Kindness Matters

Valerie Knight
Oct 15, 2020
3 min read

My elder brother is ten years older than me, and a lot more mature. He has always been interested in doing random acts of kindness, whether it be helping the less fortunate with food and water or protecting little kids from bullies, he had always been an amazing guy throughout his life. One of the most inspiring act of kindness I see him doing is teaching orphaned children at an NGO; Make a Difference. At first I used to think that it was his hobby, something he did for enjoyment. But later I came to know that his actions held a much deeper meaning which I never understood before. He never went there to have fun, nor did he go there to relax himself. He describes his experience as blissful, saying that "This community, which sees some goodness in me, and which inspires me to be better with their greatness."

His main motive was to make those children feel at home, to teach them in a way which would be both easy for them to understand and fun to learn. This of course was easier said than done. Teaching is not just a hobby or a profession; its an art. And not everyone is talented enough for it. One of the biggest problems my brother faced while teaching students at MAD was the issue of language. The kids were not fluent in Hindi as they lived in Bangalore, Karnataka. On the other hand, even my brother wasn't much aware of Kannada language. This was a huge problem as lack of communication between the teacher and his students meant lack of understanding of concepts which would have resulted in poor results by the students. However, to overcome this hurdle, my brother decided to learn a completely new language; Kannada. He opted for this option because he felt that if he managed to learn the basics of this language, he would be able to communicate with those children without many problems as the kids were always excited to learn more. Moreover, he says "Another reason of leaning Kannada, a completely new language for me was to make those children feel that alongside them he was also trying to learn something new which was considered difficult in his eyes." And as he predicted, learning Kannada solved most of his and the kids' problems, including any communication problems they faced earlier.

Moreover, he witnessed life from another aspect, from their eyes. It not only affected him deeply but also shaped his outlook on life. Those children were always excited and full of life. Never had my brother seen them complaining about how smalls their rooms were or how they had no phones and other gadgets, something which we all usually ask from our parents or guardians. They had a lot of curiosity within them and a different kind of outlook towards life altogether. "Their smiling faces are enough to fill my day with positivity", my brother once told me. Their mornings weren't filled with their moms bringing them breakfast nor were they fortunate enough to have dads who would come back from work each night and ask them how their day was. But still, those children learned to embrace the circumstances of their life and looked forward to each new day which they believed would give them the opportunity to learn something new.

He learned a very important lesson from them, that in order to be happy we don't need any materialistic things. We just need a different perspective of life. His visits to child care institutions were at first an act of kindness, an effort put by my brother to make them feel loved but later those children became a part of him, as a family. A family which taught him the meaning of life and how small things can make a huge impact in one's life.

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