An Injection of Positivity in the Depressing Times of Corona

When this idea was conceptualized and the book began to take shape, there was no Corona aka Wuhan aka Covid-19 virus. I know this because the author, Savitha Rao, had met me to discuss her idea. It is just a matter of coincidence that the book #INDIAPOSITIVECITIZEN has been released at the time when the entire society, in fact, the world, is gripped in the fear of the pandemic and people just wish to see the end of this life. It is a period that has shown us the unpredictability of life, how the entire society lives or sinks together; and the importance of co-operation and supporting each other. It is the time when we need positivity to keep afloat calmly and cheerfully amid the sea of depressing environment.

It is not an accident that India may be the only country in the world that has seen so much of people’s participation and NGOs’ role in fighting this pandemic and supporting the people in this fight. Nearly all other societies were looking up to state power or the government agencies to provide succor. This is the innate nature of Indian society. People consider themselves as part of the society, obliged to ‘samaj’ and so they run to support each other when any disaster strikes, resources don’t matter. Rich or poor don’t matter.

I recall walking from Bandra to Vile Parle, to my home through flooded roads carrying my briefcase on my head in July 2006 monsoon fury. I saw poor hutment dwellers whose own homes were flooded, putting up temporary stalls with free tea, pohe, biscuits. Total strangers were given shelter in these very chawls that many of us refuse to look at.

This is that sense of belonging of a body where eyes well up in tears when feet get hurt and hands reach out immediately to provide relief. Maharshi Aurobindo and Shri Guruji of RSS envisioned this nation and its society as ‘Virat Purush’ and individuals as cells of this ‘Virat Purush’.

Savitha Rao takes this idea forward and addresses each cell individually. According to her if the cell is healthy the body is healthy, the mind is healthy. Her idea also reminds us that body has self-healing properties. Healthy cells are able to repair unhealthy cells much better than the outside support system. Strong medical intervention works only if cells inside are healthy enough to respond.

She suggests that if each of us does one positive action to help another fellow citizen once a week, it will mean billions of positive actions in a year, making us a better, healthy, and happy society. There is nothing new in the suggestion. What is new is the examples she has set from her own action and examples she quotes about how individuals have been changing lives. Simple people like you and us.

I have said many times when people complain that our youth have no icon to follow, no real-life hero like in yesteryears, that there are heroes around us. Why go far with our binoculars, just wear better glasses to watch simple people doing simple acts of kindness and positivity. Some examples are so simple that you wonder why I didn’t do it all these years! No kindness is small. Any small act can be big if it brings a smile to the face of a stranger.

Savitha just recounts 52 stories. I am sure she has hundreds of them. If she were to ask around there would be thousands of them. She adds simple mantras, a simple to-do list for all age groups, all categories of citizens that make it all sound so easy to be positive and bring in positivity. There are many quotable quotes spoken with simplicity.

The stories are so charming that I would not like to narrate them here to kill your pleasure when you read the book. But, can you imagine that gifting a stole or offering a samosa spontaneously can make a few lives sparkle? Can you imagine that a group can bring colorful strokes to drab lives of thousands of people living in depressing chawls? How a few dogged follow-ups can even move rusted civic machinery to help citizens live a safer life? That we need to do this despite these being our basic rights as a citizen and basic duty of the civil servant, is a different matter. But, a little nudge, a little push can move them.

The author doesn’t stop here, she tells the readers about some well-proven NGOs, Voluntary Organisations so that they can reach out and make life better for others if they can’t find their own way.

I can assure you that while reading the book, you will feel ennobled and motivated. By the time you end up reading the book, you will feel very positive and decide to help inject positivity in the society with simple acts of Sewa, simple gestures of love, change people around you, and finally change the nation for the better. Yes, change begins with you, with us. That is the message.

#IndiaPostiveCitizen – Building a Great Nation, One India Positive Action at a Time

Available at www.indiapositivecitizen.com