Little acts of love

The D-day is here! We are off to Mumbai tomorrow, for the Tata Mumbai Marathon on Jan 19th! Pass on all your good wishes for Su, eh? 🙂 The musical fundraiser I had written about, is also tomorrow. I will be taking a few volunteers there, and then leaving to the airport, hopefully having enough fodder for the upcoming posts. 😀

My previous trip to Mumbai last July, was to attend a congregation of non-profits from all over the country. A two-days gathering aimed at forging collaborations, it was a humbling experience indeed to meet so many people serving the society in their own way – feeding the hungry, raising the underserved children, promoting STEM and sports among the underprivileged enthusiasts, and so on.

Many of these organizations also promoted products made by their beneficiaries, at their respective stalls. Two days flew by in trying to meet and greet, and explore how we could work together for the greater good. You know how some commonalities spark an instant connection at times? This happened with S from an organization that worked for the betterment of out-of-school children (children who drop out of school). Having known that I was from Bengaluru, she told me about her Karnataka roots, and how she has been living in Mumbai forever. I told her that while my maternal grandfather moved to Mysuru, all his siblings and their nextgen (my Mom’s cousins) are the same too. That was brief, but enough to strike a chord.  She told me about how they were making beautiful products deploying the paintings their children make, and told me that I should visit their stall at any cost, before the event wound up.

Each time I dropped in to their stall, there were a few visitors/ customers, and S and I could only exchange glances. I however did see how beautiful the products made of those paintings where, and what a fab idea it was – there were wall hangings, table mats, vases, coasters, paper weights and so on. One painting, of a child with a painting brush, especially caught my fancy. My love for handmade only made it more appealing, and I was very keen on buying any product with that particular painting. This was followed by S visiting our stall a couple of times, and this time, we were swarmed with visitors. I was just glad we could keep in touch, since we had exchanged our Email IDs. 🙂

Long story cut short, we finished conversations with our last visitor just in time to leave to the airport (in a hurry!). That we almost missed the flight, and got saved because the flight itself got delayed, was amusing to me, while it stressed the hell out of my team-mate. 😛 I had a surprise waiting for me though, just before we headed out of the venue, especially since we were one of the last ones to do so. A man came to me with a parcel and said that S had asked him to give it to the lady at Stall X (Me!), before he left for the day. It was a paper weight with different paintings on either side, both beautiful, and to my utter delight, included the painting that had caught my eye! It was like the universe was conspiring indeed. I asked him how much I needed to pay for it (all the raised funds went towards the children’s education at that!), but he told me that S had specifically mentioned that he shouldn’t collect anything from me. He added that S had to leave in a hurry, but ensured that he doesn’t leave the place before giving it to me.

This little act of love warmed the innermost cockles of my heart. It takes just that one small, sweet gesture to make another person happy, the kind of happiness that knows no bounds. And S had done that so well, inspite of being in the midst of loads of work.