Random Acts of kindness

It was on wet and wintry fall afternoon two years ago that a former Doctoral student stepped into my office to request some formal documentation from the department.  He was very well dressed with a colourful silk scarf, a warm wool jacket, he also had a polite tone of voice and was very well mannered. My initial guess was that he was of Middle Eastern heritage and further along our conversation I came to realise that he was indeed.  In general most of the students I deal with are well mannered and smartly dressed, but he just had a presence and calmness about him that was somewhat captivating.

We sat down and talked for a good while about everything under the sun, from how his research was going to what he had planned for the future.  How I was coping with life as a new immigrant, challenges we both had to overcome and so on and so forth.  Eventually, after a highly stimulating conversation, we said our goodbyes and that was that.  After 4-5 months he again came to my office with a very beautiful and expensive gift.
He said, this is for you and your family, thank you for taking the time to sit with me and listen to what I have to say when we last met.  After exchanging pleasantries, he said goodbye once more and promptly left.  Ever the gentleman as before, immaculately dressed and ever the professional.

I was really shocked to be honest with you. This random act of kindness just left me gob-smacked, I remember thinking wow, who would've known how much it means to someone to just sit down and listen to them.  It obviously meant a lot to this particular gentleman.  I was really happy for being there for him without realising I was, I felt like I actually did some good and vowed to continue with the same policy.

Another example of random kindness I received is when we were moving in October 2008.  We needed packing boxes so after a fruitless search decided to try Craigslist.  There was a woman who was giving away her packing boxes for free and she lived down town.  I got in touch with her via e-mail and confirmed that I wanted the boxes and left her my number to contact me if they were still available.  When she got the message, she rang me back and upon learning that I don't have a car at that time ( I was hoping to carry them in public transport) she offered to being them to me!  We gave her our address and she dropped the boxes off the same evening, I offered to pay her for her troubles and she refused, she just asked that we pay it forward.  Allahu Akbar.

It's simple acts like this that remind us that kindness, love and compassion still exist in this world.  We all have the power to make someones day with a simple act of kindness, it doesn't have to cost money.  You can lend  an ear, remove an obstruction from the road, greet a complete stranger with a genuine smile on your face.  Anything you can think of, do it, trust me you will feel good about yourself and the person who receives this act of kindness will feel good about humanity.  Don't perform a random act expecting to receive a random act of kindness in return, do it because you want to be kind.  Wahenga walisema, "tenda wema uende zako"

Check out the beautiful video below;