Be Kind.. The Heart Never Forgets

The heart never forgets the way it has been treated. I know a  cook who would be around fifty. She rarely smiles. Sometimes when I have friends over she comes to cook. Her repertoire is limited. She can make about ten dishes all Punjabi style but lip-smacking. We have long conversations when we are in the kitchen. She told me she was working as a live-in maid in a flat in Mumbai when she was only thirteen. Her Madam and Sir would not let her use the fan even in sweltering summers.

So one day Madam and Sir had gone out she went off to sleep. They came back and rang the bell and finally when this girl opened the door after a short while, they really beat her for going to sleep and this little girl wept and cried, so they finally sent her home. She tells me till the day she still curses still them and she can still feel the pain inflicted on her.

A friend of mine had gone on a ten-day long trek. It was evening, the trek was over and she was sitting in her tent feeling cold. Her teeth were chattering so she went into the next tent. Her friends were there and one of them noticed her shivering. He quickly put a lot of kambals over her to help her become warm. Her shivering stopped and this act of kindness stayed with her always.

Now they say to throw out toxic people from your lives but at that point, she did not know. Now they are no longer friends but still, the peg episode never goes away from her head and heart.

These are small snippets of how small acts of kindness and unkindness can impact one’s life. Both of these extreme actions invoke extreme reactions from individuals and the incident stays with that person forever. So, choose to be kind. Choose to impact someone’s life positively. Choose to be compassionate and see how the world responds to you.

Image via Pixabay

Comments