How is everyone doing? Wanted to share this wonderful exercise, experiment, and experience that is happening here lately.
Its the Joy of Giving Week in India, timed with Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on Oct 2nd. Its a drive that's caught the imagination of all ages, all religions, all occupations and gender alike, and I find it very fascinating. The website has events listed of all activities happening in different parts of the country; anyone can add an event and people can join in. Some great ideas in there! (http://www.joyofgivingweek.org)
The initiators have tied up with a donor facilitating website called Give India, which is a transparent medium that operates between a cause and a donor and ensures that your money goes towards the cause close to your heart. The site has various categories and screened NGOs/nonprofit organizations to choose from. (http://www.giveindia.org)
There are tie ups with a branded Tshirt company called aTEEtude and Inkfruit where they are offering discounts for orders placed during this week. For every Tshirt you buy, one will be donated free by the website to people in Mumbai. The Tshirts are colorful, fun and have cool captions! (http://give.ateetu.de)
Last but not the least, and my favorite, is a website called 7Days7Gifts. The brains behind this one are just a bunch of 3 youngsters who practiced the habit of giving/gifting for 21 days at a stretch!! Imagine! They had wonderful anecdotes to narrate/share and a great sense of well-being on completion of this task/experiment, and wanted to share this idea with everyone. To simplify it and make it more doable and less time-consuming they set the challenge to 7 days. They have rules and ideas on how to go about planning how to gift continuously for 7 days nonstop. These include gifting to a complete stranger and gifting away something that you hold preciously dear. Its all about practicing the spirit of giving and the art of letting go. There are blogs of people who have gone through the experience and perfectionists can feel much better reading that neither you nor the gift has to be perfect!! Haha! (http://7days7gifts.ning.com)
I have been trying out all of the above and intend to make a regular event of the 7 days 7 gifts experiment in my life every month. It's not as easy as it sounds and therein lies the challenge. You have to plan in advance and this doesn't help if you're a nitpicker/perfectionist.
Its one thing about helping, giving, and gifting to people you love, on occasions, for a reason etc. Its also the easiest thing to send a check in the mail and assume you've done your bit for charity. Volunteering is so much nicer and fulfilling too (www.ivolunteer.in). Its not so much about giving money, but more about making something yourself and gifting it away, doing a deed that would bring a smile on the receiver's face, giving the gift of time, skills, qualities and ideas. The main criteria is that the receiver must really need/want the gift, so you have to put a lot of thought into it. Not such an easy task when its for someone you don't know at all/well enough :-)
I'm sure many of us are already doing all we can, when we can. But planning for 7 continuous days and the conscious practice that this experiment involves is an interesting process. I hope some of those reading this feel inspired enough to try it out sometime :-)
Anyway, some of these might be happening in India, but the 7D7G thing is such a cool concept, I wanted to share it in case you want to try it out for yourself, wherever you are. The beauty of it is that it can be practiced anytime, anywhere, and by anyone!
If you've read this long essay till here, I applaud and appreciate your patience to bear with me! This has been a wonderful week for me and I just wanted to share it with some special people :-)
Its the Joy of Giving Week in India, timed with Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on Oct 2nd. Its a drive that's caught the imagination of all ages, all religions, all occupations and gender alike, and I find it very fascinating. The website has events listed of all activities happening in different parts of the country; anyone can add an event and people can join in. Some great ideas in there! (http://www.joyofgivingweek.org)
The initiators have tied up with a donor facilitating website called Give India, which is a transparent medium that operates between a cause and a donor and ensures that your money goes towards the cause close to your heart. The site has various categories and screened NGOs/nonprofit organizations to choose from. (http://www.giveindia.org)
There are tie ups with a branded Tshirt company called aTEEtude and Inkfruit where they are offering discounts for orders placed during this week. For every Tshirt you buy, one will be donated free by the website to people in Mumbai. The Tshirts are colorful, fun and have cool captions! (http://give.ateetu.de)
Last but not the least, and my favorite, is a website called 7Days7Gifts. The brains behind this one are just a bunch of 3 youngsters who practiced the habit of giving/gifting for 21 days at a stretch!! Imagine! They had wonderful anecdotes to narrate/share and a great sense of well-being on completion of this task/experiment, and wanted to share this idea with everyone. To simplify it and make it more doable and less time-consuming they set the challenge to 7 days. They have rules and ideas on how to go about planning how to gift continuously for 7 days nonstop. These include gifting to a complete stranger and gifting away something that you hold preciously dear. Its all about practicing the spirit of giving and the art of letting go. There are blogs of people who have gone through the experience and perfectionists can feel much better reading that neither you nor the gift has to be perfect!! Haha! (http://7days7gifts.ning.com)
I have been trying out all of the above and intend to make a regular event of the 7 days 7 gifts experiment in my life every month. It's not as easy as it sounds and therein lies the challenge. You have to plan in advance and this doesn't help if you're a nitpicker/perfectionist.
Its one thing about helping, giving, and gifting to people you love, on occasions, for a reason etc. Its also the easiest thing to send a check in the mail and assume you've done your bit for charity. Volunteering is so much nicer and fulfilling too (www.ivolunteer.in). Its not so much about giving money, but more about making something yourself and gifting it away, doing a deed that would bring a smile on the receiver's face, giving the gift of time, skills, qualities and ideas. The main criteria is that the receiver must really need/want the gift, so you have to put a lot of thought into it. Not such an easy task when its for someone you don't know at all/well enough :-)
I'm sure many of us are already doing all we can, when we can. But planning for 7 continuous days and the conscious practice that this experiment involves is an interesting process. I hope some of those reading this feel inspired enough to try it out sometime :-)
Anyway, some of these might be happening in India, but the 7D7G thing is such a cool concept, I wanted to share it in case you want to try it out for yourself, wherever you are. The beauty of it is that it can be practiced anytime, anywhere, and by anyone!
If you've read this long essay till here, I applaud and appreciate your patience to bear with me! This has been a wonderful week for me and I just wanted to share it with some special people :-)
3 comments:
First off, hats off to you.
And quoting from your post:
"They have rules and ideas on how to go about planning how to gift continuously for 7 days nonstop. These include gifting to a complete stranger and gifting away something that you hold preciously dear."
I'm a stranger and I love gifts ( because I never get any). So, you could start with me. The nice guy that I am, you don't have to let go of something that you hold preciously dear. :D
(Sent you an email.)
Thanks for sharing!
Happy Giving!
@V,
Thanks and nice try. You are no stranger, heck, I even know you like Pink Floyd and now death metal :P Thanks for the lovely mail :-)
@Neeraj,
Thanks and wish you the very same :-)
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