Kindness


The Pandemic provided an opportunity for families to bond and brought them closer. Well, in some ways, way too close! Young parents, on one hand, heaved a sigh of relief on holding onto their jobs, while on the other hand, felt challenged as they juggled child care, home-schooling and work. Parents relaxed rules and found creative ways to balance their many unexpected responsibilities during the lockdown and nurture the best in their children. And during the restrictions of the pandemic lockdown, a star was born!

One can sense the excitement in the dancing, bright eyes, as the eight-year-old holds a steady, articulate conversation that sometimes is difficult even for adults. The determined, dimpled chin is held firm, as he speaks of how his Mom has taught him the importance of hard work. “I worked really really hard, and I succeeded. I think my hard work paid off”. Beyond all the wonderful things that one can see in this bright, smart boy, the reason he is having a very important conversation with the UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, is his big heart!!

Abhijay Potluri has a lot going for him. During the lockdown he started his YouTube channel called “Abhijay’s Fun World”, which has a series on Scratch programming, fun math techniques, cultural projects and some heartwarming episodes where he reads to his younger brother. Abhi has a knack of explaining difficult topics in simple terms. When Abhi’s parents were looking for appropriate videos for young children, they found Abhi doing a better job explaining to his younger brother, Adi. That’s when they started creating videos that ended up in a YouTube channel!  He was featured twice on the local TV channel for his amazing videos. His message for his viewers is to “always keep learning and have fun learning”. Now, using online resources, he is teaching Adi art.

With a little help and guidance from his Mom, he first started learning Scratch programming, then created an animation movie “Conquer Corona”. He entered the video in a National championship and received a first prize of $2500. What he did next won millions of hearts around the world. He donated all his prize money to UNICEF! “I saw kids [in UNICEF videos] who didn’t even have homes, water and food and my heart sank”, he says in his interview with Ms Fore. He wishes his donation will help in a little way. UNICEF offered to  feature him in their “Stay home diaries”.

Our community, which incidentally the little celebrity calls home, was buzzing with the story. During our walks around the neighborhood, we often chat with the ever-smiling, soft-spoken, humble Avinash Potluri, Abhijay’s Dad. When we bring the conversation to his son’s recent success, he plays it down. “[the word is] spreading too fast. I am hoping it slows down” to the 20 million views of the UNICEF interview. We are aware how he silently guides his sons to read and research. Both he and Ankitha, Abhi’s Mom, work in full-time, competitive jobs and balance parenting roles. Ankitha recently took a leadership role at a new company. As parents, while being great role models themselves, they work on building strong values in their children. During a recent trip to India, they exposed their kids to people who don’t have their basic necessities met.  “[our kids] have everything they need. We try to create awareness. For their birthday, they had a long wish list. When Abhi saw a charity called BigHelp, he was very excited to sponsor one child’s education and give up some things on his list. He feels a connection to that other child”. 

An exquisite dancer, Ankitha would spend some of her free time practicing her art. “I have been using all my free time helping edit Abhi’s videos. Fridays used to be movie nights for me. These days I am mostly editing.” As humble as her husband, she says she is very happy to see the results, and the way her sons are developing confidence and getting comfortable in front of the camera.


Her son’s act of kindness not only won hearts, his videos and interviews went viral, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas tweeting about his inspiring story. Little tidbits are making its way from unexpected sources like the one from a new neighbor’s realtor! Behind the excitement of the big story of this little boy, I would like to applaud the hard work of the humble, dedicated parents who turned around the woes of a pandemic lockdown into a golden heart’s act of kindness. 









Comments

  1. UrmiSeptember 13, 2020 at 6:13 AM

    Such a wonderful capture of our very own ’budding genius’ Abhi

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Local Impact

Image
“What’s up with the orange ribbon on your mailbox post?” I was glad for the question, as that was precisely the purpose of the tied up piece of ribbon.  The Orange Ribbon Campaign , a student led initiative started by the Luce family of Boxborough, amplified by AB Together Against Hate and AB United Way (ABUW), is a show of support and solidarity towards Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities. Recently two Black members of our town school committee experienced blatant racial attacks with use of slurs - on two separate occasions - during meetings held over zoom. There has been a widespread support for the orange ribbon initiative. “We realize that a ribbon campaign will not change hearts and minds or discriminatory practices, but we hope to amplify the many voices and groups that need to be heard” states the campaign. When a member of our community, Ananya Rao , reached out for 20 volunteers, the spots were full within no time. I was motivated by the fact that the ...
Read more

The Flight of an Empty Nester

Image
I settled down on the couch by the fireplace, wrapping myself with a warm blanket and a mug of hot ginger tea in hand, when my whatsapp notification dinged with a photo of my cousin Seema, receiving a trophy for a marathon run. Before I had a chance to read the details, our dog Smokey started pawing me vigorously - his unwavering, piercing stare reminding me that it was time for his walk. Six o’clock on a dark, cold, winter evening isn’t my favorite time to walk. However, it can be very difficult to explain to a dog, eager for his evening walk, about the lethargy of a cold, winter evening, that us humans experience. With the image of my marathoner cousin in the back of my head, and the love for my demanding doggie, I quickly gulped down the tea, admonishing Smokey to be patient.  Following the advice of a good friend, who was a dog owner before us, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, I layered myself with warm clothing, ready to face the bitter wind chill o...
Read more

The Undeniable Roots

Image
The grocery store was out of ginger root today. Usually ginger is a grocery item I can safely find in abundance, always filling up its designated area to capacity. On regular days, it seems like I am the only one stuffing my produce bag with four or five large roots. Ginger is an essential ingredient in Indian cooking. And those fond of the real Indian chai (tea) won't have it without a generous helping of ginger; it is known to fight colds and coughs and is supposed to bring warmth. I wasn’t surprised that today, with everyone guarding against COVID-19, the produce aisle which normally carries ginger was full of artichokes. If stores could be out of toilet paper, being out of ginger made way more sense. The sudden popularity of this root, which is such an integral part of my Indian roots, started me thinking of my roots. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I sit here, about 7500 miles away, across most of the Atlantic ocean, Europe and the middle-east, concerned abou...
Read more

74th Indian Independence Day

Image
Proud Indian Americans looked on with their heads held high as they witnessed the Indian Flag being raised at the Acton town hall, accompanied by Jana-Gana-Mana, the Indian National Anthem. The Indian Flag will fly for twenty four hours at the Acton Town Center to commemorate India’s 74th Independence Day, on August 15th 2020. This is happening for the first time in the history of Acton, thanks to the leadership of the Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Sahana Purohit, a Finance Committee member, who stepped  up promptly in response to IAGB (India Association of Greater Boston http://www.iagb.org ) initiative to hoist the Indian flag in 35 New England cities including Nashua, Connecticut and Maine towns. In Acton, the occasion was graced by prominent town representatives such as Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Massachusetts Representatives Tami Gouveia and Dan Sena,  Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) Chair Jon Benson and Vice Chair Dean Charter, Selectman David Mart...
Read more

Youth Junction

Image
Six years ago, after completing his business degree (BBA), a young apprentice started his business journey in the newly inaugurated family garment store called Youth Junction. There was excitement around this new store in the small farming community of Timarni, Madhya Pradesh, India. Now fashion-seeking youngsters did not have to make a four hour hike to nearby cities of Bhopal or Indore for trendy outfits. For the Gadres, especially Siddharth, Youth Junction is a bold endeavor; a family dream come true. Siddharth has been managing the store with his Dad, Upendra, for the past six years. On first meeting, Siddharth comes across as a shy youth, but once you get to know him better, he has much to share with you. Siddharth is an iron-willed lionheart. For the past 25 years, after thousands of physical therapy sessions; after a couple of surgeries and years of medical intervention; after trying out every other alternative medicine like homeopathy and ayurvedic, he says he has developed a ...
Read more

The Festival of Lights

Image
We had been in the US for just a few years when our then six-year-old walked into the house announcing how we must have a turkey dinner that Thanksgiving. Everyone at school was talking about it, and he had just learned some great stories about Thanksgiving. We nodded at the stories without complicating the conversation with the questionable origins of the holiday , as we were ready to give this family holiday tradition a try. After all life is about new experiences and what can be better than when food and the whole family are involved! Having been raised in India, growing up we were exposed to Christmas and Ramadan besides other holidays. On moving to the US we used to put up a Christmas tree with presents, got kids’ pictures with Santa and enjoyed a feast with the family on Christmas day. But we had never celebrated Thanksgiving at home, although we knew about it at work and in the context of Black Friday shopping. Being busy working parents with young children at that time, Indian ...
Read more

Eternal Love

Image
The school year 2016-17 in our town started with a dark fall season ending in a darker winter. The school community was mourning, grieving and learning to cope with the deaths of two current students and two past students who took their own lives. Then on a cold, dark winter evening in January when I entered my daughter’s room, she was in shock and unconsolable. “It’s a fifth grader....he is so young...only ten!” That evening is etched in my mind. If it took so much for our family to come to terms with this incident, I wondered what the boy’s family would have gone through. It has been more than four years since this incident, when quite coincidentally I noticed a page set up by a mother in the memory of her radiant boy. I was drawn to this duo and as I looked deeper caught sight of innumerable posts - some touching, some heartbreaking, but mostly inspiring, and tremendously positive in the face of an unthinkable tragedy. My throat tightened as I read “Sometimes it feels like he is jus...
Read more

Journey to the Faraway Land

Image
In the early part of 2021, my friend Sunanda Sahay shared about a project she was spearheading as a part of and initiated by the Acton Historical Society (AHS) and the current co-president Doug Herrick. Over the past couple of decades, especially in the last decade, Acton has been getting a big influx of an Asian population, and the AHS wanted to record this journey through immigrant stories and experiences. The project focused on the two largest demographics, the Chinese American and the Indian American Actonians. The AHS hosted a session in May 2021 representing the Chinese American community that was led by Dawn Wang. A similar session, led by Sunanda, is planned to represent the Indian American on Sunday, Oct 3rd at 4 pm EST. When Sunanda explained the project to me in Jan 2021, I did a quick search to learn about the journeys of Indian American Actonians. About when and why they moved to Acton and what their experience was as a part of raising a family in Acton. I found next to n...
Read more

Age is just a Number

Image
I wasn’t there to witness this amazing feat. But when I close my eyes, it is clear like it is happening right in front of my eyes! I have seen this happen before, however this time it is more exciting for him. His small frame hunched over the keyboard with keys so worn-out that the letters have disappeared, his glasses that need correction that sometimes he can see better without them when his face is up close to the monitor and keyboard, patiently typing with two fingers as he has no typing skills; but his memories are crystal clear and larger than life, pouring out and filling the empty pages of the document to bring the stories of legendary cricketers, whom he hero-worshipped in his youth, to life. My Dad, (whom I call Baba) at age 82, just finished writing and publishing a book of his dreams. While he wrote about the legends, in my eyes he himself has become a legend! In March 2020, when I wrote about Baba in my post “ The Undeniable Roots ” that “When I read motivational quotes ab...
Read more

The Whole Nine Yards

Image
As a child I found comfort in cuddling a soft, warm, dry and fluffy white mass. No, it wasn’t a puppy! It was my grandmother’s nine yard saree (“nauvari”; nau- nine, var - yard; in Marathi) stitched like a quilt. It was extremely soft, being well-worn cotton and washed hundreds of times, folded four times and stitched into a comfortable quilt of a little over 6 feet in length, hence named “chaughadi” (chau - four, ghadi - fold; in Marathi). In the Indian winters it would trap the body heat and provide just enough warmth, and in summers, the airy, light material was the perfect cover under a ceiling fan. Beyond the practical perfectness, it was my inseparable security blanket. So when I first heard the phrase “the whole nine yards” in the US, however bizarre it may sound now, I assumed it was borrowed from the length of the traditional Indian saree. To me the phrase made complete sense - to go the full length or detail into something, as compared to the more modern, and shorter, abridge...
Read more