Random Acts of Kindness

Lately, I have been watching a lot of these short videos on social media – some of them are social experiments that are conducted to observe how people in a city react to a given situation, while others are videos of life experiences. Oh, I don’t miss out on videos of cute babies and animals either, they are sure to make the coldest hearts melt and bring a smile on your lips.

A video I was deeply moved by, was of a girl talking about life in North Korea. I didn’t realize things were this bad! This 14-year-old girl has gone through a lot from seeing her friend’s mother executed….guess for what!! Her fault was watching a Hollywood movie, while it is prohibited in that part of the world. She has also seen her father dying and her mother getting raped by a Chinese guy who was helping them escape!

My heart went out to this little girl who couldn’t stop crying while addressing a gathering and sharing her experience and beseeching people to become aware and spread the awareness, hoping for a change, someday…. It also made me realize how lucky we are and there’s so much that we need to be thankful for! I hope and pray, for a great future for this girl and her countrymen.

I also came across the video of a social experiment conducted somewhere in Oslo, where a small boy was made to sit in a bus stop, on a freezing morning without any warm clothes. Strangers readily peeled out their pullovers, scarves, gloves and jackets to help keep the little boy warm. I particularly remember this one guy, who did not hesitate to get rid of the only piece of warm clothing he had, to help the boy, while he himself braved out the cold in a short sleeved shirt. I was moved by this random act of kindness….and my faith in humanity was a little restored.

What would YOU have done if you had been in a similar situation?

We often experience such waves of kindness from family and friends. But how about the kindness shown by strangers? How many times do we experience this and yet forget these incidents when we get pulled into the mire of day-to-day life? I agree, we are all fighting our own battles in our lives. However, a small act of kindness from our end can make a huge difference to someone else. Unfortunately, very often, we don’t ACT!

Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing. – Rumi

A lot of us do our bit, maybe sponsor a child, spend time at orphanages, ‘help’ a family member or friend when they are in need etc. By all means keep doing that and more…. But let’s also be a little more sensitive and aware of things happening around us and when you think you can help someone, don’t hesitate or ignore that nudge your conscience gives you.

We are all blessed to be enjoying technology. The internet has revolutionized our lives…it was unfathomable a few decades back that we could be in touch with people across geographies or watch what’s happening to a stranger in Oslo or North Korea by sitting in the comforts of our homes. But anything in excess is not good, isn’t it??

When I step out of my house, I notice that most of us are busy staring at our cell phone screens or watching videos or worse playing some game on our phones! If we continue giving all our time and attention to our smart phones, we are bound to miss out on these opportunities to do something for another person, standing a few feet away from us!

Just go out, spend time away from your phones. I know you’ll start reasoning and explaining how you are expecting that important call or email and so you cannot afford to stay away even on a weekend. Let me be a little in your face and tell you, you are not all that indispensable. I’m not asking you to ignore your work or your other commitments, all I am saying is, take a couple of hours out every day, during which you live gadget-free (letting the Television or music play in the background is not allowed either!)

Let us all vouch to spend some time away from our screens (I repeat, all gadgets), look around, smile at people (yes, even strangers). And if you ever see me hooked to my phone, while missing out on what’s happening around, feel free to nudge me and remind me to practice what I preach!