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Kindness - photograph: akr

We all do random acts of kindness, the purpose of the present exercise is to do such acts more often by acquiring the habit of thinking of others in every situation. No inordinate self sacrifice is involved, and one goes in this direction exactly as far as one wants to. One never accepts great risks or discomfort in doing acts of random kindness.

Here are some examples which come to mind readily. Once we tread the path we will never lack ideas or opportunities. We may be doing similar acts already, the idea is to do them more often and form them into a habit.

At home:

Begin Your Kindness Here – in Your Family!

The best place to begin kindness is at home, make your home your kindness laboratory. You meet your family constantly. You may tend to take them for granted, with all the kindness they show you. Familiarity may even breed contempt. There are always more opportunities to practice kindness here, so that you may form the habit of thinking of others frequently.

Kindness will knit the family together more closely. It will reduce disharmony and unnecessary arguments, some that may get hot. Your home can be a haven of kindness, the outside world can be cruel at times or just indifferent. You will be more comfortable with each other, and value the company. You will all experience more security. It will help you understand each other better and help you make plans together for mutual benefit.

Say please, thank you, and sorry whenever appropriate. You will notice how often you make the others unhappy or cause them some inconvenience You will also realize how much you help each other and depend on each other.

Kindness at home will help make you more cooperative, appreciative and happier even in your life outside the family. It will help you practice kindness more easily in your group, school, company, club and out there in public places.

Treat your servants and unwelcome visitors fairly & with due courtesy though you may be firm. The young ones in the family are going to imitate you.

Use decent language when you refer to people outside the family whom you don't like even though you may criticize them to your heart's content. Criticism is OK abuse is not.

Sometimes do the routine or special chores and tasks which are normally done by your spouse or another member of the family.

Spend more time with the family if you have not been spending enough so far. Do it as often as possible.

Be open, and have as few secrets in the family as possible.

Try to understand the failure or difficulty of another member and comfort him/her before you go into the mood to advise or remonstrate/scold.

Control your temper always, and if by chance you lose it, say sorry to the aggrieved member at the earliest and make up with a special kindness to that person.

On the street:

If walking on the foot path, give way to someone obviously in a hurry.

If driving a vehicle, don't break queue and try to get ahead in a traffic jam. Sometimes yield right of way.

If you see an old or handicapped person, children, obvious strangers to the city, etc. trying to cross the road in heavy traffic, slow down and stop to allow them to cross.

In the monsoon, drive carefully so as not to splash pedestrians with muddy water or force them to walk into the puddles to get out of the way of your car.

In the work place:

Have a ready smile for your subordinates and for visitors, however irritating they may appear to you. Try to understand and accommodate them if you think fit.

Walk out of your cubicle/cabin occasionally to see if some visitor for you is forced to wait inordinately long. If this is unavoidable, either send him to someone else or at least make him comfortable, offer a cup of tea. Sometimes it may be possible to come out and solve his problem in a minute.

Take some interest and give an occasional hearing to your subordinates and their personal problems.

Praise the work or attitude of someone you work with.

At any public place:

In any Public Place (Railway Station, Airport, Dentist's Waiting Room, a tourist or picnic spot, etc.) Look around and ensure you are not causing discomfort or inordinate inconvenience to anyone not in a condition to bear it easily. Surrender your place in the queue or waiting list to such a person.

If you are a smoker, see that your smoking does not cause inconvenience to others.

Make a pledge to yourself that you will leave every spot tidier or cleaner than you found it on your arrival, and at least you will not make it worse.

Start Kindness Chains:

One can promote the habit of kindness easily by starting "kindness chains". When we do a random act of kindness, and the beneficiary thanks us, we tell her politely not to thank us but "Pay it Forward" by doing some kind act to benefit someone else, and to pass on these instructions for kind acts. This becomes easier with cards like this, which you can get printed cheaply or just photo copy on card paper:

V.Shrinivas (Seenu)

Dear Sri Srinivasan,

On reading this, the event that happened at London Hethrow airport comes to my mind. Due to Bomb scare all the flights were supended. My daughter was waiting eagerly at airport on 3rd july 2007 for any anouncement for resumption of flight to India. Some other people who came from States also were waiting. Nothing was availble to eat . At that time a gentleman who runs a Auditing company came to see his brother-in- law off to chennai.

Seeing the plight of the passangers (about 15 to 20),that gentleman, arranged for a sumptuous meal with all usual delicacies, to be prepared at home and supplied to the stranded people who were all as such strangers to him. What a noble act. On enquiry it came to light that he is the husband of the sister of a relative of my wife.

My daughter have not seen them before. She contacted us over mobile spoke volumes about the kindness shown by the gentleman.

Parvamani

Children of today are the future Leaders