Thinking Day

It has been 3 months since 2010 begun and here am writing my first post. In January, I had drafted a post mentally. But I did not post it. I had drafted several posts later but they just remained as a draft because I wanted to be sure about what I wanted to write.

I drafted this post on 22nd Feb. My R friend at work always writes the specialty of a day on the bulletin board in front of her cube. It was Thinking Day on the 22nd. I have fond memories for this day.

It’s a day to think about the meaning of guiding and scouting and about scouts and guides in all the countries of the world. Donations are collected for the Thinking Day Fund which supports projects taken up by the scouts and guides.

In my school, the primary school girls associated with guiding were called as Bulbul and the secondary school girls were called as guides. I was a Bulbul and a guide during my school days. Every year events were organized on the Thinking Day. The events started at 6 A.M in the morning and ended before the school prayer. During my 7th grade, we had invited children from an orphanage. We had arranged a potluck and my mom had prepared bhel puri and poori masal for my contribution. It gave immense satisfaction to me when the kids enjoyed and ate the food. At the age of 12, the lesson that I learnt was true happiness lies in helping the have not’s and giving and sharing. Some of these incidents unknowingly created few good thoughts in me.
My mom always gave our old clothes to needy children. Either it has been an orphanage like ‘udavum karangal’ or to servant maid’s daughter or to any other hawker’s (flower seller or vegetable seller) daughter. Till some point in my life, I have never had the heart of giving away even my used clothes to others, may be because I was emotionally attached to them. But later I realized and gave those clothes with a sense of helping others when they were in good condition so that the other person gains joy when they wear them.

This year I did nothing on the thinking day . But I was thinking about the desire in me to help the needy at somepoint in my life and I also cherished the moments when I was part of a foundation earlier.