Magical Minds and Helping Hands

Madhu and Rajiv, childhood friends and neighbors, living in a humble but decent neighborhood had just finished watching the movie “Aladdin and Magic lamp”, during their free time after completing their online classes. “ The movie was interesting, the costumes, the settings, the visuals and so on. But from today’s point of view the story was not appealing to me. To cut a long story short , Aladdin, a lazy, laid back poor boy falls in love with a Princess and rescues her from the clutches of villain, with the help of a magic lamp and a Genie. If we could get such a lamp with the Genie we could have done wonders” said Madhu wistfully. Rajiv knew precisely what his friend was thinking and said,” yes! Such a waste of the magical resource! Of course there was no COVID pandemic at the time of Aladdin and therefore he could do whatever he fancied! We could help people around us in so many ways; we could transport people on essential work, bring them essential items, medicines and so on.”

Madhu’s elder brother Ravi joined the discussion and slowly an idea materialized in their minds. The next day, Madhu and Rajiv went round the neighborhood collecting lists of essential items required by senior citizens and gave to Ravi, who went out and brought the items from the market. Madhu and Rajiv distributed the purchases to the respective people. Everybody was happy with the good deed of the threesome. Having received a positive feedback, the trio enthusiastically carried out their activity and soon some more enthusiasts joined hands. Soon they set up a small kitchen from where they supplied basic meals to people in quarantine due to COVID infection. A like minded cab driver joined the group to drive the senior citizens to PHCs for vaccinations and other medical requirements. They became talk of the town and formed a notable organization called “Magic Bricks” engaged in social service during the pandemic. It is not exaggerating to say that this group demonstrated that people with loving and caring hearts and minds can create magic and do wonders. Magic Lamps and Genies are superfluous!!