Kindness

When my daughter was a young school going kid, we lived a pretty nomadic life, moving places almost every year and consequently changing neighbourhoods and schools. My biggest concern during all these moves was how she was adjusting with the new classmates, how the new teachers were and how she would build bonds with the new neighbourhood children. Most times she would allay my fears holding my face in her tiny hands and say that, "They are kind". That was her way of reassuring me that all's right with the moves and all's right with the world. Over the years, this became the benchmark to gauge any new scenario, whether it was a new hostel, new college, new internship, new job et al. Every new situation she found herself in, I always asked her teasingly, "Are they kind?!" This was mostly always in jest from the time she entered her teens and she would roll her eyes sometimes or laugh self-consciously! They say children know instinctively how the people around them are and are pure enough to vocalize it. That phrase, "They are kind", which she used as a kid, has always stayed with me. 

Today I dread reading or seeing the news. It's like Humanity is just not catching a break. Everywhere we turn or look there's uncertainty, unrest, cruelty, senseless murders, terrorist acts, cross border troubles, earthquakes, cyclones, oil spills, locust swarms...disaster after disaster-some Nature driven troubles and many man-made ones. The first half of the year 2020 is easily the worst year in our collective memories. It seems like a never ending, badly scripted science fiction combined with humongous and Jumanji-uesqe challenges. Will we ever get a break, can we ever catch our breath...will we ever reach a point of looking back on all this with a wisened 20/20 vision? It seems like a melancholic mindset to begin the day with, where all that Life seems to be doing is pull us down. 

And yet, I'm a firm believer in the indomitable human spirit and have immense faith that whatever doesn't break us makes us stronger and better. In all the chaos that's happening around us, if we try real hard, we can faintly hear of random acts of kindness and about the infallible human spirit that brings an instant feeling of overwhelming gratitude and an irrepressible smile to the faces that warms the cockles of the heart.

I come across the video of a 99 year old lady preparing food packets for the migrants in her city and my heart immediately leaps. I read of an eighty year old coolie who is offering his services for free on the railway platform and it warms my heart. I hear about a lady who feeds the stray dogs in her area and I am inspired. It is not just great acts that inspire or uplift the spirit. If human beings are staying afloat in unprecedented times like these, facing crisis after crisis, then each one of us must be buoyed and held afloat by innumerable acts of goodness and kindness that envelop us. I am sure each one of us has experienced these uplifting acts of kindness. Unfortunately, we never acknowledge or give them the importance they deserve. Maybe our fear of exposing our weaknesses and vulnerabilities stops us from appreciating and dwelling on this aspect. The Kindness we experience or come across is oftentimes drowned by the chaos and Crises around us. If only these acts of kindness get acknowledged, appreciated and get their due recognition, we could all breathe a little easier and feel a lot lighter knowing that Humanity is not in such a quagmire after all. 

In times like these I think it becomes vital to share and talk and give voice to Kindness because I think this is what we all need today. "Are we kind?", I think this is the question we need to ask ourselves today. With the mortality and fragility of our lives staring in the face, I'm sure we all need Kindness today like never before. Like most things, it must begin with us. We must learn to be kind to ourselves first, overlooking our frailties and our shortcomings and give ourselves some leeway. We can then learn to spread Kindness and goodness with simple acts of kindness. It could be a gentle word, a listening ear, a helping hand, a sharing act, a caring deed. The best part about Kindness is it can take any form and therefore becomes limitless in the possibilities that we can show our care and concern for all living beings around us. 

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived"…that is how the great American poet Emerson defined being Successful. Pre 2020 our definition of success was on a different and definitvely materialistic scale. Today, we are wiser and know better. Hopefully we will be able to redefine succeeding in Life to fit Emerson's version with random acts of Kindness. Maybe by the year end, Kindness will overwhelm all other words and stand out as the Word of the Year.