired all of us to be more persistent and dedicated to our efforts to build a better tomorrow. I am truly proud to wear RCB’s “My COVID Heroes” jersey as a sign of solidarity and gratitude to everyone who is right now going the extra mile to support the community at large. They have batted day and night and fought on the field, and I am honoured to call them my heroes.”

Paritosh and Simranjeet are the best of humanity, the true heroes of our times, who have helped others without gaining anything in return. In a time when governments and companies are shrugging responsibilities off of their shoulders, it is people like Paritosh Pant and Simranjeet Sigh who keep the hope for humanity alive. Their work is indeed heroic and any praise would be less.