13 November 2022
“Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain
The world stands in need of the milk of human kindness. Human beings have the capacity to be kind.
To be kind to fellow human beings! To animals and birds! To nature around us! To the universe as a whole! If we unleash this positive power, the world can be a better place to live in.
This is the philosophy of the World Kindness Movement. The Organization was launched in 1997 in Tokyo. The Movement initiated to launch the World Kindness Day on 13 November 1998.
Its mission is to help create a kinder world through the cooperation of governments, individuals and organisations. The Movement claims to have on its active membership 28 nations or their Kindness NGOs.
Today we see so much cruelty in the world. Hate speeches have a free rein. Bombing, killing, devastating other nations, dislocating their citizens and merciless brutality are practised by cruel rulers or their devotees. Human suffering caused by the unkind cut of such terrorist leaders or groups is ever on the increase.
Some governments practise bulldozer politics by razing to the ground buildings, mansions or prayer sanctuaries belonging to minority groups. Politics is made a tool to unleash cruelty and to climb the ladder of power and glory.
When Rome burnt, Nero the emperor fiddled. Such fiddling Neroes are strutting on the stage today as clowns and cartoon characters. Their tribe seems to be increasing and having a field day. Such people have not suckled the milk of their mothers’ human kindness, to say the least.
Kindness, as a virtue, starts with the family. If one has not tasted the kind atmosphere of the family, one will carry the bitter taste forward. Educational institutions have a big role in teaching their students the value and practice of kindness. Especially in the Indian context, where caste and class divide people into ghetto mentality, students also may have in their haversacks or carry bags ample doses of the poisonous drug of hatred, cruelty, suspicion, superciliousness, or the attitude of looking down on others because they came from economically backward communities, or because they do not flaunt wealth and dress as others do.
That is where educational centres have the onerous responsibility to mould and fashion their students into men and woman with human values of kindness, fellowship and humanity.
On the World Human Kindness Day, the students could be instructed to show their appreciation of their fellow students with attitudes of kindness and fellowship by at least one good deed. This could be the beginning. More such positive exercises could be promoted as time goes by, be it in the class room seating, or in the games field, or in the laboratory, or anywhere for that matter.
“People will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou