Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I had two strangers at my doorstep this morning.

I asked them what had brought them there, a little afraid because of my parent's Little Red Riding Hood style warnings of dont-talk-to-strangers, and a little surprised to see two unknown people who looked like they could be fellow students in my college.

Both dressed in old but neatly pressed clothes, the taller boy began explaining his predicament.

He showed me his fees form and said that his exams were starting in a month.  He would not be allowed to write his exams without coming up with the entire tuition fees amount.  He was studying a Masters Course in Computer Applications in a good college in my city.  I luckily have friends studying the same course in my college which meant I could verify the dates and information he was giving me.

The bottomline was that he still fell short of 2500 rupees to meet his target of 30,000 rupees a year in fees (the rest of which he had earned by working in part time jobs).

He was having a hard time and a sad family situation.

I thought a bit.  I didn't have much money, so I came up with another idea -- I gave him an expensive and priceless foreign book on the computer language on which he had to write his exam.

I had seen that his grades were excellent and I thought he probably could not afford such good text books otherwise.

I also remembered 500 bucks of hard cash that I had won as prize money in a technical contest-stashed away in my draw.

I handed over the entire 500 to my newly made friend and wished him luck with his exams.

When you are in college, cash always comes in handy - whether it is to pay off library due fines, buying new text books, or hang out in the movies with friends. :)

But when I saw this chap, I was reminded of my own  friends (many of whom were brilliant, and yet are struggling to pay for their education).  This image replaced all hesitation and doubt with empathy and generosity and I forgot my own desires about spending that money and instead gave it away.