"I am just over-sized"

The job of every security personnel demands them to be tough looking arrogant and ruthless. But it is all part of their profession and Zane Wilmans, Director of Protexx, who has been the security guard of Brett Lee while here in India for the Cochlear campaign, was perceived as no way different.

As I have been associated with Cochlear team for its media engagement programme for the past three years, I have been with the whole Cochlear team and also along with Zane. During the first campaign in 2017, i hardly spoke to Zane, being literally scared of the hefty man. During the second campaign in Trivandrum in 2018, i developed a greeting-each-other kind of relationship with him.

In the current 2019 campaign covering Kochi, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Irinjalakuda, in fact we became good friends. While being with a small group of Cochlear team he had fun and I had a few photo sessions while both of us were on a house boat on Vembanadu Lake.

In our personal talks he expressed his deep concern for Kerala, which has been getting affected by floods as it is the most-sought-after place for him. He was putting across his suggestions like the need to have more canals for the water to flow, stoppage of unscientific construction works by filling up lands and stressed the need to have more dams built, though it is very expensive, in order to avoid such a flood situation in the future.

Basically, Zane is such a humanitarian but he is forced to wear an intimidating mask, as part of his profession, otherwise he is genuinely good at heart, kind, loving and caring. Behind closed doors, he enjoys friendship, company, chats and fun. Towards the end of the 4th day of the campaign, when we all gathered for food, everyone was busy taking selfies with Brett Lee and Zane as keepsakes of the successful 2019 campaign. While a member of Cochlear team took a selfie with Zane and everyone started teasing her that she could no way match up to the size of Zane and she would look diminutive in the selfie, Zane abruptly pitched in, with his amazing instance response, "i am just over-sized." He clearly did not want her to feel awkward and thus, put an end to teasing. 

Zane's description about himself as an over-sized man, points to the fact that he has an over-sized heart as well, with lots of love and care to encompass everyone. A man truly loves others and their life only can become a true security professional, risking his own life for the good of others.