Three Short Rickshaw Stories & Generosity Posted by Ram Upadhyay, May 18 2013 Three short rickshaw stories & generosity (one of them is about Udaybhai in Ahmedabad)... Posted by Nithya Shanti on Facebook (who recently attended the Awakin gathering in Pune!). Three Amazing Rickshaw Stories... Yesterday a few friends and I began sharing auto-rickshaw stories. Now it is common in India to complain about how rude and corrupt rickshaw drivers are. However our stories revealed a very different side to these people who ferry us across busy, smoke filled roads each day. The first story was shared by a friend who said that he has made it a practice to give every rickshaw driver TWICE the amount he is asked for. Once when he did this the driver was very confused and asked him why he was giving him twice the fare. My friend replied, "I would like you to keep the money, and if ever you see an old or sick person needing a ride on ... Read Full Story

Our Forest Call Guest Today Was ... Posted by Vinya Sankaran Vasu, May 18 2013 Our forest call guest today was Sheetal. Sheetal mentioned how much Wednesdays at Santa Clara have nourished and inspired him. It is no surprise that he started Awakin circles in Pune and spread the love :). A few weeks ago, his wife Khushmita has posted a beautiful blog entry about Wednesdays at Ahmedabad and the inspiration Madhu and Meghna imbibed from the awakin circles they were at in Santa Clara. One act of service inspires another and another until what is left is circles of love that fill our world with ripples of more circles of love…

Elemental: Water, Film & The Human Spirit Posted by DailyGood.org, May 18 2013 Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a director, producer, musician and composer who set out on a journey around the world to film a documentary about water -- that integral substance that connects us all and sustains life. In this conversation, Emmanuel talks about his practice of focusing on the process rather than the outcome, staying authentic to himself and those he films, and trusting the ripples. He reflects on what the making of the film taught him and how, much like a river, it encouraged him to let go and flow with his journey. "Elemental" is currently screening in the United States and across the globe. [Full Story]

Share My Dabba Posted by Shalini Sahai, May 18 2013 A new campaign in Mumbai uses the famous lunchbox network to feed the street children of the city.  Some would define it as “social innovation” – using an existing infrastructure for social impact. What is Share My Dabba? Share My Dabba is an initiative to get uneaten food in dabbas (lunch boxes) to hungry children on the street. It’s not charity but an attempt to create a practical, every day system for food relief. Why Share My Dabba? 300 million children across the world will go hungry today. 200 thousand in Mumbai, with 2 starving to death. All this while we leave behind food. In the dabbawala system itself, out of the 120 tons of food transported, approximately 16 tons is wasted. Wouldn’t you rather share this with a hungry child than throw it in the bin? How does it work? On a diet? Not feeling that hungry? Skipped lunch? More food than ... Read Full Story

Unconditional Income Experiment Posted by Tapan Parikh, May 17 2013 A very interesting experiment of Uncondition Income -- The idea of giving money to the poor without asking for anything in return startled some. "They told us the men would use the money to get drunk, and the women to buy jewelery and saris," said Dewala. "But it’s a middle-class prejudice that the poor don’t know how to use money sensibly. The study showed that a regular income allows people to act responsibly. They know their priorities. When something is rare, people measure its value. (Anyway, in tribal villages, people distil their own liquor.) The main advantage is regularity. It makes it possible to organize, save and borrow. The principle is that a small amount of money generates a great deal of energy in a village."

Dennis Dentists And Giving Posted by Amit Dungarani, May 17 2013 Dan Pink asks Adam Grant: "Okay, let me just get this out of the way. People named Dennis are almost twice as likely to become dentists as people with comparably popular names. What the heck is going on here and why should we care?"  Adam responds: "The evidence here is very controversial, but it does turn out that we’re surprisingly drawn to careers—and people, places, and products—that remind us of our own names. If your name is Dennis or Denise, when you first learn about dentists, you might have a slightly more positive feeling because it taps into something familiar that’s part of your identity. Research by Brett Pelham and his colleagues suggests that this is true for a wide range of names, especially if our names are rare and we identify strongly with them. The self-similarity effect extends to helping: we’re more likely to give time and money to people who ... Read Full Story

Kindness Ideas Of The Week Posted by HelpOthers.org, May 17 2013 Couple Smile Groups ideas that were posted this week ... lowerthenumber shares: "I helped stop someone from commiting suicide! " fzw1998 shares: "To smile " JlyneHanback shares: "I sent a heartfelt email to someone for Mother's Day whom I know has lost their own mother in the past couple of years to try to lift them up and get them through the day."

Hi Everyone:) There Is A Friend ... Posted by Nivendra- Uduman, May 17 2013 Hi Everyone:) There is a friend of mine, whose cousin has undergone several brain surgeries due to a tumour and is still not fully recovered. He is showing slight signs of improvement and is still not talking or moving too much. It's been a while now, and the family needs a great deal of support and empowerment. He lives with his father as his mother passed away when he was young. He is an university student and is really smart and always kind and generous. There is a great deal that he can contribute to the world, and to humanity.  His name is Pahan, and Pahan is still holding onto life. He is a fighter, made of true steel. So, I wondered whether all of us kindness warriors could get together and write Pahan and his father letters of love? It would mean the world to them to know that folks ... Read Full Story

A Lot Of Service Comes From ... Posted by Venkatesh Seshadri, May 17 2013 A lot of service comes from one's deeper self - that part which experiences quiet joy, truth, goodness and beauty- one that is not affected by daily dance of circumstance. This deeper self negates the usual ego self prompted thro the body, senses, mind and intellect. This overcomes afflictive emotion and provide a sense of selflessness. An act of compassion can arise only to people who are in touch with their deeper self.

David Foster Wallace's Speech For The Ages Posted by DailyGood.org, May 17 2013 O, the maddening tedium of the everyday responsibilities of adult life! It plagues us because the "default setting" of our mentality is to feel victimized by circumstance. We place ourselves in the center of the universal narrative, making the plot-line all about ourselves. In his 2005 commencement address, novelist David Foster Wallace speaks refreshingly about personal empowerment. The freedom comes from an open-minded awareness of the possibility that there are less self-centered, complex, and gladdening narratives spinning around you -- even in the most frustrating situations. "It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down," he shares. "Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it." Excerpts from his talk have been woven into this video that has recently gone viral. [Full Story]