At 7,
When you're in school,
And you miss your parents,
Kindness dodges you
At the playground,
And offers you,
A tiffin-packed Maggie,
With an extra found eclairs in the bag.
At 15,
You've an important exam lined up,
And you forgot to bring your watch to the hall,
Kindness doesn't betray you,
Rather it consumes the boy
Who sits just ahead of you,
And tell him to let you show the watch
By keeping it in the middle of the bench.
(You thank him, and he says, it's okay.)
At 20,
You break up with a boy,
Who promised you a forever,
And you sit on the swing in the park,
Almost welled up.
A little girl eating cotton candy
Pulls you of the swing,
And asks you, "shall I caress your hair, so that you stop crying?" My maa does that every time.
You hold her hand,
And whisper, "you're too empathetic."
She makes a weird face,
And tells you that "I'm not empathetic, I'm kind."
You laugh, and she smiles.
At 25,
You help your friend with her presentation,
And when she gets validated,
She doesn't thank you,
Rather she takes all the credit,
And you loathe in self-pity.
So you remember,
How your friends suggest you,
To stop being kind to those,
Who aren't kind to you.
You snap,
And tell them,
How a dog in your apartment
Helped a boy from drowning,
Despite the boy always threw stones at him,
And pulled his tail.
You go home, and underline the statement you wrote in your art journal,
After watching wonder,
"If given a choice between being right or being kind. Choose kind."
You smile wide, and it feels like a revolution.
At 30,
Your therapist asks you "why are you here?"
"I don't know," you say, looking at the sunflower painting stuck right behind her.
She pats your back,
Tears roll down your eyes,
And you tell her,
That "it's hard to be kind to people who stab you in the back. I've had enough of the word kindness."
Your legs are restless,
So you drink three glasses of water straight away.
She looks at you, empathetically,
And quotes, "kindness never betrays you. So use it as a weapon"
You leave the meeting midway,
And shout to yourself,
"Kindness is my weapon."
"Kindness is my weapon."
"Kindness is my weapon."
It feels liberating,
So you sharp your kindness,
As sharp as a knife,
And eats inhumanity,
One plate at a time.
Siddhi
