One week of experiencing the #JoyOfGiving
Seven days, seven tasks — Beginning with #ThePayItForwardCampaign and ending with a feeling that’s inexpressible — I invite you to hop on to this movement of spreading happiness!
What is this #HaftaChallenge?
(Hafta in Hindi stands for ‘one week’)
Initiated by Give Foundation, The Hafta Challenge is a week-long event to celebrate the joy of giving. While the initial challenge was during the ‘Daan Utsav’ (which literally translates to the ‘Festival of Giving’), I’ve tried to structure this into an introduction to The Challenge for each day followed by my experience (SM) — hope it inspires you to join along :)
So here goes..
Day 1: Gift a Story
The Challenge
- Pick a book you like, write a note/message that you’d like the next person to read.
- Leave the book at a public place for a stranger to find.
Doesn’t really have to be a new book. So go ahead, pick up one of your favorites, write a sweet little note and surprise someone!
SM
For me, this was a start to the #ThePayItForwardCampaign that I’ve always wanted to be a part of!
Right from those childhood days of ‘always expecting’ return gifts on birthday parties to growing up with the physics laws of ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’, it’s ingrained in us. Well, today is the day I say — ‘Not always’.
I’d recently ordered this book from Amazon after seeing the reviews and the size (I’m more of the newsletter/blog/business books kinda guy), and thought “I can do this 100-page book in under a day, so let’s try”. The book is no doubt profound, and justifies the reviews (must read IMO) and was the first book that came to my mind when I saw this challenge!
Wrote a small message and carried it while heading out for a meeting. As we got done, picked up everything but this! To whoever finds this: Remember to Payitforward!! :)
Relatively easy right?
Day 2: Give Thanks!
The Challenge
- Find a blue collar worker — A traffic cop, the good person who cleans your street — you get the gist.
- Give them some appreciation, buy them a cup of tea or a snack.
I’m sure you already know who you’re going up to. But even if you don’t (and especially if you live in India, they can’t be far away), make this small effort and I assure you, you’re in for a surprise!
SM
Another day, another meeting. I had gone down to Innov8 Coworking™ and got into a conversation with the doorman and as we got speaking, he shared stories of his native town (Assam) and how he was working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day to save up and go start his own business back in his hometown.
I invited him to a cup of tea, which he was pretty reluctant to initially — kept saying, “I’m just a security guard, why would you want to have tea with me?”. After laughing around a bit, we spoke for a couple of minutes, sharing our dreams and aspirations. I’m sure no one deserves to feel low because of their profession, let’s do our bit to help normalize this equation.
He was back to his duty in no time, and this was a quick snap just before I was on my way!
Day 3: Give a treat!
The Challenge
- Open your favorite food delivery app and order a small treat — a snack or a dessert.
- When the delivery guy comes bearing your order, gift it to him.
PS: Can you suggest any other interesting challenges around this? (Hint: All the stuff you order online!)
SM
This is such an innovative one and so simple, thanks for coming up with this Team! (Why didn’t I think of this earlier!)
Powered up my favorite delivery app (PS: UberEATS beat you to this SwiggyBytes — Sorry!) and ordered 2x my favorite icecream; sat down with the delivery hero to share 5 minutes before which he had to rush to deliver his next order!
As we started talking, we discussed the economics of the being a food-r(a)ider in Namma Ooru and it seemed like the beginning of the Ola v/s Uber showdown that we saw a couple of years ago. Zomato v/s UberEats v/s Swiggy — the delivery boys are making some serious $$ (Did you know, including bonus, they earn up to Rs. 50k a month?)
Soon his notifications were on a frenzy and my new friend had to rush but yet again, the feeling was (you guessed it right) — unparalleled :’)
Day 4: Give a break (to the Earth!)
The Challenge
- During the day, you will find many instances where we are faced with a choice of the convenient way or the eco-friendly way
- For today, whenever possible make the choice that is eco-friendly and give the earth a little break
Spend some time reflecting before you start. You will be surprised by the number of things you can do, by just adjusting your lifestyle a teeny little bit. Mother Earth deserves that much attention at least, doesn’t she?
SM
So Day 4 was all about spending some time to figure out activities that would help me to reduce my carbon footprint as an individual or any task in general that would help save Planet Earth in the tiniest way possible (imagine all of us doing this!)
Naturally, this had to begin with me ditching my vehicle for a more eco-friendly option. If you’re in my city (Bengaluru), you’d have noticed tons of Green and Blue cycles every few metres! Had tried out the green ones by Zoomcar a couple of weeks back, so decided to try the blue one this time — Yulu Bike (great experience btw!)
And in case you’d want to innovate, here are a couple of more options:
It can be any small thing, like:
• Carry your own water bottle instead of buying a packaged drink
• Get your snack on a steel plate instead of one of those styrofoam ones
• Say NO to plastic. Switch to steel/wood cutlery instead.
A couple of folks that have been leading the zero-waste movement and are worth a shout-out here:
- Zero Waste Path — Instagram: @zerowastepath
- Healing Planet Earth — Instagram: @healing.planet.earth
- Going Zero Waste — Instagram: @going.zero.waste
- Bare Necessities — Instagram: @barenecessities_zerowasteindia
- Trash is for Tossers — Instagram: @trashisfortossers
And for those who want to get started on your Zero-Waste journey, here are 5 tips from the NatGeo Blog:
1. Refuse — refuse to buy things with lots of packaging
2. Reduce — don’t buy things you don’t really need
3. Reuse — repurpose worn out items, shop for used goods, and purchase reusable products like steel water bottles
4. Compost — up to 80 percent of waste by weight is organic. But this rarely decomposes in landfills
5. Recycle — It still takes some energy and resources to recycle, but it’s better than sending stuff to the landfill or allowing it to become litter
Day 5: Give some love!
The Challenge
- Write a message of love and hope to someone who is going through a hard time.
- You can email it, or handwrite it and send it via courier, speed post or the good old postbox.
SM
Okay, no images here since it was kinda personal but while I was doing this, there was one thought that crossed my mind that I couldn’t get over.
How often, in these situations, are you bogged down by people close to us, the people we love rather than strangers? Have you been on the other side? Hurt someone (un)intentionally? Regret it? But never done anything about it?
Take this opportunity to sort it out. It might mean closure to them and trust me, it’s relieving!
Also, huge shout-out to the folks at LonePack, who’ve been doing an awesome job at spreading joy and awareness about mental health! They have a regular campaign called the LonePack Letters (very similar to this task) — Do check them out!
Missed the Day 6 email so sharing an experience on the same lines that I did a couple of weeks back!
Day 6: Give time!
The Challenge
- Most of us are passionate about one cause or another and all of us have donated money to charity at some point in time. But have you actually visited one of these NGOs and seen how they work?
- Your challenge today is to give your time and visit an NGO.
The connect, the time that you spend here is worth more than the money you will donate.
SM
My birthday celebrations this year were a lot different than the last 24. Not the usual high, but one with even more joy. Spent a good part of the day here — cut a cake along with another kid whose birthday was in the same month, played a couple of games and tried helping with their course curriculum. (Thanks for coming along everyone!)
Day 7: Give a challenge!
The Challenge
- Reach out to someone in your network and have a conversation about your #Haftachallenge experience
- Inspire them to complete one of the Hafta challenge tasks or anything that you’d like to support!
SM
As we come to the end of this week, I’d like to thank one person for introducing me to this (unknowingly) and the inspiration — Atul Satija — Do follow his story here and do support his foundation — The/Nudge Foundation!
As for the challenge, here’s me asking EACH and EVERYONE of you reading this to join me. And taking inspiration from the wonderful series that the team at GiveIndia prompted, I decided to take this one step further. Although, I’m not sure it’s exactly in line, but this was on my personal wishlist from a long time and it’s about time it came to life! So here goes:
Day X: The 1+1!
The Challenge
- Next time you cook a three-course, dine exotic, stop by a McDonalds or just for a bottle of coke, do it just a little extra — Buy/cook for a plus one. Carry a pack of biscuits in your car, go the extra mile. No one deserves to sleep hungry! #EachOneFeedOne
- Share your story, inspire those around you and feel free to share your story, I’ll be rooting for you!
Trust me, this feeling is unparalleled (it truly is!) so feel free to join in on these challenges and do tag me in your journey! I’d love to follow your story and spread some love! In case you want to get in touch, I’m just a message away!
And not to forget, thank you GiveIndia for this campaign — For people like me, this is the interia-kick that we (I?) needed. Not stopping now. Ever.
And in case I do, I look forward to your next campaign to get me back on track!
On a personal note, I’ve been involved with a couple of campaigns in the past, working on a project to tackle malnutrition and loved helping a couple of community chapters in the past.
If you have anything that I could contribute to or would like to get involved in my project, please please reach out to me here!
#KeepInspiring
