A Detour

Blogging about the Joy of Giving Week is not easy, because there is so much we would like to say that we do not know where to begin. Do we write about the Week specifically, do we focus on stories of giving, do we draw attention to the good work done by CSR s in corporates, do we keep you updated on events, help you with ideas on how you could participate, or do we concentrate on our Brand Ambassadors and the manner in which they help promote the Week ? So many areas and all of it merits equal attention because they are all important aspects that need to be written about. The posts in this blog have at sometime or the other, addressed all these issues and will continue to do so.

However, the one issue that many are curious about is how did the idea of the JGW originate. To this, there is really no clear answer, for no one, not even Give India that co-ordinated the festival last year and will do so this year too, is in a position to clarify this. One would like to think that the concept sprung from one of those Eureka moments. But a Eureka moment comes only when an idea has existed in the subconscious. Perhaps the idea of Joy of Giving Week has been dormant in many of us and just needed somebody to give it a voice. Only that can explain the unprecedented and unforseen popularity of the Week in its very year of inception.

The JGW aims to turn us all for a week at least into people who care and share. For a week we will not be selfish humans looking after our own interests but affectionate humans who can empathise. For a week we will forget the "weariness, the fever and the fret/ Here where men sit and hear each other groan." For a week, we will like Keats was, be transported into a world where the Nightingale sings with pure undulterated joy. Such will be our reward when we participate in the week long festival of giving between the 26th of Sept., and the 2nd of Oct.