The Power of One

Very often, we tend to forget that even a single person can make a difference. Amongst those who bear testimony to this today is Irom Sharmila, who has been fasting for years, to protest against the Armed Forces Special Act, in Manipur. Her fast gets a mention in the papers off and on and she is force fed. More recently, her silent protest out of the public eye, was given attention because it was linked to the fast undertaken by Anna Hazare who has begun a crusade against corruption. Aung Suu Kyi, the Burmese leader, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King,  are all icons who exemplify the ability of an individual to capture the imagination of millions and with their silent non-violent protest, emerge victorious. All of them of course owe a debt to Mahatma Gandhi for showing them the way to victory through peaceful means.

That is the reason the JGW is held to coincide with Gandhi Jayanthi. By participating individually in acts of giving, we can make a collective and positive difference to society. A single individual has the power to influence millions. Each one of us can harness the power we possess to change ourselves and by extension the world for the better. Let us resolve to do that during JGW 2011. The power of one can be transformed into the power of many. Let us discover within ourselves the power of one.

Anonymous Givers

We hope a wave will sweep across India from the 26th of Sept., to the 2nd of Oct., this year. This wave, we hope, will cut across all barriers and will be truly inclusive as we celebrate the Joy of Giving. This festival takes its inspiration from the ordinary Indian, who has a basic generosity of spirit as is witnessed when we come out in large numbers to help during flood, earthquake, accident or other unfortunate occurences. All those who help at such times fade away into obscurity after having done their bit.

This post is a tribute to some of these anonymous Indians, who have made it their life's mission to share their time, money, skills or other resources to spread some light, hope and joy in the lives of others.

These are the people like AnandKumar and Abhayanand, a Mathematician and DIG of police, who together run the Ramanujan school of mathematics in Bihar, that ensures that the poorest aspirants of IIT are given free coaching every year. There is Muhammed Sharif who ensures that unclaimed bodies are given a decent burial. There is Nur, who releases caged birds in memory of his son who was swept away in a tidal wave. Vandana the founder member of The Banyan, picked up a mentally ill destitute woman off the streets and went on to build up a home for the mentally ill destitute. There is also Vinod Sreedhar, who goes about performing Random Acts of Kindness, one of which is to smile at strangers and pass on some happiness, by asking a rickshaw driver to share a cup of tea with him, after ferrying him.

There are also groups of individuals coming together for a cause. The members of the Rohan Nilay society in Aundh, Pune, for eg. raised a sum of 1.2 lakhs in year by selling their newspapers. This money has been earmarked for the education of the needy.

Singhvi, a CA, in Mumbai has quit his professional practice and made it his mission to green the Yeeor Hills near Thane. Under the Hariyali Project, he spends his own money to buy and nurture saplings. In order that the current generation understands the importance of nurturing the greenery we have, he invites school children each year to plant the saplings during the monsoon.

It is because of our basic nature to help that the response to JGW was widespread. Along with various initiatives underaken by NGOs and corporates to raise funds during the week, what was heartening was that the individual citizen came out in large numbers to ensure his/ her participation in various ways: by volunteering time, skills, money. The spirit of giving seemed to have permeated into the soul of every individual. There was no cynicism here, no expectations and no rules, only humility and joy.

The Power of Giving

Giving impacts our lives in many ways, all of it positive, the most important being that it adds value both to our life and to the one who receives from us. But this positive impact happens only when we give selflessly, without any expectation. Quite often, we carry the burden of expectation even in our giving. We often feel terrible when a friend to whom we have given a gift, forgets our birthday. We expect to be remembered because we have given. This expectation negates the effect of giving, and affects our future relationship with this friend. This is not practcing 'giving' in the way it should be practiced.

An incident Subroto Bagchi (CEO Mindtree) writes about his mother illustrates wholehearted giving beautifully. Bagchi writes of how his mother after finishing her household chores for her big family, would, equipped only with kitchen implements, work very hard to create a garden in the small patch of land in the government quarters where they were housed. It did not bother her that she would not be around to enjoy the benefit of her hard labour or see the flowering plants, for by then they would have moved house. For her the joy was in creating a beautiful environment and giving of herself with zero expectation.

Such joyous giving does not come easy to most of us and has to be practiced. Giving has to become a way of life and those who don't recognise its inherent presence in their lives, must learn to do so. One of the ways to do this is to think less about our feelings and ourselves and more about others: praise your co-worker, give up a seat for the tired person in the bus, smile at the man selling pens in the local train, share a cup of tea with the household help, help the kids kick a ball, leave the public toilet clean for the next person, cook your partner's favourite meal. Numerous are the ways in which we learn to give and the result would be the same : to enrich our lives and to turn us into more contented individuals. When we practice 'giving' consciously and constantly, we will reach that stage of giving where we give totally of ourselves with no expectations and like Subroto Bagchi's mother we would be able to embrace death courageously in the satisfaction of having lived a full and fulfilled life. Let us "Go Kiss the World".