Is there anything I can do for you?
This past week, I did a small experiment (like I usually do!). I volunteered to help anyone in need. I must admit, I did this experiment in the confines of about 25-30 better friends. I didn’t go all the way and offered ‘free help’ to every contact I know; that would have made it to about 200-300 people and frankly would have become quite unpractical, not to mention — weird.
It was fun, but overall it was a failure. Oh, how I wished to be everyone’s hero by providing help to the bro in need or the damsel in distress! I did end up helping a few people but none of the ‘genuine — practical’ requests were too difficult for me to stretch myself too much.
But, I did learn a few things instead:
1. Many people crave for help and support, but if you ask them out of blue, they won’t know what they need specifically. When I was shot back the same question, even I couldn’t come up with any answer. May be people just want an assurance that help is there when needed, otherwise they are capable of handling almost everything by their own.
2. A lot of requests were “nothing but friendship forever”. Although we have 1000s of friends and contacts (look at your FB list), in reality we are always insecure and vulnerable. Hence, there is an inherent wish to be able to ‘lock a friend and never let them go’.
3. A few of the heart-warming wishes were to ‘have lunch with me’. But it also made me feel guilty. Gotta spend some more quality time with friends, and I am not talking about being there on text/phone.
4. If you are nice to people they will be nice to you. Who doesn’t want someone to take keen interest in their life without asking for anything in return!
5. Almost none of the guys asked, requested for any meaningful help. And I can understand because I also have a problem asking for help. Guess we are just too proud.
I have been mostly able to keep up with the requests — even the whacky ones. A few still remain and I will try to complete them ASAP.
But this was an interesting experiment and I would like to explore it more in future. May be in some other form. May be.
[Photo is a screengrab of the request made by my idiotic friend XP]
