What does it takes to extend a helping hand to the needy? For me, just a heart, a simple thought and a tough you! The scene still comes vivid to my mind when for the first time without anybody’s command, despite a strong opposition from people around me, I did it. That was the moment for me.

That was the day when I compelled my father to buy a Hatti Chaap chappal ( a rubber slipper) for the porter while our family was on our way to our village in Gorkha during the cold winter of January. I later found out that the porter advertently did not wear it due to fear of slipping. But, I felt the sense of being light, relieved and happy.

It’s not hard to encounter similar arguments and differences in opinion. It comes just as easily as breathing.

And it is with due respect that I

handle it even though at times it escalates to the verge of shouting out aloud to convince the other person, often in vain. I cannot figure out where I got the impetus to collect coins — now a habit.

While I was studying abroad, I managed to collect enough coins to pay a needy girl’s tuition fees for two years. I still keep my “joy box”, I may not be able to contribute to the highly funded charity for some tangible purpose at this point of my struggling career, but I still try my best to get a smile from a blind and crippled stranger on New Road who is struggling to survive. Perhaps, I could appear selfish here in the sense that I am giving away something to get a smile. A smile that brings a lot of joy to my heart.

Once again, I unknowingly put myself in this contradiction just a couple of weeks back. People were against my idea of helping a struggling stranger when I was during a sort of a career crisis. As much as it sounded right, it sounded insulting and thoughtless to me. I even took a glimpse at that thought if the way I got joy was wrongful. I absolutely could not find crevices to prove myself wrong. The next day I was reading a column in The Himalayan Times.

Two similar articles, articles about the joy of giving, as little as a copper coin. There I stopped thinking and I became more confident about the “my” way of joy. Today, my joy box is small and I really hope and dream one day it will grow large enough to accommodate more needy friends for the same amount of my joy.