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TSH 2009 Essay Contest Entry No: 2 (2nd Honorable Mention – Geetanjali Gubba – W. B. Travis HS)
To begin with, what is service all about? How does society today gauge service and define the volunteer? Please allow me to elaborate. An advanced civilization defines a volunteer as a person who performs a service willingly and without pay. Walking down the halls of my high school, I see the crowd kindly ask others to make way, use polite language, and give others the helping hand. What a great group of children society has raised, I think to myself, especially with the volunteer work society requires us to do. They say it builds character, virtues, and morals. I can say first hand that society has succeeded as I have seen plenty of it. One of the wonderful programs implemented in high schools is this idea of volunteer work. You must complete a mandatory one hundred hours in your four years of education and it is almost guaranteed to build character without the money back guarantee. It resembles the “just add water” mixes and drinks, like an instant cup-of-character and a seat in a good university. But, there are strict guidelines as to what is considered service. I should not have babysat a neighbor’s grandchildren that were temporarily over because her husband just had surgery. Just another fault of a teenager for society to criticize, chastise, and reprimand. The lady I helped sure wasn’t an organization and definitely not 501(c)(3). On the other hand, painting a child’s face at a community carnival is much more moral and worth my time. My passion for volunteering only knows exponential growth and no decay for the matter of being made to do classical volunteer work. Society has definitely done its share in developing volunteering as a truly genuine part of enriching children’s lives. Forget the many with AIDS in Africa, the homeless and jobless in India, and your next-door neighbors, I need to find some real volunteer work!
You must excuse my facetiousness. Unfortunately, I was one of those children to a diluted degree. I hadn’t realized how contrived and methodical the entire system was until I was out of it, until sitting in Dr. Battu’s office six years ago, I noticed the quote, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life but was service. I acted and behold, service was joy” framed above her receptionist’s window. The name at the end struck me as more than familiar, it was a Tagore quote! Tagore and I have a special connection: Geetanjali. An offering of songs to the Lord. This is what my name means. Gitanjali is a famous collection of poems composed by the Rabindranath Tagore, the first Nobel Laureate in all of Asia. My name is actually a compound word. Geeta, meaning song, used to be one of my greatest joys. But in junior high, I contracted a bad bout of bronchitis, which scarred me for life. My vocal chords were drastically affected; I was forced to leave one of my passions. The second half of my name, Anjali, means offering. Over the years, I came to realize that I have a lot to offer this world and have found a new love in being involved in my community. One of my personal stories is as follows.
I parted my lips, but all I got back were blank stares and confused expressions. I could swear that my vocal chords were making some sort of distinguishable noise, that I was speaking. I persisted for a few more minutes and finally threw my hands up in the air to just give up. It wasn’t worth the effort. They weren’t going to understand me anyways. This is how that little boy I saw at the Temple last December must have felt when trying to talk to his grandmother from India. She only knew Telugu, a South Indian Tongue, and the boy only spoke English. Language barriers such as these are a common sight for several children of my heritage. I began to pity the scores that would never be able to make a phone call to India to say hi, share a joke with their grandparents, or even learn to appreciate the Telugu language. Without our culture, we are analogous to a tree without roots; we cannot survive. Thus, I started a Telugu school for children to learn the basics of my soon to be endangered mother tongue. Teaching the children paralleled treading uncharted waters even though I had tutoring experience. Of course, I discovered the routine things from children such as patience and dealing with curiosity. But after the first month, helping these children learn to embrace their roots and forming their identity at a young age became a reciprocal effect. I began to realize more where I stood with respect to my culture than I had ever before. The children’s love for learning and drive fueled my passion for spreading my culture and gave it sustenance, helping me solidify my identity as I simultaneously molded theirs. Working five hours a week on this project is time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but when I walk into class, I remember that it is all worth my while when I see fifteen eager faces looking back at me waiting for class to begin.
Telugu School has given the old adage home sweet home a whole new meaning for me. But, it was indeed Tagore’s quote that helped me realize this. In truth, it was a search to find inner peace. I had lost faith in pure prayer; so instead, I found solace in volunteering and service. Like Tagore, I too underwent a transformation of beliefs with realizing the theory upon implementing the practice. When it comes to volunteering, my personal philosophy is quality, not quantity. I try not to forget to perform my services with compassion, humility, and quality, so as to not take away from the main definition and purpose of volunteering. And upon doing so, the quantity automatically comes. I have realized the joy of service first hand by teaching children wholeheartedly and keeping my heritage alive.
Nowadays, the act of volunteering has become hackneyed and overrated. People now obtain hours by just sitting idly, chatting with friends, and not accomplishing anything. We don’t really understand the fruits of our labor unless we actually perform it. Helping others is a cornerstone of all religions. That is the common thread between humanity and what makes us human—the capability to provide ourselves to others in a time of need and to be compassionate. Tagore was a man of compassion and someone who embodied these ideals. His Shantiniketan Ashram is one example that provided excellent education and philosophy along with the focus on societal welfare.
The deep truth in Tagore’s quote can only be realized when meaningful service has been provided without expecting anything in return. The quote promotes thinking without bounds—the idea to help the fellow man out of compassion, not self advancement. Humanity tends to disappoint. But, it has been proven that humans can also change given the proper guidance. Tagore offers this chance for change for many without the direct religious connotations. In fact, the pure devotion to service and self-satisfaction is what makes its meaning universal. In today’s world, humanity’s moral train has seemed to derail. True service has not yet engulfed high school extra-curricular activities, for unscrupulousness still floods the hallways. Fortunately, this can be reversed. Using Tagore’s quote as holy truth, we should all strive to create a brave new world that promotes service and truth, one in which “the mind is without fear and the head is held high” (Gitanjali).
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