2: Ubuntu – I Am Because You Are

This year has renewed my faith in humanity. As fast as the virus was spreading its chaos around, humankind was working equally fast in dissipating help, resources, compassion, and care to those affected by the effects of the pandemic. People came forward to help others in any way possible – be it tangible or intangible. Maybe you sent a relief package to someone, called someone you knew was lonely, helped someone find a job, coordinated a family’s reunion, donated your preloved items, opened up your home to someone or simply wore a mask when you were in public – whatever you did and in whatever fashion – thank you!

2020 was the year that reminded us all what it felt like to be against a common enemy. It was no longer his problem, her problem, their problem… but OUR PROBLEM. And this single-handedly managed to unify humanity’s goal to fight against this together and bring back normalcy. In the UAE alone, which is home for me, there were so many initiatives that gave people the opportunity to help out from highly noble and publicized volunteering efforts to take the first untested vaccines to more mundane every day sort of activities like buying the gardener a box of masks and gloves to help him do his job in a safer manner. These actions and the compounded gratitude helped many realise that greater is no larger joy than HELPING and this year even the biggest scrooges stepped out of their boxes and gave to each other, the community and the larger nation.

My Dad has always been my biggest inspiration. He passed on the best lessons in life to me purely by the way he acted. He was always the first to dig into his wallet for a charitable cause, the first to open his home to people who needed shelter, the first to help a friend in trouble and the guy you could rely on when you needed someone to talk to. He didn’t wait for people to reach out to him – he offered his calls, help and support proactively. I’ve tried to live up to his standards as best as I could and am so grateful for 2020 because it gave me the much needed downtime to focus more on ‘giving’. Finding the need and filling it, finding the pain and healing it!

It would serve us all well to remember a much-quoted African word Ubuntu – which translated means ‘I am, because you are!’. Let this be our motto for 2021 so that we never shy away from putting others needs before our own … and remember that how we as individuals choose to act in the darkest of times is what differentiates us and makes us special #bekind #inthistogether #dowhatyoucan

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