Intelligence of generosity is an amazing thing to witness.

On the last day of Gandhi 3.0 retreat, Ferose was deeply moved by the 25 volunteers who selflessly contributed 10 days of their lives. Just spontaneously, he decided to offer his favorite possession to one of the volunteers (who will stay anonymous for the purpose of this post).  Ferose gifted his watch.



It was a very special watch, an inclusive watch! The Bradley watch, which displays the time via a ball bearing that moves around the face, was originally designed by students as a tactile watch for the blind -- but has since gone into production after a strong demand from sighted customers. A truly inclusive watch! It was also a front-runner for the Design of the Year award. At a previous Inclusion Summit, Neha (whose parents are blind) introduced Ferose to the watch, reflecting on the intersection of value-based design and outlier innovation. It was Ferose's absolute favorite watch.

When he offered this watch to the volunteer, it brought up another recent story of a watch. The volunteer asked me to hand this watch to Nipun. When I silently stuffed it in Nipun's hand, we didn't talk much of it -- but he knew. This kind of stuff is routine around here. :) The next instant, he was standing by the kitchen doors, talking to couple people with this watch in his hand. "Oh, you know, I wanted to ask Ferose where I can buy this watch," Trishna asked when seeing the watch in Nipun's hands. "You don't have to, since this watch has your name written all over of it." "Well, I have noticed this watch because ... I don't know if you remember, but we have a blind girl (Sejal) who comes to our Awakin Circle every so often. It's been amazing to see the community adopt her in so many unexpected ways. And I wanted to tag her with it."

From Ferose to a volunteer to Jaideep to Nipun to Trishna to Sejal -- all in a matter of minutes.

And this morning, I was so happy to receive this note from Trishna:
 

The first Awakin Circle after I got back from India, Sejal had RSVP'ed -- so I had prepared the watch to gift to her.  Right after the circle, as I gave her the gift and told her that it wasn't from me, she was totally confused! :)  Then I told her the story about how this gift made its way to her and she was blown away -- not only by the generosity but also by the serendipity in her life.  Her watch had just broken recently and she was just in the process of thinking about getting a new one! :)

It's been a joy to see Sareena and Ariyana (my two young ones) engage with her as well.  Seeing them totally tune into someone else's needs, put themselves in her shoes and anticipate with each move how they can be of service to someone who can't see. Sareena blew me away with her empathy and intuition -- she started being very descriptive with her choice of words in talking to Sejal so that she would be able to imagine what she was talking about, she offered Sejal her arm to hold onto when moving around the house, etc 



I let them all hang out for a bit while I watched from the kitchen area as I prepared our dinner and I was so amazed to see how natural this can all be for children and what a gift it is to have Sejals in the world to open our eyes and our hearts in ways they might not otherwise experience.  Attached is a photo from a "play date" we had with Sejal Aunty around Christmas.



Thank you for the part you played in blowing Sejal away with Love!

I'm smiling ear to ear, at the grace of the universe.  I come from the tech-bubble of Bangalore, and we often refer to the power of technology and algorithms -- but the intuition of a kind heart seems to be in a league of its own, especially when it is a collective heart.