RPG Young Mindspeak

Age - 9 years
Relation with employee - Nephew of Lalit Amodkar
Company name - KEC International
Location - Vadodara, Gujarat

An act of kindness means to perform an act of contribution, help, or share with someone. The strength of kindness is infinite. Anybody and everybody should be kind without any reason, and this is well-explained in the Bhagwad Gita -

“Datavyam iti yad danam diyate
Nupakrikhe deshe kale cha patre
Cha tad danam sattvikam smritam”

Charity given to a worthy person, at the proper time and in its proper place, simply because it is right to give without wanting in return, is what takes me to my true mode of goodness.

The power of kindness is boundless. According to Aesop’s fable – The Lion and the Mouse – no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. Even some acts that may seem insignificant can also make people happy. As a growing child, I was asked to “go a day without complaining.” I will share an incident about such a day. My mother asked me to eat a meal, but I didn’t because they weren’t my favourite. The same day, my father took us to the mall, where we enjoyed a tasty lunch because I didn’t eat anything that day. I saw a poor family asking for food wastes. They wanted to fulfil their child’s hunger. It made me realise the value of food, and not complain. There are people out there who eat whatever they get simply because they don’t have the option of choosing. I felt thankful to God and with what they praised us.

After this incident, I donated good food to the poor family, and I realized that it made me smile. I have started doing this every Sunday. The strength of kindness is bigger than anything else – it is infinite.

I believe that kindness taught me the most important lesson as a human. It is not hard to be kind and change someone’s day. I find satisfaction in spending time with my grandparents and doing what they enjoy. It makes me happy to remind them how grateful I am for all that they have done for me without expecting anything in return. They have helped with my school tasks, shaped my choices at school, taught life lessons, and most importantly, patiently read my favourite bedtime stories to me as I lay falling asleep.

Finally, the greatest act of kindness I did was being kind to myself. I use kind words to describe myself, and look for reasons to be proud of what I do. I am always trying to be better so I can be proud of myself.

 

Age - 14 years
Name of parent - Benil John
Company name - HML
Location - Wayanad

AN ACT OF KINDNESS

I take a pen in my hand to get an act of kindness on paper as the topic warrants me. I think really, really hard. I can't hit upon any such act that could be defined as kind. Well, for the past one-and-a-half years, ever since the world shut its doors, I had to shut myself from my world – my school. Don’t schools give us ample opportunities to be kind? And now I sense my thoughts drifting, am I an unkind human? I stretch and halt my negative thoughts.

As I contemplate further, I remember an incident that happened around six months ago. It was a fine morning and as I was taking a stroll on the veranda, I saw a tiny greyish yellow bird, almost the size of my palm, with a long narrow beak, lying below my bedroom window sill. Immediately I carried it gently in my hand and took it to my mother. My mother stroked and confirmed that it was dead. They say death is cold but I could feel a warm sensation from the tiny bird on my palm. I refused to believe my mother and told her to bring some water to feed the bird. I was sure it would spring back to life, raise itself, flutter its wings and merrily fly away. It would indeed be my joyous moment. My mother, who didn't want to disappoint me, brought some water. I took the little bird in one hand and with the other poured a drop of water into its mouth. Then I poured another drop and another. There was no movement, no life. I caressed the bird for some time, thinking the warmth of my fingers would comfort it.

Finally, I had to come to terms with the fact that the bird is no more. I couldn't bring myself to throw the bird away, so I decided to give it a decent burial. I dug a small pit at one of the ends of the lawn outside, carefully placed the bird in it, covered the hole with mud and finally placed few petals of a rose flower upon the tiny bird’s grave.

It may not be an act of kindness in its real sense, as I could not give life to the little bird, but that day I could sense an emergence of a painful feeling one creation of God feels for another. Not that there weren’t instances when I did not feel the pain, but this time it was an overwhelming one, which I couldn't restrict for the bird alone.

I always believed kindness was an act as taught to us in school or told to be done by our parents. But after this incident, I realised kindness is an emotion that one should feel and experience and the ensuing deeds would be genuine, coming right from our hearts. It was this very same feeling that made me long for a companion in the form of a pet. Today I have Toby, my little pet dog, with whom for the past five months I have been sharing the warmth I missed from the little bird. Isn't sharing an act of kindness?

Age - 16 years
Name of parent - Paresh Manohar Padhye
Company name - Zensar
Location - Pune

ACT OF KINDNESS

Our world has endured many things over the years. Be it gory wars, wide-spread pandemics, or grave economic crises. Things change a lot during such events and we are left with the only option of adapting to a changed world & living in it.

Covid-19 is one such world-changing event. Our lives were so different two years back, but everything has changed now. Overall, we are experiencing a new-normal. But even in a new-normal world, our core values must remain intact. One of the more important values in them is the virtue of kindness. The world can change umpteen times but kindness, humanity, and gratitude will remain forever.

What exactly is ‘kindness’? Kindness can mean helping others, behaving peacefully, being polite, listening and respecting other’s opinions & values. Kindness doesn’t always mean we have to do big and extraordinary things. It can be demonstrated by ordinary things in everyday life, which don’t cost anything. An act of kindness can be anything - like helping the old and elderly, respecting rules and regulations, being socially polite, feeding birds and animals, etc. Acts of kindness can be aptly defined as selfless acts performed to make others happy. These small acts or deeds have a huge, positive impact on our lives and on life of people around us. Being kind without accepting anything in return is being a real human. The whole world will be a better place if we frequently engage in such acts of kindness.

One of my best experiences of kindness was helping an old couple waiting for a rickshaw. My friends and I saw them and decided to help. We walked to the nearby rickshaw stand and requested the rickshaw driver to pick them up. The smiles on the old couple’s faces were invaluable. We felt very good about ourselves. Such a small act can bring a lot of happiness in someone’s life.

Once I had injured my leg while playing a match. I was having great difficulty walking back home. My friend’s father saw me and gave me a ride home. I was very grateful to him and he also felt good. That’s the power of kindness.

In the entire duration of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people, celebrities, social workers came forward to help the needy. It was heartwarming to see people donating food and other essential items. Frontline workers worked round-the-clock so we could be safe. This is kindness and humanity. These countless large and small acts of kindness relieved troubles greatly.

Kindness isn’t limited to humans only. It should be extended to every living creature. Feeding animals and birds is also a great deed. Although they can’t speak, their expressions show how grateful they are to us.

Kindness can really change our life as it spreads joy everywhere. The pandemic, while it brought us lot of misery, also helped bring out the best moral values within us.

It can it be a compliment or grand gesture, but it is important to be kind to everyone around us.