I don't know why people say I inspire them. I never know how to respond to that. I always thought that in order to inspire people you had to be a superhero. Or at least someone who had had a glorious death. Or a life of a tough battle with a disease or disability. As weird as it sounds, I always wanted one of these, I wanted to be remembered for good. For that I made myself believe that I needed to do great things. Perhaps save a life and get the bravery award. However, as I grew up, I understood that you can be a regular person and still inspire people. That it doesn't have to be about the grand things but small instances which make people smile. I honestly never knew my words could touch people. When people tell me something I write inspires me or makes them cry, it just fills me up with a sense of exhilaration. While writing I never think about how a person reading it might perceive it as. But people have told me that my words have guided them and made them better people. Yesterday during the trend, people who don't even know me came and said wow your blog was inspiring. I felt like a hero. A flawed, imperfect, little known hero. So thank you everyone for making me feel like a hero.
If you're reading this, I'll just like to share something. Yesterday, I decided to distribute chocolates to underprivileged kids who come to my college to be taught by few students. However, chocolates seemed inadequate. So I decided to give them pencils. Pencils always fascinated me as a child, they gave me the belief that you could erase your mistakes and start over new. However as we grow up we switch to pens. We harden around the things we write and say, we make it harder for the mistakes to be erased or forgotten. But it also is a lesson that each mistake shapes you. Anyway, so as I distributed, the smiles on the faces of the kids lifted me up. The way they said Happy Birthday and Thank you Didi. In the end all of them gathered and sang for me. A small girl even gifted me these pair of handmade earrings. Another one a bookmark saying "Books are my best friends". I wonder how she knew. Kids have a magical sense of intuition. As I came back a friend of mine said she will do the same next year. So if I'm your friend, just somebody whose blogs you happen to read or even someone you don't like, try doing this for your next birthday. It doesn't cost much. 200 rupees for chocolates. 100 for pencils. Much less that what we mindlessly spend on our cake and gifts. It will make your year. For what they say is true. Giving is receiving.
