That First Experience..

 Everyone has thought of a fixed path in life—A good career in a fortune 500 company, money, and an early retirement to start something new. Volunteering comes into picture only after retirement for most of us.

There is no time for anything else in our busy life. As it is our Social life, traveling, family, Job, keep us occupied so volunteering is not even part of the equation. Leisure time is spent meeting with friends, eating and drinking, and shopping. Social responsibility is left to the corporate companies with big pockets and resources,rights? 

This belief changed when I was struggling to get a job. As the famous saying goes “An empty mind is a devil’s workshop”, I decided to volunteer for namesake, when an old friend told me about some computer literacy project with IITB. 

I had decided in the beginning that if it became too difficult I would give some excuse and leave. Difficult situations can be handled only in jobs where there is incentive of promotion, money, and recognition which clearly is not the case with volunteering.

So charged with that notion in mind I went to the nearest Municipal (BMC) School with a colleague. After observing the surroundings and from the conversation with the Head Master-HM, I could infer that school had only two computers for a classroom of 40 students!  My resolution strengthened that it was waste of my time. I remembered all the conversations that I used to have with my colleagues, families, relatives, friends that it was hopeless to have any kind of expectation from the Government. We are mere citizens and not superheroes. So I realized I couldn’t change a thing, and nobody could either Best course of action would be to leave and start in another school.

But when one of my fellow volunteers decided to continue even with two computers, I was surprised. “Nothing is impossible” and “I’m possible” are just quotes for text books we read, I knew in my gut.

But disagreeing in public has never been my style, so armed with my colleague’s enthusiasm we decided to call two students at a time and teach one topic spending approximately 10mins with them.

We started with naming different components of a computer, followed by how to switch on and off a computer, with finally how to open, close, and save a Libre Office word document. As we continued teaching more and more students, we observed some were faster and some were slower in learning, but the common thread was that all were eager to gain knowledge. Most of the students didn’t have access to computers; few who did were trying to remember their forgotten computer class conducted a year ago.

As we progressed further, the students who had finished learning would stand and observe the next batch of students and help their classmates who got stuck on a particular step. This continued with other students too. As we finished for the day, they asked us the most important question “when were we coming back”. When we replied next week, they thought it would be too late. They were so eager to learn more. Their enthusiasm was infectious!

Their feedback and bright faces made us realized that sometimes achievement in terms of helping others is greater than monetary compensation or promotions. The happiness that you feel makes you realize that words of the old wise men are true-‘Happiness cannot be measured with money’ 

We cannot always wait for the system to change; sometimes we also have to take a step in that direction.

   We may not be able to bring a drastic change in the political scenario, but we can bring a change into the life of others by that one hour of volunteer work. It may take time and it does take because a seed cannot grow into a tree within few days. It takes time to nurture it, but it’s the end result that is fascinating.

With this, I hope all my fellow friends also give one hour of their time to volunteer. Let’s not wait for retirement or that feeling of making a change to perform such acts.

---The author of the article JZ has earned her Engineering degree and MBA from Mumbai University and still continues to volunteer on weekends along with her current job.