You're Perfect

Tarun Gidwani

How far would you go to bring joy to your fellow human beings? Some of us do anonymous charity donations, some others take up political causes, some adopt children’s’ educational causes while some others take up volunteer work as teachers etc. Most of us, however, simply pass by the opportunity as we are “busy” with our life. There is an old adage addressing children – “you find time for all the things you like, else you find excuses”. Me thinks, this is true regarding most of us (me included) when we talk about giving back to the society we live in. If push comes to shove, I am happy to write a cheque for a cause but ask me to give my time and efforts for a cause and out comes the list of excuses – work pressure, spending time with family, enjoying sports etc. You know, 24 hours are never enough if you want to contribute to society only after you have satisfied all your other needs. Time needs to be made by cutting into things we love to contribute for a greater cause, a cause, much greater than you and I.

Tarun Gidwani is a 20 something guy and am sure like all other 20 somethings, he has an amazing life filled with friends, colleagues, family (not necessarily in that order) and yet somehow he takes couple of hours every day holding up this board (see pic) for passersby at busy traffic junction to bring a smile on their face. I have been seeing this guy for 2 weeks now and at first I thought this was a message for some female friend who had stipulated him to the task. Call me crazy, but crazier things happen in the real world. One day, I stopped to ask him about the board. He informed me that the he has been doing this for a while now and tries to do this every day for a couple of hours just to make the passersby smile and feel good about themselves. Tarun told me that most people are stressed with their daily routine and are always trying to catch up and achieve that little bit more. He wants to help them relieve stress by reminding each one of them “You are special” – “You’re perfect”, going to such lengths just to give us passersby a reason to smile and for a moment feel good about ourselves. I would have loved to stop and talk to him more about how he came up with this plan and get that message out in any small l way I can. I hope someday, I will have that opportunity to have that chat with him. For now, people passing by Westin Hotel, Starbucks (KP) and FC road – look for this young man holding up this board and make it a point to wave out and smile. After all, he is spending precious time of his life for this very reason. More strength to people like him. Godspeed to you Tarun!

So long….