A couple of weeks ago, we were in Hindu College. It was a mad rush generated by events happening there. Commerce Festival, Statistics Festival, Pearl Academy Workshop and so on; and a lot of stalls were being put up. We too had one, to share about our upcoming engagement at Youth Alliance. Each of us in the campus, were working hard in isolation with our own cause/reason. Wanting more and more people to come to our side and engage in the transaction we had on offer, feeling scarce about those who had already come.

So, the college campus was all abuzz with so much activity, so much rush, so much festivities. But somewhere we were feeling scarce that we are not able to engage with enough people. And then it occurred to us, what if others are also feeling scarce. What if in all this rush, there isn't joy. What if in all the talk, there's isn't a non-conditional connection. And then we made a shift in us, to begin with. And something happened and we decided to do Free Hugs. Right there. Right then.



Placards were made immediately. And we humbly decided to take the plunge. To just trust and raise the placard. Since the conviction to do free hugs originated in me, I couldn't back off and feel under-confident. So I just decided to do it. Having raised the placards above my head, I was in two minds. Whether to wait or to approach others whose eye I meet. First couple of them, were difficult on the inside. I literally went ahead and offered a hug. There was a language beyond the two words written on the placard. And when the language started connecting, it was effortless.



A while later, one came. One another came. Then a group of girls came to hug us. They wanted to stay but weren't sure whether they wanted to hug others. But by then, it was all flowing. Amidst all the business, there was love, unconditional blossoming. Without any strings attached. And as some of us, felt tired. 4 girls out of nowhere joined. Everybody loves pictures, lots of them were being clicked. A lot of people asked us, why are we doing it? What will you get? Am I supposed to just hug? Our answer was smile sometimes, sometimes, just like that, sometimes we would point to their smile and say this is why we are doing it. Really. We were doing it, because we want to.

And I guess, sometimes its just that love that is needed to move someone's heart. We tend to think too transactional and don't trust enough.

Posted by Shashank Kalra on Apr 3, 2015 | permalink