“Volunteering to me happened by chance. I started by offering to be a scribe for a lot of people in need. And it slowly branched out into different areas like painting and beautifying public places, and volunteering for flood relief. I was part of multiple NGOs and did my part by contributing to the work they did. It so happened that during the COVID hospital, myself and my friend were called in for volunteering at the Rajiv Gandhi hospital. I was in charge of onboarding clients and in a single day alone, I witnessed close to 100 deaths. It was quite disturbing, to say the least. I worked all through the hospital from the ICU to the mortuary. But I was happy knowing that my efforts were helping people in need. These in turn helped me become my own boss – an independent volunteer who had his own visions and dreams to work towards. I started this by offering to give life coaching lessons to people from the rural areas. Sometimes even the most simplest things offer the most profound lessons for us. To give an example, the tribal communities are one of the most ostracised communities; they are outcast from regular society and here are the places where a lot of emphasis still continues to be placed the caste and the religion. So to them, finding city folks sitting together to share a meal seems like a fantasy! Similarly, I travel to different villages and guide these youngsters on their education and jobs. Lastly, I head a area for the ‘Walk For Plastic’ movement where we collect plastic from different areas and send it for recycling and in turn, use it to sponsor the education of children. My volunteering journey started very early in life. But I owe it to the community of like-minded people who come forward to take up causes and help the larger crowd in return. It is the best return one can expect for their time and efforts knowing that our presence makes a difference in this world. The world longs for love; it is the lack of love that shows up everywhere. So wherever we can, I feel we could do our bit for the world and share love and joy”