One Good Deed a day...

I had read this quote some time back... don't even remember where... but yes, it meant something like 'set a target of doing one good deed for someone - everyday, and you will be a happy man'...

I was always onto it... I assumed that my working with AID was good enough as a good deed... Yes it definitely is... No doubts about that... I am definitely a very satisfied person... happy with life, happy with what God has showered on me...

Today when we were coming back from Lippika's place - after a largely unattended VIM - we saw a child with a bucket full of water. It was too heavy for him... He couldn't even walk two steps on lifting the bucket... Every time he would put the bucket down, he would also spill some water. Many people were looking at him. It must have been a regular scene.

I felt bad. I asked him where he needed to take the bucket. He pointed towards a nearby thela... A few men passed us when I was talking to the child. They smirked. When I picked up the bucket, they were shocked. But when I put the bucket near the thela and came back to the boy - the smile on his face did many times more good than the little ogles I was getting from all others...

It is such small acts that instill faith in other people to live on. It takes such simple acts to transmit a smile. And the child's smile remains with me. I smile thinking about it. It takes just a few seconds to be able to smile :-)... Keep smiling.

The colors of life...

Life is colorful.

But colors are not always bright. They can also be gloomy. But then we also see that both co-exist and juxtapose to add contrast and great learning.

I started the day with congratulating Neeraj on his marraige anniversary (was yesterday). He thanked us and mentioned that when they were out for dinner yesterday, he bumped into Neeru. He did not know that she was undergoing chemotherapy for a cancer that has past the metastasis stage. And then it at once struck - while we are happy, we are also sad at the same time.

Ashu and Priya gave the great news of Vijit and Megha's daughter. I was excited and hugged Ashu. But he himself was facing a trouble at another end. He is building a house for himself and the contractor was playing rogue. He had bluffed Ashu of a considerable amount of money and was playing a spoil-sport.

Amit got to talk to Archana towards the evening today. She is happy for her daughter - who is just more than a month old - but has already undergone an open-heart surgery. She was discharged from hospital only on Friday (after spending about 40 days in ICU). However, her father is not well - and she can not even go and meet him (because of the daughter).

We got our annual salary hike (increment) letters today. Its a time to feel happy to realize that we are growing in our work-area. However, outsees from the Narmada valley were still left in a quandary - their lives (and not just livelihoods) at risk. More than 1 lakh people were hoping to get respite with the help of Supreme Court of India today. Even in the face of clear evidence, the court reserved its order till Monday. My happiness at the personal front is juxtaposed with the collective sadness of those working in solidarity with the affected families in the Narmada valley (and this collective mass includes me).

Life offers us so much. While we should always cherish the great moments, it is important that we also accept the hardships and continuously fight to overcome them.

This is God's way of telling us that we should neither be attached to happiness nor to pain. They are transient phases - so much so that they co-exist.

It is life's way of teaching us lessons and helping us grow as mature human-beings.