Weekend - LISTEN

We had a blast this weekend. Friday evening, V and I went swimming in our apartment pool. The last time I took swimming lessons was 13 years ago. I could barely stay afloat then. V’s parents are experienced swimmers. I believe they used to swim in the village ponds and lakes! So V’s dad took up the task of giving us swimming lessons …not quite successful yet. We emerged from the water 15 mins later with water in the ears ..hope to continue our lessons and do better next time.

LISTEN

Saturday was quite a hectic day by weekend standards. It was the girls day out! I went out with a coworker to an old age home called “LISTEN. The organization I work for believes in giving back to the community we all belong to by offering service to the needy in whatever ways we can. They encourage employees to volunteer a few hours a week by participating in any one of the projects. There are numerous locations around the world that manage quite a few projects for the aged, deaf and dumb children, education for poor children. There are about 14 such projects under the Bangalore chapter. LISTEN is one of them. What can be a better example of displaying corporate social responsibility? This was my first time. The person I went with also happens to be LISTEN’s project leader. As part of this project, volunteers spend a couple of hours every weekend with the elderly and listen to all that they have to say. The longing for these elders to talk to someone and the desire to be heard to is very high. I heard a few stories of how they struggled all their lives to bring up their kids just to be finally deserted at the age of 70. You can sense the sadness in their voice but they still hold their head very high and live with pride. They are quick to say that they are happy here in an effort to conceal the sadness caused by separation from family. This is their new found family. Some of them have been living here for the past 7 years.
Just so I made myself clear, these elders are not interested in materialistic possessions of any kind. They are past that age. All that they crave for is a little affection and attention. If you can contribute, then please do so. All you have to do is just go and listen to them. Yes listen, no talking! Encourage them to talk!
However this was not our agenda for Saturday. We were there to do gardening – well actually removing the weeds in their backyard. It was a good experience. It has encouraged me to contribute wherever I go to.