A small act of kindness, no
doubt brings joy in the benefactor’s life, which cannot be measured in terms of
money. But when we are at the receiving end, the happiness is even more,
because we haven't expected it in the first place and another reason is that it
might come from a source, which is totally unknown to us. You would be
thinking, what philosophy doses am I giving here, but now, I will tell you the
reason for writing these lines.
We have a small community of Marathi speaking Indians in Stuttgart and we celebrate the main festivals with our families. And on 29th of this month, the whole of Maharashtra and a few states in the North and South India will welcome the elephant god, whom we lovingly called Ganpati and celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm. Being away from this whole fun filled festival, we decided to celebrate it here, in Stuttgart, on a small scale, rather on the basis of whatever will be available to us here.
We thought of also including the small kids in this celebration and for that we decided to make a murti (idol) of Ganesha here. For that obviously, clay would be needed. We hardly know any place here which can supply us with clay and many of us being working mothers, it would not have been feasible to go searching for it after office. So, we were toying with this idea since two weeks or so, but no solution was visible.
Then suddenly I remembered that for the last parent brunch in Tanay's creche, a lady had a mobile pottery studio and she had brought clay along and she was taking a small workshop for the kids that day. She was making small figures and painting it for the kids. I immediately took her contact details from the internet and mailed her explaining the purpose of procuring clay and if it will be available with her and how much would it cost. I was actually not expecting any reply from her, because I thought, she would dismiss my mail for some reason and wouldn't reply at all.
The next day, when I went to pick up Tanay from the Kita, a packet of clay was sitting promptly on his shelf with his name and I was just overwhelmed on seeing it. There was no mention of price on it. I asked around and they had no clue of the price either. They just told me that this was meant for me from the pottery studio. I tried calling the lady, but somehow couldn't reach her. I mailed her again asking the price. But she very politely refused to take any money and said that it is her small contribution for our festival.
I was speechless. A foreigner, who has no clue perhaps of with what sentiments we celebrate the Ganesha festival supplied us with the most important part of the festival, the clay, with which we and the kids will now be able to make the murti and make this celebration a grand success. I did not have to hunt any shops for it, I did not have to go anywhere searching for it. It just came into my hands from a source which has nothing to do with Ganesha festival.
I thank her from the bottom of my heart and as my token of appreciation, I will send her some typical Indian gift, which will remind her of the generous help, she extended to us.
We have a small community of Marathi speaking Indians in Stuttgart and we celebrate the main festivals with our families. And on 29th of this month, the whole of Maharashtra and a few states in the North and South India will welcome the elephant god, whom we lovingly called Ganpati and celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm. Being away from this whole fun filled festival, we decided to celebrate it here, in Stuttgart, on a small scale, rather on the basis of whatever will be available to us here.
We thought of also including the small kids in this celebration and for that we decided to make a murti (idol) of Ganesha here. For that obviously, clay would be needed. We hardly know any place here which can supply us with clay and many of us being working mothers, it would not have been feasible to go searching for it after office. So, we were toying with this idea since two weeks or so, but no solution was visible.
Then suddenly I remembered that for the last parent brunch in Tanay's creche, a lady had a mobile pottery studio and she had brought clay along and she was taking a small workshop for the kids that day. She was making small figures and painting it for the kids. I immediately took her contact details from the internet and mailed her explaining the purpose of procuring clay and if it will be available with her and how much would it cost. I was actually not expecting any reply from her, because I thought, she would dismiss my mail for some reason and wouldn't reply at all.
The next day, when I went to pick up Tanay from the Kita, a packet of clay was sitting promptly on his shelf with his name and I was just overwhelmed on seeing it. There was no mention of price on it. I asked around and they had no clue of the price either. They just told me that this was meant for me from the pottery studio. I tried calling the lady, but somehow couldn't reach her. I mailed her again asking the price. But she very politely refused to take any money and said that it is her small contribution for our festival.
I was speechless. A foreigner, who has no clue perhaps of with what sentiments we celebrate the Ganesha festival supplied us with the most important part of the festival, the clay, with which we and the kids will now be able to make the murti and make this celebration a grand success. I did not have to hunt any shops for it, I did not have to go anywhere searching for it. It just came into my hands from a source which has nothing to do with Ganesha festival.
I thank her from the bottom of my heart and as my token of appreciation, I will send her some typical Indian gift, which will remind her of the generous help, she extended to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment