This month’s dropoff worked nearly hitch free, except that it took place on May 3rd instead of the May 1st due to Raju’s wedding and an inability to pull all the pieces together before the 3rd.. I had a Gujarati note written up by Palak from our office and then passed on to Avni with a wad of cash. Avni is staying at Jayeshbhai’s house and has gotten to know most of the vendors, neighbors, and regulars to Ranip. Her plan was to pass it off to the fruit & vegetable lady who Jayeshbhai bought a pushcart for, effectively lifting her from extreme poverty. That same lady became the inspiration for a program where I believe over 100 carts were bought to economically improve the lives of many street vendor families. The experience of observing the powerful ripples of goodness that were released when Jayeshbhai took the time to invite the first vendor woman in for tea & snacks is what inspired him to run forward with the Seva Café idea when John presented it to him. So this vendor lady was already a vehicle through which goodness had been released, and it only made sense to use her to deliver something to Jayeshbhai.

Turned out that she couldn’t be found. So Avni found some kids from about a block away, swore them all to secrecy, and then co-opted the cutest little girl of the bunch to deliver the note & cash. She told her to give the money to the masi who washes the dishes at Jayeshbhai’s place, while getting herself and Shilpa out of the house to avoid any suspicion about sources. Meanwhile, the munchkin told the masi that she found a package and decided to drop it off. The masi saw Jayeshbhai’s name on passed it on to him. Finding the note and cash sent the whole house into a sort of fun, awestruck confusion. Sanskruti couldn’t believe that someone dropped off money, and Ragu (Bhaskar’s brother) concocted his own slightly speculative story about how it all happened and preached it with conviction. Jayeshbhai thought it was a miracle that such a tiny girl found something and dropped it off at the house, and that it turned out to be a addressed to him. After he read it, he was tickled by the resourcefulness of those who co-opted what seemed to be a long chain of individuals into coordinating such a cash delivery. His old theories about the source of last month’s money (i.e. rickshaw drivers or me) was thrown for a loop and he was back at square 1 trying to re-connect the dots. Anarben was having a grand time laughing at everyone’s theories and eactions.

The note essentially reiterated last month’s message:

--Jayeshbhai’s friends had gathered not more than 200 Rs. each to give to him in support of his random acts of kindness
--Not to ask the person who delivered the money any questions about its source, as they are just a messenger
--To write stories of his random acts of kindness with the money and hand them off to the deliverer/messenger next month
--Stories will be used to further inspire his many friends and show others how to flow with kindness