Having watched the movie Pay It Forward starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment more than two dozen times, the idea of Your Turn Now began to take shape in the mind of Santacruz-resident Rushabh Turakhia.
"An average human brain receives 60,000 new thoughts in a day. And we barely process a few of them. Thankfully, Your Turn Now was one of the freak ideas that I did act upon," says Turakhia.
Your Turn Now is an attempt to recall the lessons taught in the Community Living classes of Standard VIII, which are sadly forgotten now. The idea is to keep the chain of good deeds going around the world. You do this by handing over a Your Turn Now (YTN) card to anybody who has benefitted from your good deed rather than accepting another good deed in return. These random acts will, in turn, trigger a chain of numerous acts of kindness.
When Turakhia started, his goal was to ensure the circulation of 5,000 cards across the world so that 5,000 lives could be touched in a positive way. However, once he set the deeds rolling, requests for performing good deeds came pouring in. Today, there are about 1,90,000 cards across 38 countries prompting people to be kind to others. While his family has been his pillar of strength, Turakhia has also had several strangers joining the journey when they saw the difference made by such a small initiative.
And, in the course of this journey arrived the book Your Turn Now, published by Fun Ok Please. The book aims at instilling the value of kindness in children; it has already found a spot on the 'Indian-centric list of 50 great children's books' and earned the 'CROSSWORD Best Book Award for 2013'. Turakhia says, "I wanted to reach out to children to make them understand the values that underlie good deeds. Unlike an adult, children do not need much convincing. And, I am glad that the book has been received well."
"I will be happiest the day I stop printing these YTN cards. That will mean that doing good has indeed become a way of life for us. And that day, my goal shall be achieved," signs off Turakhia.
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