Monday 23 November 2009

All for a good deed ...

Back in school days, I remember having a book where we wrote down - "a good deed" or lets say we were supposed to write a good deed. ( I am sure you remember this Vittal :D )
Now when I think of it, I guess it was to encourage us to do a random act of kindness or at least do some effort to be good being completely aware of it.
When I joined this school in std 5, I -like other s in my class got the impression that the book was supposed to have a list of different good things and no 2 days should be similar.(now I wonder, who the hell put that idea into our heads). From the nerds to the morons everyone had a set thumb rule regarding this.
So the beginning of the academic year saw a real conscious act like
" I helped my mother wash dishes "
" I polished my brother s shoes"
" I took the dog for a walk"
or " I helped dad wash his bike"

Now slowly after a few weeks, there will be a mixture of fact and fiction.
remember our stupid thumb rule? Now, how many varieties of real good deed can a child below 10 years of age do, that too in a world where computers, mobile phones and Internet were as far off as going to Alaska for most of us now.I imagine the kids today may write a " I helped my grand ma open a GMail account" or " I watered my friends virtual farm in Facebook!! "haha...

Anyway, back to where I stopped about us, we ended up with a 'mixed- feeling' good deeds in the lines of -
" I picked fruits from our garden" which leaves a series of question if the child in question lives in a apartment unit on the 3rd floor and the whole class knows it ;)
So in this statement may be the kid's mum had left a bag of fruits in the common garden area @ ground level and the child picked it up for her.. quite possible, eh?
Giving the benefit of doubt, lets move on.
:)

then the stereotype " I helped my grandma find her specs" might cause a bit of doubt when you have already heard the story about her being in the US with uncle 'so and so' a hundred times , So may be the 'helping-grandma' bit was done 2 months earlier when she was actually around!hehe.. late confessions of a good deed!!
Soon some of us forget to write the deeds even though we are really good children and the book just travels to and fro from home along with us.
But the real f(p)un starts when it is nearing to half the term, means along with mid term exams, sometimes the teacher will check the deeds book.
Now there is a mad rush to fill it with deeds, sorry GOOD deeds! now the tiny minds and their imagination have no boundaries!

" I plucked apples from the garden" ( sure, please let us know how you manage to go to Coorg everyday, travelling 4 hours one way, cause that s the nearest place to Mangalore where one can grow apples in the garden and then pluck them! )

or

" I saved our cow from a snake " sounds errr more like a story worth a bravery award!

All started in a honest way, can go to these extremes if one does not ensure the person/child knows the thought behind it.
It was definitely done very innocently and I am not sure if it should be held against us.I mean,we would have done a good thing repeatedly everyday, It is just we thought it should be a "special" one each day and came up with stories in the end! :)

All for a 'good-deed'!!

4 comments:

Vyoma said...

deed for d day.... " helped my boss finish a document :P " he he he he.....

itsyvitsy said...

Wow! Nostalgia prevails again! And yes, I do remember that good-deed diary. I am sure the teachers knew very well that after a few days time the kids would write works of fictional deeds in the diary. I only faintly remember this though, but I do remember that we did this.

Interesting anecdotes you have presented here. I hope those are not fiction. ;-) Just kidding. I vaguely remember one person saying he had helped an old woman cross the road. I wonder whether the old woman died of horror after such "innocent" help. I don't think a child from 5th can really handle the traffic! LOL.

Cheers.

Reflections said...

LOL reminds me of the confessions we used to dream up coz we needed something solid to confess about to the priest at church;-D

A small contribution from me to ur efforts at Nablopomo......u r tagged:-))!!!

Swathy said...

@ vyoms: Isint that your job babe??
hehe..good deed indeed!

@ vittal : I tend to remember a lot of such incidents which almost all would have forgotten. :) and some of this is absolutely unwanted info :(
wierd but true! :P

@ nancy: haha, did you have to make up horrifying stories? that must have been opposite of good deed!