The Kharisma Magazine The Kharisma Magazine (Full) Premiere Issue | Page 194

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{
P R E M I E R
I S S U E
2 0 1 8
}
K H A R I S M A
M A G A Z I N E
A SIMPLE
ACT OF
[
kindness
B Y
N I H A R
A
s humans, we have various goals. Some of us want to be successful in business. Some
of us want to attain fame. Some of us want to change the world. All of these aims are
metrics through which we measure our success. What if, instead, we measured our
success by how much we gave back to others? Often, there are misconceptions
about needing a lot of wealth or political influence to help others.
I’m here to tell you a beautiful story I experienced in India... one that proves
that we can give back without having much ourselves. While I was walking
around the city of Ahmedabad with my father, an 18-year old boy named Babu
Rajwadi approached us, asking if he could polish our shoes in exchange for
two rupees.
S U T H A R ]
For those of you who may not know, two rupees is equivalent to roughly
$0.03. Of course, both my father and I agreed to let him polish our
shoes. Two rupees is close to nothing, and I’m a firm believer in
helping out those who are less fortunate than I am, especially when
they are working hard to positively change their futures.
As soon as my father and I nodded in approval for Babu to
polish our shoes, a look of excitement flashed across his face.
He was endlessly proud at his success in landing a new “job.”
Not wanting to let the opportunity pass, he quickly pulled
out a broken brush and a tiny can of black shoe polish from
a rolled up grocery bag in his pocket. It was obvious that
Babu was dirt poor.
Nihar
Suthar
Poverty in India is pretty widespread. It is not uncommon
for people to ask you to give them money in exchange
for carrying out random tasks. There was something
different about this kid from everyone else. I had
seen in the past, though. Babu started thanking us
for the opportunity we had given him as he started
polishing the shoes. H e s p e n t a s o l i d f i v e
to ten minutes
G I V I N G
B A C K
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