Characters
Rahul, Shilpa, Celina, Nazmeen, Priyanka, Anthony: Youngsters
Mrs Maria: Senior woman
Sudhir: Peon
Megha: Cleaner
Mr Dominic: Manager

SCENE 1

(On the road)
(Mrs Maria has fallen on the road and is struggling to rise. Rahul, Shilpa and Celina are talking and walking on the road with haversacks and files in their hands.)

Mrs Maria: “Help, help, please help me!”

(They all look at her)

Shilpa: “Oh no! Poor old woman. We must help her.”

Rahul: “Shilpa, are you crazy? If we do that, we’ll be late for the interview.”

Celina: “Yes, don’t forget that we have been waiting for this interview for a long time.”

Shilpa: “Please don’t say that, Celina. I know that this interview is important, but kindness to others is more important.”

Celina: “Keep your advice for yourself. I’m going ahead. I cannot afford to miss this interview for anything in the world.”

Rahul: “The same applies to me. I, too, am going with Celina. You can remain behind to show kindness to the whole world (laughs sarcastically).”

(Shilpa rushes to the old woman)

Shilpa: “Good morning, ma’am. So sorry to see you in this state. Don’t worry, I’m here to help. Everything will be fine.”

Mrs Maria: “That’s so kind of you, my dear.”

(Shilpa struggles to help the woman to stand)

Mrs Maria (struggling to walk): “Oh gosh! I think I’ve sprained my ankle; I’m unable to walk. I’m so sorry, my dear.”

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“Say ‘Hi’ to that girl in the yellow dress and smile at her. You can do it,” I said to myself on the local train we took to reach our college. This was the third morning I was pushing myself to make a new friend and I succeeded. My main issue was shyness, an overpowering feeling of low self-worth that prevented me from using my talents and from making friends. My father was posted in districts where life was uncomplicated and slow-paced. But when he was transferred to Mumbai, I was a country bumpkin thrust into the hustle and bustle of a city. My low self-esteem resulted in self-inflicted social isolation. Regrettably my parents were so busy with their own lives that they failed to realise the issues I was facing.

Apart from shyness, there were other manifestations of low self-esteem such as craving for others’ approval. Shaila talks loudly, overdoes her make-up, wears flashy clothes, and throws money around in order to garner compliments. Shaila possibly did not get much love and encouragement from her family. She overcompensates by showing off.

Vineet asks, “Do you like my painting? I have the talent, you know.” He is crestfallen if you criticise his work of art. Vineet is constantly measuring his talents against the real or perceived talents of others.

Some individuals are never content and are envious of others. They are gossip-mongers who enjoy shredding the reputation of others. They suffer from low self-esteem.

Parental bias is another cause of low self-esteem. Two kids brought up in the same family are treated differently. Partiality may be shown by parents and grandparents according to various qualities of the child such as gender, colour of skin, intelligence, height and so on. Repeated parental messages such as “Shobha, your brother is much smarter than you”, are the root cause of an inferiority complex.

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Author: Randall D. McNeely
Publisher: Better Yourself Books Pvt. Ltd.
Publication year: 2022
Pages: 76; Price: 150

‘They did not die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.’

The above words by poet James Patrick Kinney teaches us that the hate culture of our times needs a counter-movement because our youth deserve better. If our species perishes in the near future, it will not be because of something external like a natural or man-made tragedy but because of the coldness in the hearts of so many people online and offline who want to ‘cancel’ or annihilate their fellow human beings. However, this book by McNeely will revolutionize our approach to reach hearts, inspire change and heal the world. And all this will be done through everyone’s ultimatum to choose kindness over hate, rage, arrogance, and pride.

The book is one of the shortest self-help books one may read this year, but which is easy to memorize and enact to save the world from the madness of selfishness and greed. The Kindness Givers’ Formula 2.0 is the revised and expanded edition of the original The Kindness Givers’ Formula. It gives us timeless, specific, and actionable steps to spread kindness to one and all, irrespective of caste, creed, race, etc. The world needs kind people, and every single person is important in this movement to defeat and, at the same time, befriend the ‘hate brigade’. If one grain of rice, when measured on a beam balance, can tip the scale, one single person’s kindness can make a difference between the victory of love and the ruin of animosity towards our fellow brothers and sisters. Everyone counts especially every youth.

You do not need to be an extrovert to be a kindness giver. Pick up this transformational book and create a conducive atmosphere wherever you go. This formula can also be adapted by nations, communities, organizations, neighbourhoods and families to unleash kindness personally and professionally on a worldwide scale. The world does not need more billionaires or trillionaires. It needs kindness in action that is brought out beautifully but in a simple manner in this little gem of a book. Grab your copy today!

What motivates you as a human being today to be kind? Maybe this quote, among many others from this inspirational book, can give you an answer: “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”

Available at Better Yourself Books (betteryourselfbooks.com) and all St Paul Book Centres in India

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“Be nice” is often heard as a parting shot from family and friends. Is one expected to be nice like the popular biscuit — crisp, sweet and sprinkled with sugar for added sweetness? Would you say you are a nice person? Your reply could well be: “Most often, yes, but not always.”

Nice is defined as “being pleasing, agreeable or courteous”. It is not always easy to be nice or agreeable with everyone. A popular advertisement shows a youngster approaching her father for approval to pursue her studies in another city. “I want to move ahead in life, there is so much more to do,” she quips. Her father suggested that she should pursue her dreams in the same town where similar opportunities exist. She was infuriated and withdrew with a sulk. Can she be nice to her father now? It is her father who now chooses to show understanding. He goes a step ahead by being kind to her and agreeing to her expectations.

Can you see the difference in being nice and being kind? Being kind is so much more; it means showing understanding or sympathy.

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During the pandemic, many of us realised more than ever the priceless value of friends, family, connection, generosity, empathy compassion and gratitude. When one is unwell one knows that he/she can do better with support but how about when we are not in a crisis mode — do we still believe we need each other in our daily lives?

Now that the crisis has fortunately abated, how do we use this realisation to make sustainable changes in our lives that we know holds the power to transform us, our own world and the world at large?

This is difficult to grasp as a teenager as you seek your independence but pause and search for answers within and ask: In a world where everything has a price, what happens to the priceless? How do we bring them back into circulation?

• What we do for love will always be far more powerful than what we do for something purely monetary. Think of a time you did or received a kind act unconditionally.
• What we can do together is often far greater than what we can do alone. Think of a time when you worked as a collaborative team for a common goal.
• We live in a time where we have mastered the art of “liking” each other online but have forgotten the art of loving each other in real life. How does it feel having a face-to-face conversation with some of your true friends?

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“Because Angels could not propagate, nor make more Angels, God enlarges his love in making man, that so he might enjoy all natures at once, and have the nature of Angels, and the nature of earthly creatures in one person.”
~ John Donne

Compassion is the key to healing our tinctured planet. When we mindfully attend to a person we’re with, the living energy becomes an intimate part of who we are. Compassion is often seen as a distant, altruistic ideal cultivated by saints or as an unrealistic response of the naively kind-hearted. But when we view compassion this way, we lose out on experiencing the transformative potential of one of our most precious but neglected inner resources.

We must make it our task to perform one act of kindness every day, no matter how small it may be. It can be as simple as picking up a scrap of paper in your neighbour’s yard or yielding to a car in traffic, or as complex as making a lonely person feel loved.

By making kindness a part of your daily life, it becomes such a normal response that you don’t have to strain to summon it forth from the dregs of your soul anymore.

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We’re all excited to bring in the Year of Kindness, a unique initiative launched by the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, The Teenager Today, Kindness Unlimited and the World Kindness Movement, this month!

A vital aspect of this movement is the mobile and web app that will drive this initiative to identify, track and acknowledge acts of kindness across the world.

The Kinder Logo

Designed by Think Creative, Mumbai, the KINDER logo plays on the top bar of the E. It is transformed into a hand moving upwards. Three similar hands lead the way, signifying ‘helping hands’ and symbolizing acts of kindness. They are shaped like birds giving the impression of birds taking flight. This is to depict the ‘Pay It Forward’ principle — many kind acts being paid forward gives the movement wings to encompass the world. The orange colour signifies fire, the energy that comes from a movement of this kind, where every person and every hand strengthens the cause of creating a kinder world.

The KINDER App

What does the KINDER App do?
The KINDER app, developed by Inventeam Solutions Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, enables you to record instances of kindness, enter details of the beneficiary of the kindness and track your web of kindness as it spreads, one act at a kind.

What are the features of the KINDER App?
The Android and iOS versions of the app will be available for download from 27 March when we launch the movement.

The salient features of the app are as follows:

1. An easy-to-use interface that makes it very simple for anyone to navigate through.

2. You will need to register yourself on the app with your mobile number and other basic details.

3. Begin your Kindness journey by recording a kind act that you have done or a kind act that has been done to you.

4. Acts of Kindness have been broadly classified as done to: Oneself, another person, another living being (plants, animals, birds, etc.) and the environment.

5. Specify the type of act, the time involved in the act as well as the monetary value as applicable. Describing the act in detail will give us a repository of inspiring stories which we hope to feature in The Teenager Today, month after month!

6. If you are recording a kind act, provide the name of the beneficiary of the act or the initiator, depending on whether you are a giver or receiver, and a mobile number for the same. If no mobile number is provided, the Act of Kindness will still be recorded against the name of the initiator; unfortunately, it won’t be able to track it any further.

7. The app will generate a message for the persons who received the kind acts, asking them to spread the movement by doing a kind act to somebody else, downloading the app and begin recording their own journey of kindness.

8. Participate in the campaign as an individual and/or as part of your school, college, company or any other organization, if your organization decides to participate as a unit.

9. The app will display your history of kind acts, initiated by you and received by you, which you can access at any time.

10. At the back end, the app will track the length of the kindness chain for each individual and organization, entities with the kindest acts, entities inviting maximum people and organizations to the cause, the geographical spread of the movement and many such parameters.

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A movement by The Teenager Today, Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, Kindness Unlimited and the World Kindness Movement

The world has seen nearly two years of uncertainty, hardships, untold misery and grievous loss as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, even through this trying period, what has shone through and endured have been the stories of indomitable courage, compassion and humanity — not only from the medical fraternity and the frontline workers to whom we owe so much, but from the common man on the street, our friends, our relatives, our neighbours and even complete strangers.

The Year of Kindness is an attempt to highlight these acts of kindness which we keep performing on a regular basis in our lives, and even more so in troubled times, and create a movement wherein every such act gets felicitated and encouraged in such a way that ‘being kind’ and ‘doing good’ becomes a habit and a way of life for every human being on the planet.

A Year of Kindness will roll out from 1 March 2022, exactly two years after the first official declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, and run through 28 February 2023, in its first phase.

The initiators and drivers of this project are the Rotary and Rotaractor Clubs of Mumbai Bravehearts, Kindness Unlimited, the World Kindness Movement and The Teenager Today. Through its tenure, more organizations and individuals, across India and the world, will be encouraged to join the movement.

How will this work?

All founder organizations, including the readers of The Teenager Today, will reach out to individuals and organizations in their network to participate.

The basic idea is for everybody to do at least one kind act a day — this could be an act of kindness to oneself, to others (friends, family, strangers), to animals and birds or even to the environment.

The project will be supported by an app and a web-based programme, developed by our technology partner, Inventeam, which will be used to facilitate and track every act of kindness.

Every participant will need to record her/his act of kindness on the app giving details of the person the act has been done to and the story behind it.

The spread of the idea will be based on the ‘Pay It Forward’ principle — instead of the recipient of the kind act saying “thank you” and moving on or doing something good in return to the initiator of the kind act, s/he will carry on the chain by doing an act of kindness to another person.

The app will gently trigger the recipient of the kind act to ‘pay it forward’ and thus continue the chain.

The app will not only record these acts of kindness but also track the spread of the same in terms of geography as well as timelines.

The Teenager Today will feature each month the initiatives which will cover the latest statistics, inspiring stories of kindness coming in through the app as well as updating readers on all the partner organizations that have come in through the month. This will also be done in greater depth on the website and social media channels of the magazine as also the other founding organizations.

The initiative is open to individuals as well as organizations to participate in.

No act of kindness will be deemed too small or insignificant. All participants are free to record as many acts of kindness as possible at whatever frequency. Organizations and companies are free to participate as a unit as well.

A number of recognitions are being planned for star individual performers, kindest organization, longest and broadest chains, individuals inviting the highest number of participants to join in and many other.

The campaign will kick off in March with the launch of the app. Please follow updates on the website and social media channels of The Teenager Today. Immediately after the app goes live, each one of you can register on the same and start recording your acts of kindness and share this with your contact sphere across the world. With all our efforts, this campaign can go viral globally in no time!

We are setting out on a historic mission here — a mission to create a kinder world that will be beneficial to every living and non-living being on this planet! Be an Ambassador of Kindness this year!

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All of us want to see a lot of changes in this world. Once a young man came to Osho and asked him, “Wouldn’t it be good to change the world?” Osho replied, “Forget about the world. I change myself. You change yourself. Then the world will be changed.” We are familiar with Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

This change should happen from within and not forced from outside. It is said, “If the egg is broken from outside, life ends, but if it is broken from inside, life begins.” Great things happen from your personal determination and conviction. The real change begins from inside, that is, in our mind and in our heart. Let the light within you spread around by your deeds of kindness.

Life is something to be celebrated with others. You can help others to make their life a celebration by spreading the fragrance of your kindness all around. “Kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent of human change,” quipped Bob Kerrey, the former American senator. A smile, a kind word, a soothing touch, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or a small act of help has the potential to make everyone’s life beautiful. It is a gift that you can give to make a difference to everyone, everywhere and at every time.

In his famous book, The Man Without a Country, Edward E. Hale wrote: “I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” Let us join hands in making our beautiful planet a place of ‘kindness unlimited’.

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Nirmala Peters-Mehendale, a human resources professional by vocation, is also the founder of Kindness Unlimited and the Global President of the World Kindness Movement. In this free-wheeling interview with TTT’s NARESH KARMALKER, she tells us why she believes that widespread kindness will be the one habit that will transform this country and, through it, the world.

NK: What is it about kindness that attracts you?
NPM: I believe kindness is connected to success. Success is possible only when you get something done through others. It is a myth that one can achieve success by oneself.

Growing up, in my extended family, everybody needed to be ready to dialogue and work towards a common goal at all times. For example, if you were not coming to dinner, you needed to call and inform that you were not going to be there. Why was this an act of kindness? Because that would free others from worrying, especially the seniors. This notion, of treating others like you would like them to treat you, was a belief ingrained in us from childhood.

I got married into a community with seemingly nothing in common. Again, I found myself in a joint family where, along with my husband and in-laws, I also had my brother-in-law living with us. My brother-in-law was differently-abled and looking after him became the one common point that brought everybody together. Loving him unconditionally was the differential factor for all of us, another example of how we learnt to collaborate for the common good, joyfully.

Professionally, I come from a corporate background and work in the field of human resources. There again, I was fascinated to explore how collaboration and interdependence can be fostered amongst employees. Kindness was the underlying motive.

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