Kindness 'Drive' in Bangalore

Posted by Rajesh PC on Jun 22, 2013

[Originally Posted by Rajesh PC]

 

It was going to be 3pm on 1st June 2013 and I was still sitting at a friend’s place having some really good discussions. I had promised Madhur that I will meet her soon at Koramangala in Bangalore. I rushed back home as Madhur had asked me to bring the car along for an act of kindness that she had planned. It was called ‘The Kindness drive’. What was it about? Well, driving around the city and offering gifts to our unknown friends on the street. I'm not sure if that made sense to you but it was a bit strange to me as it was not about giving gifts to the needy or poor. The main objective was to make some people on the street happy through ‘A Random act of kindness. To begin with, I was not comfortable with the whole thing as I didn’t know how to go about it – far away from the typical corporate initiatives where things are planned, executed and monitored ;). But I decided to go because I was not comfortable :) Soon I met Madhur, a girl with lot of enthusiasm and a great heart. I told myself that I will just sit back and observe what she does and then follow her without making any judgments on my own. Throughout the day, my mind was bombarding me with things on what was right about this and what was wrong!! Madhur had got a lot of gifts including things like smiley badges, umbrellas, chocolates – the list goes on.

We got into the car and we drove on, the first challenge was to decide where to go!! That was the first time I got into the car without any clue about where to go. We took some roads and stopped at a place go get some water bottles but even after 20 minutes we were still surveying the lanes and streets of Koramangala. We stopped at one place as Madhur wanted to decorate the car – she wanted to do this to create a context for the act of kindness ;) 

Once that was done we were ready to go. The main work was to observe people on the road and on bus stops to see where we can stop. The vehicle went on and all the way we were discussing things like “Hey, how about that man, no, how about those women over there, oopss, we have already crossed them etc”. Madhur finally asked me to stop the vehicle when we saw three girls walking – as usual, I didn’t want to start… She jumped out and asked them if they need a ride. They acknowledged with a smile but declined saying that they were close to their house. After that we saw three women and a kid just getting up from the foot path. They looked like they were tired after a long walk. Madhur asked them and YES!! They had a face lit up with surprise as well as joy. They hopped in and we dropped them at this place called Agara. Madhur offered them an umbrella, water, chocolates and good wishes cards with inspirational messages. We had a nice chat with them in the car and told them about Service Space and the initiative that we were doing. I slowly started experiencing slight joy. I was thinking “This is really strange but its’ working!" We stopped at the next stop and two men asked us as to what we were wearing (the badges and posters that we had adorned us with). We explained things to them and had a nice chat with them about how we often engaged with people through of small acts of unconditional kindness - often using Smile Cards. They said that this was the first time they saw something like this. Both of them were students doing their post graduation. We said good bye after giving them some gifts. Somehow deep inside I knew that something was happening :)



 
The rain was on its’ way and we could see dark clouds above us. It had also started drizzling. People were running to catch the buses and we found it difficult to stop people. Madhur was at her best – I was amazed to find her enthusiasm and boldness in striking conversations with complete strangers – something I need to learn… We moved on and were at a junction where we found this couple looking for an auto. It had started raining and they were getting wet.

We couldn’t cross the road due to the traffic but could see multiple autos zipping past them without stopping. Madhur said “Hope they don’t get those autos :)”.. We moved in and asked them if they would like a ride. They asked us where we were going and we shot back “Wherever you want to go!!”. Could see their shocked faces and they jumped in. We had some great conversations as we did have a lot of time due to the traffic and rains. They both were working with Goldman Sachs and wanted to buy some grocery. They were not able to get any autos and the wife just told the husband jokingly as to whether he expects anyone to give him a lift in this rain… now, that’s when we moved in – what a coincidence or whether it was his wish come true…one will never know!! We dropped them along with some gifts. It was 6pm and we decided to head back. We said that we can pick someone on the way. At the bus stop we saw some young people. As usual, Madhur jumped out and asked them. There was this guy called Jaiganesh who agreed to come to the Forum mall. He was really surprised by this and in our conversations he told that he is a budding film director and is doing a documentary in Chennai. He said that he along with his friends is trying to help a person make a living by buying him a Sugar cane processing machine. This person had lost both his legs in the Srilankan civil war and wanted some form of occupation. We asked him to share his email and details and told him that we will do our best… 

By this time, my emotions had moved from anxiety to joy at the way things were happening so amazingly. I still couldn’t believe how we could connect with random people and still be of help! I dropped Madhur and found something strange in the way I was driving back home – I had started observing the people on the road and especially those at the bus stops! :)
 
 

Posted by Rajesh PC on Jun 22, 2013 | permalink


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  • Harsh wrote ...

    Wow. Inspiring. :)