It is heartening to read stories of people in need being helped by complete strangers. The body of a man from Telangana, India was recently flown home after Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers crowd-funded Rs9.6 million for the repatriation of the deceased. The man had died of a heart attack in Saudi Arabia. The money will be kept in a fixed deposit for the family.
In the US, a paramedic helped a homeless man whom she saw digging through a trash can. She gave him seven dollars and bought him clothes after she learnt his story. He had become a drug addict and lost his home and family. This one act of kindness from a stranger changed his life.
He turned his life around and started working. He met his savior by chance after 12 years and told her how she had helped him out of an abyss. Sometimes it takes just one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.
The kindness of strangers
I have also experienced strangers going out of their way to help when they could have just as easily walked on. I had fallen and bruised my knee. I had to go to a clinic to get an anti-tetanus shot but couldn’t get an auto rickshaw to take me the short distance.
Eventually I got a lift on a scooter from a person I know. For some reason I was unable to sit properly on the scooter and found my body tilting back at a dangerous angle. We stopped halfway and I was surprised to see that my unsteady posture had been noticed by two men passing by on a two-wheeler.
They stopped immediately and then one of them told me he lived nearby and would go home and bring his car. A few minutes later he was back and dropped me off at the clinic. I thanked him profusely but now I wish I had asked him his name and contact number.
I happened to mention this incident to my brother and sister-in-law a week later and was scolded for not calling them for help instead of relying on others. When I said I didn’t want to inconvenience them as they do not live near me, I was told that this is what family was for. This is one scolding I didn’t resent.
Passing on the goodwill
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent of human change.” When you experience a selfless gesture, it makes you feel good and you want to pass on that goodwill.
Did you know there is a World Kindness Day which falls on November 13? Of course you don’t have to wait till then to be kind.
The pandemic saw Good Samaritans going out of their way to help those in need, either by providing food or help in reaching a hospital. During the acute shortage of medical oxygen in Delhi, the owner of an oxygen plant and his friend worked round the clock to supply hospitals free of cost.
In Ranchi, a humble auto driver offered free rides to hospitals and shared his number on social media. His offer was gratefully accepted by many who were finding it difficult to reach a hospital as so many other transport providers were unashamedly hiking their rates.
In some cities such as Chandigarh, India, residents stepped up to ‘adopt’ families who lost their breadwinners due to the virus. Some businessmen offered free scholarships to children whose parents couldn’t afford to pay their school fees.
The acts of kindness and compassion are countless and occur across the world every day. All of us extend a helping hand in different ways whether it is taking time to listen to a friend who is having problems or visiting someone who is sick.
In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “You cannot do kindness too soon for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
Vanaja Rao is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad, India
