5 Random Acts of Kindness

Rizwan Maqsood
Sep 8, 2018 · 4 min read

Thursday

Most of the days I have nothing to do and go with the flow. But today I have to do five random acts of kindness, it should sound like fun but I felt that it is going to be challenging.

6:45 am

I always made my breakfast by myself since college days, occasionally I made breakfast for my mother too, and it has been a long time since I made her breakfast. My mother got home from the morning walk and I have already prepared her a breakfast. As she goes into her room I followed her with a cup of tea and breakfast. At first, she was skeptical that what is happening, if I’m alright or not, am I going to ask her for something, for extra money, or special favor. I assured her that I'm not going to ask for anything I just made it as an act of kindness.

10:30 am

I went to the university because I have to submit my application for the issuance of the transcript. I called my two college class fellows, we are in the same university but their major is in computer science. They have enrolled in the summer semester and have regular classes. After submitting my application I met both of them. Their faces always bring the good memories and the time that we had spent together. They are in their last semester and looking for jobs, one of them told me that he has applied for so many positions and even got the interview calls, but they never call after the interview. The other one said that he didn’t even get a single interview call. I told them to show me their resumes, their resumes were poorly formatted and have irrelevant information. I told them about Amal and that I know how to build a superhero resume. I went to the computer lab with them, downloaded my resume and started editing it. They were amazed to see how I know about what to mention on the resume and know about the formatting. I told them about 4 rules of superhero resume and helped them in creating a superhero resume. I also convinced them to join Amal Academy in the next semester.

3:15 pm

My grandmother born and grew up at Zafarwaal, a small town near Narowal. She visits us every month and shares all her thoughts, problems, and stories with me. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person she opens up to, she can go on talking for hours without taking a break. She has so many stories about pre-partitioned India. Their town was consist of Sikhs and Muslims, she told me that people used to celebrate seasons, festivals and there were love and harmony. She also has stories about Indo-Pak wars, their village is located near the border area and was between the line of action during the 1965 war. I never called her when she is in Zafarwal. So I decided to call her and she was surprised to hear my voice, we talked about random stuff for five minutes. I asked her when will be she visiting us again, she sounded so surprised and happy.

6:50 pm

I asked my mother that I wanted to take her to her favorite ice cream place. She got worried that I’m up to something. Instead of feeling happy she started to ask me questions that have I eaten something wrong or bump into something, why I’m doing this. Usually, she asked me to take her to that place and I make excuses that I’m tired and don’t feel like going there and that we will go some other time some other day. So I took her there and paid for her ice cream. She still thinks there is something wrong with me and I'm up to something big.

9:00 pm

On my way back home from the ice cream place, I bought a color pencil for my younger brother. It is very big and thick pencil which has a lead of seven or eight different colors in it and used for multi-color shading. He was busy on his phone playing something, I gave him the pencil. He smiled and took it.

I feel grateful to have this opportunity to do these act of kindness which I would have never done if they were not the part of Amal’s PW. My experience was joyful and I learned that we can make other person’s day by just one small act of kindness. We might feel that calling our distant friend or relative will not going to make any difference but this small deed can cheer him up and who knows what kind of a day someone is having.

Kindness at the workplace can make a huge difference and develop a bond between colleagues which can ultimately be translated into maximum performance and achieving organizational goals. During my internship, there was a Senior Marketing Executive Mr. Ali, his workstation was right beside my workstation, whenever I faced a problem and couldn’t figure out something he always helped me. Being kind to your colleagues or team members build trust and respect for each other which are the much-needed elements of the efficient and productive team.

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