The Positivity Project as it stands today is a movement to radiate positivty all around. Our family of volunteers is ever growing finding new heights of enthusiasm every single day. We have touched the lives of over a 1000 people- orphans, challenged individuals and oldies in the process as on the date of writing this blog. At The Positivity Project, we are a family of like minded people who take immense pleasure in making a positive difference to the lives of the needy. The situation in India is well known: the helplessness of the oldies who are abandoned, the humiliation that challenged people suffer and the incompleteness of orphans. So we have taken it upon ourselves to "be the change that we wish to see in the world" as Mahatma Gandhi said. Our influence is growing by the day, and we hope to create an atmosphere where social work becomes a norm not just in Mumbai, but extending to the whole of India. In the long run, I suppose the rural areas will be the biggest beneficiaries.
Since a very young age, I was taught to help as many people as I can. Earlier, my work in this sphere was to help my friends with studies, motivating them to make studies interesting, consoling them when they were down, and being around for them through their highs and lows. To a lesser extent, helping covered others around me too.
During my CA Final preparations, I used to go though a lot of Positivity, Inspirational and Motivational videos. I began every day with 30 mins of motivation while jogging. These videos filled me with the much needed positivity for CA Final's rigourous preparation daily. I saw myself becoming highly focused and productive.
My mother had once told me about one man who was very poor. He barely earned enough to sustain himself but still donated a little every day. His hardwork and the blessings he recieved saw him become filthy rich. His habit had continued over the years. He was now in a position to donate a lakh every day. On his last days, he asked his arrongant son to start donating with Rs1 a day and double it every day. At first it seemed a very small amount for a multi millionare, but slowly and gradually it built up. The son had to pay 13.42 Crores on the 28th day, his arrogance was lost. The man finally died after taking a promise from his son to donate Rs 1 crore a day. Since that day I had a goal to be able to donate 1 Crore Rs a day by 45 years of age. Also I felt that donation shouldn't be just about money, but also in positive emotions.
Being engrossed in this positive ideas, suddenly this thought came up in my mind, and I had promised myself that I would take it up after my CA Final Exams in May 2014. This is what gave birth to the thought of The Positivity Project.
Being engrossed in this positive ideas, suddenly this thought came up in my mind, and I had promised myself that I would take it up after my CA Final Exams in May 2014. This is what gave birth to the thought of The Positivity Project.
I had spoke about my intentions to start such a movement to a number of friends and recieved very encouraging response. I had noticed a lot of people in stress, having breakdowns, feeling low,etc during the exam preps. Exams were now done, but the reality was that lows are a part of everyone's life. Everyone needs uplifting thoughts at some point or the other in their life. I decided to start with friends and family. I used to message one person a day at dawn with all the positive emotions I had for them like admiration, appreciation, thankfulness, etc , things that I liked about them, and some great memories that we shared together. The idea was exciting…. How beautiful it would be to get up in the morning to such a positive message!!!
Through the survey of a few friends I had messaged initially, I realized that such a message lasted on an average for at least a week in the minds of my friends. Their days and week went well just cause of this small gesture. So I urged them to do it to their friends too...!
Alongside, I was a part of a group for trekking on which Komal once posted that we should do something good together too. The idea of social visits was born in this group. 6 of us – Hemang, Komal, Jay Ruparel, Jia, Priya Rochiramani and myself decided to visit King George Memorial Old Age Home. We interacted with the people there, made them play housie and antakshari, and distributed fruits and chocolates... It was a blissful experience for all of us to be able to create that enjoyable atmosphere and light things up for them. All of us excitedly told our friends and encouraged them to join in. Event after event, this enthusiasm has brought in new members to our Positivity Project Family. We are now a family of more than 90 ‘Positivizers’ with the same goal.
As of today, we have had 24 such Social Visits to orphanages, old age homes and disability centres in Mumbai. At all these places, we have been successful in igniting that spark of merriment and that flame of positivity. We have kept ourselves adaptable, and based our activities on the likes of the orphans, oldies and special people. Apart from interacting with them, we made them sing, dance, play kho-kho, kabaddi, antakshari, housie, throwball, football, etc. We also gave a lot of passionate performances ourselves too- Dancing, Singing, Dialogue delivery, mimickry, etc to the warm reception of the excited audiences. Our performances are vividly remembered by the audiences as we surprisingly but delightfully noticed on our second visits to some of these places. Also, we donate in kind at all these places may it be some biscuits, fruits, chocolates, games, grains, necessaries,etc.
Quite frankly, I have realized that the biggest beneficiaries of these activities are we the ‘Positivizers’ ourselves. To see the people’s faces light up on seeing us, to create happiness in the lives of these people, to gain the genuine blessings of the elderly, to the innocence and excitement in orphans, to feel the strong emotions of thankfulness……… the list goes on and on, but would still fall drastically short of the actual experience that we have…. Truly, we are spreading positivity all around, including ourselves.
We wish to not just continue but extend our reach and influence. We are deliberating on new ways to do this. We invite you to have a look at our Facebook page -www.facebook.com/thepositivityproject to understand the activities that we do.
Any recommendations and suggestions are welcome. You may contact us at:
Jay: 9930534416
Komal: 9819472026
Especially agreeing on the last part. More than anyone, it spreads smiles and happiness to ourselves. The life suddenly becomes meaningful when you are attached to something like The Positivity Project. I sincerely thank Jay, Komal and team for the same and will keep on spreading smiles to others in one form or the other. It is such a pleasure to meet positive people in life.
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