Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Half A World Away


--by John Inman, posted Jan 14, 2006
While volunteering in India between April 2 and April 18, I experienced a smile card. Let me tell you how.

The day before I left for home, Saturday April 17, I was cleaning up my office at LAICO, the training institute at Aravind Eye Hospital, and someone left me a Smile card and a beautiful poem on my desk. I was completely taken by this act of kindness. I had worked 12 of the 14 days that I had been in India and I was not sure that I had made a positive impact on those with whom I had worked. This card and poem really touched my heart and brought closure to my two weeks of work and helped me realize that I had made a difference to someone at LAICO.

Then while at the Seva partner and board meetings last week, the extraordinary story came to fruition. We as a group, 40 strong, were sitting in circle and sharing recent experiences. I was sitting by Tony, and Tony started the sharing. I would be the last to share in this experience. Nipun was sitting just to my right, the second to the last. After hours of sharing, I as a guest was not sure just how I was going to share my long and serendipitous journey that brought me to the Seva meeting. Then Nipun shared.

Nipun talked about the story of the Smile campaign, how it had taken off. I was sitting next to you in amazement realizing that I had been an early recipient of a Smile card, half a world away.

When I shared, I thanked those who had invited me to the meeting and then talked about how your story of Smile cards had given me inspiration for what I would discuss. It was all about connections. Person to person connections making a difference in the world.

I then told the story about how I received a Smile card in India and how such an extraordinary connection had made such a difference in my life. I then talked about my connections that led to my presence at the meeting.
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Readers Comments

heartofflesh wrote: I am in india ,very happy to know you received such a
Pleasant surprise here in india.
jsmc10 wrote: I'm so glad it has spread world wide, the poem sounds wonderful :)

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