The Positivity Project Story

A lot of people asked me how it all began. Here is my account of it...

Since a very young age, I was taught to help as many people as I can. Earlier, my work in this sphere was to help my friends with studies, motivating them to make studies interesting, consoling them when they were down, and being around for them through their highs and lows. To a lesser extent, helping covered others around me too.

During my CA Final preparations, I used to go though a lot of Positivity, Inspirational and Motivational videos. I began every day with 30 mins of motivation while jogging. These videos filled me with the much needed positivity for CA Final's rigorous preparation daily. I saw myself becoming highly focused and productive.

My mother had once told me about one man who was very poor. He barely earned enough to sustain himself but still donated a little every day. His hardwork and the blessings he received saw him become filthy rich. His habit had continued over the years. He was now in a position to donate a lakh every day. On his last days, he asked his arrogant son to start donating with Re 1 a day and double it every day. At first it seemed a very small amount for a multi millionaire, but slowly and gradually it built up. The son had to pay 13.42 Crores on the 28th day, his arrogance was lost. The man finally died after taking a promise from his son to donate Rs 1 crore a day. Since that day I had a goal to be able to donate 1 Crore Rs a day by 45 years of age. Also I felt that donation shouldn't be just about money, but also in positive emotions.

Being engrossed in this positive ideas, suddenly this thought came up in my mind, and I had promised myself that I would take it up after my CA Final Exams in May 2014. This is what gave birth to the thought of The Positivity Project.

I had spoke about my intentions to start such a movement to a number of friends and received very encouraging response. I had noticed a lot of people in stress, having breakdowns, feeling low,etc during the exam preps. Exams were now done, but the reality was that lows are a part of everyone's life. Everyone needs uplifting thoughts at some point or the other in their life. I decided to start with friends and family. I used to message one person a day at dawn with all the positive emotions I had for them like admiration, appreciation, thankfulness, etc , things that I liked about them, and some great memories that we shared together. The idea was exciting…. How beautiful it would be to get up in the morning to such a positive message!!!

Through the survey of a few friends I had messaged initially, I realized that such a message lasted on an average for at least a week in the minds of my friends. Their days and week went well just cause of this small gesture. So I urged them to do it to their friends too...!

Alongside, I was a part of a group for trekking on which Komal once posted that we should do something good together too. The idea of social visits was born in this group. 6 of us – Hemang, Komal, Jay Ruparel, Jia, Priya Rochiramani and myself decided to visit King George Memorial Old Age Home. The 6 of began on the journey which has shaped TPP as it stands today. We interacted with the people there, made them play housie and antakshari, and distributed fruits and chocolates... It was a blissful experience for all of us to be able to create that enjoyable atmosphere and light things up for them. All of us excitedly told our friends and encouraged them to join in. Event after event, this enthusiasm has brought in new members to our Positivity Project Family. We are now a family of more than 250 ‘Positivizers’ with the same goal.

As of today, we have had 50+ such Social Visits to orphanages, old age homes and disability centres in Mumbai. At all these places, we have been successful in igniting that spark of merriment and that flame of positivity. We have kept ourselves adaptable, and based our activities on the likes of the orphans, oldies and special people. Apart from interacting with them, we made them sing, dance, play kho-kho, kabaddi, antakshari, housie, throwball, football, etc. We also gave a lot of passionate performances ourselves too- Dancing, Singing, Dialogue delivery, mimickry, etc to the warm reception of the excited audiences. Our performances are vividly remembered by the audiences as we surprisingly but delightfully noticed on our second visits to some of these places. Also, we donate in kind at all these places may it be some biscuits, fruits, chocolates, games, grains, necessaries,etc.

Quite frankly, I have realized that the biggest beneficiaries of these activities are we the ‘Positivizers’ ourselves. To see the people’s faces light up on seeing us, to create happiness in the lives of these people, to gain the genuine blessings of the elderly, to the innocence and excitement in orphans, to feel the strong emotions of thankfulness……… the list goes on and on, but would still fall drastically short of the actual experience that we have…. Truly, we are spreading positivity all around, including ourselves.

We have been receiving appreciation from all corners for the work we are doing. It is heartening to see more and more enthusiastic individual come forward for this cause. Even more fulfilling to know that we have been able to inspire so many to do so.

We wish to not just continue but extend our reach and influence. We are deliberating on new ways to do this. We invite you to have a look at our Facebook page -www.facebook.com/thepositivityproject to understand the activities that we do.

Any recommendations and suggestions are welcome. You may contact us at:
Jay: 9930534416
Komal: 9819472026