Christmas time is not just for the followers of Christ, who celebrate this festival, but it’s a time of giving, sharing and being a Good Samaritan. The whole world comes and rejoices the birth of Jesus Christ while many others actually do good deeds and follow his example, irrespective of who they are and where they come from. A few groups in Bengaluru took up the initiative to not only spread the joy but also performed some good deeds and reached out, spent their time and energies in giving to the homeless, the underprivileged kids and the ones in need.
Kinnera Mannava serving food to the kids at a slum area
On a rather cold day, an automobile engineer Ruthvik Rueben Rajkumar passed by all the people sleeping on the road in the cold month of December in 2013. Ruthvik and his friend randomly wanted to collect some blankets and give it anonymously to the homeless. But, his shout out on social media got pretty good responses and they managed to collect 350 blankets and distribute it all across the city. This year he says, “We collected around 700 blankets this year and started from MG Road then moved towards KR Puram, where you can find a lot of vendors who sleep on the roads. Our group heads out from 12 to 3 am and we just go and cover these people with blankets anonymously. The volunteers are extremely impacted by this, at the end of the drive everyone becomes a family. The whole idea behind this is to help each other in need.”
Ruthvik Rueben Rajkumar
Spending time with someone is more precious than gifts, they say and this group of professionals and young people do the same by reaching out to the kids of the construction workers every year. An architect, Samantha Rao organises the event each year and elaborates, “The kids are so familiar with me now, that every time we go we know each of them by their names and they know ours as well. They all love to sing and dance, so we do that with them and tell them the story of Christmas. We also give them small goody bag which consists of things they can use to stay hygienic as well as some candies and cookies.”
Food is another way to win people’s hearts but cooking for someone is even more special. Kinnera Mannava who works with Infosys is a regular volunteer with the NGO, ‘Child, Relief and We’. Recently, a group of professionals gathered and cooked a meal for the kids near the slums of Marathahalli. She says, “It is a great joy spending time with the kids and especially during Christmas cause they are so excited about the festival and the fact that they get to celebrate with us. The professionals from an IT firm came and helped us out this week and organised several games and competitions for the kids as well. It was a day full of joy and laughter.”
An expat Deborah Manzoori shares her experience of an event that they organised at a special school a few days before Christmas. She says, “The event was arranged by our all ladies expat group in Bengaluru and I just helped on the main day. It was such a lovely Christmas party for the children, where we spent the whole daywith them.”
