Just sharing an incident of today. Being Saturday - decided to take a break and go out for breakfast and then for coffee at a the mall - Just so as to do something different and not sit in front of the screen on Saturday to trade crude or copper
While waiting for my breakfast to arrive, I saw a poor couple enter with a small child of maybe 7-8 years. All that they ordered was a plate of idli for the child and nothing for themselves, waiting while the order was served and the child was eating - obviously indulged by the parents who could not afford anything more.
While having ordered for myself, I approached the couple and asked them to order breakfast for themselves and offered pay. There was a big smile on their face and they quickly ordered, ate and left.
The reason I am bringing this up, as I remembered another incident a few years back. While I was working abroad, I came across an article in the newspaper in which it was mentioned that an Indian man had been killed in a car accident. The tragedy was that he left behind his wife (a widow now and a small child of about 6 months) As the couple had taken a big loan and remitted the funds to buy their house in India, the lady was in trouble as she was responsible for repayment of the loan. And as she was without a job, had a child to look after, and was left without income, she could not afford to pay for her expenses, and to top it off, was facing the prospect of jail as she would not be able to repay loan installments.
I spoke to the newspaper, got the contact details of the lady, got the actual facts - it was a genuine case. So I spoke to a couple of my friends, sent a mails with a link to the story, organized a collection, and got a bit of funds. Met the lady again, gave part of the cash, and the other part, went with her to the grocery and got her food and basic necessities.
One of my colleagues I had sent the mail, had forward the mail to his friend - who luckily had a vacancy in his office in an administrative post - to top it off, it was a reputed company, and the boss taking the background of the lady into consideration offered her a good start with generous pay.
As my work was done - I did not contact the lady. After she got the job, I did not receive a call from the her even to say that she was selected for the job, leave aside thanks. That was not an issue. About two weeks later, my colleague who had helped this lady get the job called me aside and told me - The lady had pocked a mobile phone of one of her office mate, and put it in her bag. The whole thing was captured on camera which this lady was not aware of.
After she got the sack, I did receive a call from her - I told her that I did not want to meet her as I could not do anything more. Not sure what happened later.
Sometimes, doing a small thing can bring so much joy. Day such as today, makes it worthwhile... Just sharing.