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Ihave always been keen on making acquaintances with an indiscernible face in the crowd, as the self-made, simple person often makes a strong impact. Some days ago, I came across such a man, a bubbly self-employed 23-year-old who goes by the name of Nandan Pandya. This Kandivli resident doesn’t possess a fat purse, but saves a paltry sum each day to buy slippers for the thousands who tread the road barefoot.

He has been doing this for the last nine months and has distributed more than 150 slippers to absolute strangers. “There are so many affluent people who make a show of their munificence, hogging the limelight for their deed. But what use are clothes and food if you can’t walk that extra mile, literally, to make your daily ends meet? Walking barefoot is impossible. Couldn’t I spare some money to help some of the barefoot people?” Pandya reminisced.

Stressful events beset our everyday lives. There are therapies and more therapies that experts suggest. I suggest a far simpler one — spare a few moments to help others and experience how beneficial that can be.

Somebody recently told me about Carolyn Schwartz, a research professor with the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who started a unique experiment lending an ear to patients with multiple sclerosis, doing nothing except sparing a few words of sympathy. In return for a little time invested in this, she soon started experiencing a dramatic improvement in the quality of her life, a complete takeover by a tranquil state of mind amid a chaotic milieu.

There are countless little instances we see all around us, where we can chip in to help, but often choose not to. Exceptions are awfully few, Ajmer Singh, a journalist friend, being one. Working with a Delhi newspaper, he was travelling from Sundar Nagar to Dhaula Kuan by an auto-rickshaw some months ago, when he spotted the driver speaking over a fancy cell phone, which he presumed cost no less than Rs 25,000.

A suspicious Ajmer quietly noted down the cab’s registration number and rang up the nearest police station to enquire if it had any complaint regarding a lost cell phone. His suspicion came true as a businessman from Noida had indeed forgotten his gadget in an auto, never to find it again. He finally did, all due to a few moments spared by a thoughtful Ajmer Singh. More than the deed itself, what remains dented on my mind are Ajmer’s words: “You know, pal, Charles Dickens said that by helping others, you are helping yourself. So, don’t speak about it.”

N Raghuraman is an editor with DNA