The Joy of Giving

ankita jha mahtani

Gifted with a Kind Heart, I believe in the saying “ One by one many drops are enough to fill an entire ocean”

To Many this philosophy won’t be entirely agreeable, if not, maybe even debatable... but allow me to explain. A drop alone hardly makes a difference in making anything wet, however if you allow millions of drops to combine, you can create an ocean. Good deeds can be seen in the same light. A single good deed may not make a huge difference to many, but it may mean the world to one. Combine many good deeds and we begin to create an ocean of greatness.
In the midst of our busy lives, spouses, kids, work, credit cards, debts, hectic lifestyles, dinners, movies, property payments, car loans and ohhh the list could be endless, how many times do we take a moment to realize that one small good deed of ours, could lead to someone’s endless smiles. This can most likely be called as the Ripple Effect, or the Butterfly effect. A single careful thought of kindness or understanding can have this never ending contagious effect.

Lets think about a simple scenario…while we sit comfortably in our 9 to 5 jobs, on the 1st floor of a skyscraper, in our comfy cabin space, in an airconditioned office in between noisy laptop sounds, non stop working printers and work chatter, wondering what is it we are going to have for lunch today? Little Bangkok, nahhh, no Thai food, just had it last week. How about Pizza Express?? Hmmm that’s a huge number of calories, and I have my Zumba class today, whats the point. While gazing out at the window in a fickle minded state, pondering over what to order, we see three men sweating profusely, sitting on the platform of a building window cleaning crane, armed with complete equipment, and using water and soap to clean away even the smallest grime from our windows to make it speclessly clean. The view then is suddenly spotless!! Wow this is amazing we think, I can think clearly now!! Im in the mood for a spicy Hardees Fish Fillet! We dial, book and hungrily wait for our scrumptious lunch! We think to ourselves, this is THE LIFE!

Press the rewind button. Lets take out 1 minute of our time to relive the same scenario all over again. We see three men sweating profusely on the platform of a building window cleaning crane, armed with complete equipment, and using water and soap to clean away even the smallest grime from our windows. And we think, oh my goodness. How are these men working in this heat? I wonder if they have eaten anything? How much might they be earning in a month? Did they even have a sip of water since this morning. How many of them might be dying of heat strokes everyday in this 49 degree heat?! Our thoughts have changed, and our reactions can now change. We call our receptionist and ask her to bring in 3 bottles of Chilled water. We open the window slightly and give them each a Chilled bottle of Water. They take a refreshing gulp of water and look back and smile warmly, their hearts filled with gratitude. The Amount of peace and calm and relief on their faces is just heartwarming & it melts our heart too!

Their gratitude is our satisfaction that we have helped, even if only a little bit, to help them bear the struggles of their day.

A small humble thought of kindness can have such profound effect on someone’s happiness quotient while all it costs us is a moment of realization - The realization, that while we have it all, we also possess the power to contribute towards making the world around us a happier place to be in. And the butterfly effect we talk about… touch a heart today with compassion and tomorrow it will carry the same empathy to give to the humanity another fresh act of benevolence.

And we rethink, THIS is the life! To heal someone in a second, to do something so small it may just turn someones day around beautifully. The smile it brings, the joy it gives, nothing can compare to this feeling. Not the best meals, the biggest cars or the most lavish lifestyles. An iota of increased happiness in someone’s life, few extra smiles sprinkled across in an otherwise mundane day, a day of heat quenched by the refreshing act of kindness, have the potential to bless us with immense joy – and this is the Joy of giving.