“On my first day at school and then for many days, someone bullied me because of the colour of my skin. Let me call him Mr Bob. Today, Grace’s story gave me courage to come forward and share this with all of you. ”
“I always score above 60 out of 70. But my parents question to me every time is that why I didn’t score 70 on 70. I don’t know but I feel whatever I score, am not able to make them happy.”
These are a few of the many reflections that have been astounding me post every interaction I have around the stories from My Act of Heart.
Children everywhere are waiting for spaces where they can be heard with an open heart; where they can engage in non-judgemental conversations for a kinder and more compassionate world. When they are provided such spaces, they open up and share so effortlessly. And what could be a better way than creating such spaces through stories, which are based on real-life acts of compassion done by children like them from around the world?
My Act of Heart – a global award-winning anthology is an attempt to rekindle compassion through stories, tapping at the source where it exists in its purest form – children. A compilation of 29 heart-warming stories decked up with 50+ beautiful full-colour illustrations and mentionable acts by children from around the world, My Act of Heart inspires the reader with a kinder and more empathetic perspective towards the quotidian.
The Inspiration…
Compassion is often misunderstood as a weakness. However, the truth is that it is an action born out of courage to feel for someone, do something and bring change in a conflicting situation – either about self or for others around self. And children embody it in its purest form – without biases and any lenses. The below are not just statements but actual anecdotes from children who have been encouraged to practise compassion as true north in their lives.
“I don’t judge myself on how I fared in exams or how beautiful I look, but now I judge myself on how many good deeds I did”
“I often hear that what will one act of kindness do? But it was one act of kindness and compassion that took me out from the slum and handheld me to the school. And changed my life.”
Isn’t it inspiring? However, the unfortunate fact of our times is that thanks to our perception-based outlook and busy lives, we are slowly getting disconnected from something magical.
The “Butterfly wings”
Just like the wings of a butterfly, these little stars of compassion have created believable changes in their and others’ worlds. A reinforcement that “big things come in small packages”.
We reached out and spoke with these children. It was heart-warming and inspiring to see these children had chosen compassion and empathy over and above everything else when faced with a challenging situation. They could have easily ignored and moved past, but they decided to act.
There was Ailish from Australia, whose letters to the homeless were bringing hope and smiles all across; Ananya from Hyderabad whose act of self-compassion, amazed both Deepika and me as to how a child her age, had chosen to be less hard on herself, something which as adults also we often struggle to do. Noyonika from Bangalore was helping her mother navigate through the COVID crisis and Aditya from Ghaziabad showed us the light through his conversations with his grandma who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. While Grace from Singapore put herself in her friends’ shoes and chose to act out of empathy, 12-year-old, Amalia from Atlanta was penning songs and recording videos to raise money to help children who were losing their learning during COVID. There were so many overwhelming nuggets of compassion like these, each one awe-inspiring!
Giving a structure to the book
A lot of ideation and work had to be done for structuring the book to make it simple in narrative and engaging for the reader. There was an emerging thread. We started from self-compassion, extending outwards to friends and family, to strangers, to their communities, to the planet and to animals. Some of the stories were adapted, written and edited based on our interviews with these stars of compassion while others were only edited. All along this process, we made sure that the voice of our stars of compassion is preserved as much as possible. We shared these wonderful nuggets with a group of young children and asked them to draw how they felt and that set the stage for the beautiful illustrations as perceived by an innocent reader.
We wanted to ensure that after a story is read, the reader is also able to relate it to their context and act next time when they face a similar situation in their life. So, after every story, we included a doable activity or a thought to force the reader to reflect and take a step towards building their compassion and empathy muscles stronger.
Reflecting back
My Act of Heart is available in paperback and kindle formats on Amazon India as well as on Amazon US and Canada. It is heartening to see the love and warmth through the reviews as they keep pouring in. Equally gratifying is that the book has given us a platform to trigger conversations around compassion and create spaces where we are listening to children who want to be heard. Children across diversities and ethnicities; across socio-economic backgrounds and geographies are wanting to paint a future which is kinder towards them and everyone around them.
I invite you to immerse yourself in these heart-warming stories. Let them inspire you and together, let us make compassion a movement. Leaving you with this beautiful quote from Leo Buscaglia, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
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