Coming Alive

Decades ago, the Bee Gees released a popular album called Staying Alive. They sang:

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive / Well now, I get low and I get high ... Somebody help me, yeah / Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me, yeah / I'm stayin' alive.

The lyrics came to one’s mind while reading about Akanksha’s JGW 09 event. Akanksha, a NGO working with vulnerable children in Mumbai, to ensure they lead a life of dignity even if they are on the streets, had an event called Be the Change: Come Alive. Held on the 2nd of October, the concept fitted in beautifully with Gandhiji’s “Be the Change you want the world to be.”

Basically, Akanksha tried to inspire “people to reach out to others they would normally not interact with by engaging in activities they are passionate about”, and in the process helping them to Come Alive. Infected with energy and enthusiasm, both the volunteers (357 of them) and the participants came alive through varied activities as dancing, singing, staging street plays, playing with animals, photography etc.

The participants learnt a lot in the process and overcame their inhibitions to participate wholeheartedly in sharing their passion and in the process, making the world a better place, because for those few hours they were all people who were alive and as Thurman says “the world needs people who are alive.”