The Gentle And Kind Hands Inspire Me To Pay It Forward

In response to DEP prompt 9/52

How did I see the gentle hands at work?

A few days ago, I passed by a person going to the market.

His hands were busy doing something.🙌🏼

He was very pleasant. He was smiling but he went on breaking a wheat flour roti into small pieces.

He was a guard of a neighboring vicinity and he had to be careful who to let in or use his discretion and not permit people to enter.

When he saw me he quickly opened the gate as he saw me around every day and trusted me. 😎

I decided to ask him what he was doing with the roti.

I went closer to the man and he was delighted to see me stop by. He said very few people were gentle or kind. Mostly when he stopped they were gruff with him and thought he was poor so they should be rough with him and not let him do his duty.

He told me that every morning. he makes 8 big roti from the wheat dough and mixes seeds that birds like to eat. He brings the food for the birds from home.

Then he does his duty at the gate. During his lunchtime, he sits next to the gate and makes small and fine pieces that birds can eat and digest. The birds then come to him and he feeds them everyday. They eat out of his hands and trust him immensely.

He is so kind that he thinks of how the birds will handle it. The pieces have to be really minute or the birds find it difficult to take them down their throat.

I asked him if I could take a picture of him and put it on social media. He said he would not mind and was happy to talk about his little duty towards the birds.

No one had asked to take his picture so he was amused as to why he was being treated so specially by me.

I asked this man for his story. He told me that he hailed from a small village in another state.

His name was Prem Pal. He had come from Uttar Pradesh to New Delhi in search of a job to feed his family.

He was not educated. He had only passed his 3rd or 4th class he did not remember which one.

He was able to get a job as a guard in a colony. He was paid a paltry sum. If you convert the money into US dollars it would barely be 150$ per month.

He was used to living alone in the city and came every day from a small room. He used to send money to his wife every month.

He was very poor but looked peaceful and satisfied.

I asked him “Why do you give so much to the birds every day?”

How I am inspired

He inspired me by saying “birds are the reason for my existence here. Someone must feed them. They make my day so beautiful every day. I decided to feed them by thanking them for their friendship. When I feed them, I do not forget them”

This poor man was an inspiration.

He was so poor yet he thought of the birds who made his day beautiful. He was full of gratitude.

I believe in the following quotation by Desmond Tutu

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

From his story I have some takeaways:

🌻You may be rich or poor but you must have a good heart to be able to give time, and effort, and do good deeds toward others.

🌻🌻If each one feeds one person, poverty in the country will reduce to some extent.

🌻🌻🌻A common and poor person can inspire you to do good deeds toward others. You can learn from anyone. Inspiration is a flashlight and it comes from anywhere around you through love and kindness.

🌻🌻🌻🌻When you are inspired you must pay it forward. This is exactly what I do and I am inspired by these gentle hands to continue to do more for society.

All I can say is be inspired.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou

How I pay it forward

I am inspired and I take the following action to pay it forward.

I feed one child in the community center market whenever I go there for shopping. There are many kids who are hungry.

It is so sad when they ask for food and they point a finger toward their favorite dish. One of them wanted to eat a burger as he had never eaten one in his life. It is a pleasure to feed them as a pay-it-forward measure.

In the Sikh community, we have a community lunch called ‘Langar’. In this system, we serve both the rich and poor, female or male. The person can be brown skin, Black or white but there is no difference or distinction. Each one enjoys the fare.

We go and serve people. This teaches humility and inspires people to do good. It is also a method of paying it forward. What we have must be shared with others.

We all give a share of what we earn to this fund for feeding people.

To wrap up

Inspiration can come from any source. Often we get it from unexpected sources. It may be from influential people or common people. It is like a flashbulb and comes in an instant.

The important part is to pay it forward. If some act inspires you never hesitate to pay it forward for the good of other people.

Thank you Dr. Gabriella Korosi for the prompt 9/52 on Inspiration in Dancing Elephants Press

©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2022.

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