when someone does you a big favour, don’t pay it back, pay it forward.

in one end of this world, you see cruelty, deaths, war and revenge, in another, you see sacrifice, life, peace and love. few months ago, when I was still living in Broadway, I remember watching a movie called P"ay it Forward." Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded. When someone does you a big favour, don't pay it back... Pay It Forward, he said. this 2000 American dramatic movie was based on a book written by Catherine Ryan Hyde of the same name.

I have never done a book or a movie review in this blog before, but today I sort of will. The magnitude of impact this story had on me was magnanimous and it is simply SELFISH of me if I don’t share it with others. Haley Joel Osment who played the 11-year-old Trevor McKinney came out with an idea of using the pyramid scheme of the infamous Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) to instead of generate profit, it generates good will. If a person does a favour for you, you don’t pay it back, you pay it forward to another 3 persons and when these 3 persons pay it forward, they’ll be doing good deeds to another 9 persons all together creating an enormous numbers of people spreading good will out of one act of kindness.

This book and therefore this story is a fiction, but i have also heard a real- life story about how one good deed changes a city in the book “Three cups of tea” written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Greg Mortenson is an American Male nurse who aspired to climb the world’s second highest peak, the mount K2 in Pakistan in memory of his sister Christa who died of a massive seizure  after a lifelong battle with epilepsy. Greg was alone, exhausted and no longer had the will to continue the journey when he was found by the villagers of Korphe, in Northern Pakistan. The village head, Haji Ali and his family nursed Greg back to health. 

When he was healthy, he was able to look at the village and it’s condition. His heart throbbed in pain seeing the village children learning mathematics by scribbling on sand. Their classrooms had no wall, no roof and no teacher. “ a teacher costs 1 dollar a day and that was far too much than what we could afford," claimed Haji Ali. The people of Korphe are poor, 1 in 3 child is destined to not survive infancy and illiteracy is common but they gave everything to save Greg when he was emaciated and was inches from death.  Greg didn’t pay it back, he paid it forward by giving everything he had in America to the point of living on his car to minimise living cost, beg to celebrities for donations, anything you could think of. His effort formed the Central Asia Institute which to date has built more than 50 schools around Pakistan and Afghanistan and the numbers are still counting.

“ The first time you share a tea in Baiti, you are a stranger, the second time you are an honoured guess. The third time you become a family and for our families, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” said the people of Korphe.
The concept of paying a deed forward is noble. Paying it 3 times forward is even nobler. How many times in our lives have we made a conscious effort to help a family, a fellow friend, a fellow colleague or a stranger? And how many of us have made any effort to repay back the good deed done by others let alone paying it 3 times forward.
I am insignificant, I am only one person. I am a woman and my voice is soft. When I stand, I don’t stand tall and when I sit, I am invisible but if one boy can leave a mark in the world and one man can change an entire education system of a country, with Allah’s will, one woman can also leave her marks in this world, one good deed at a time.
“ Pure hearts help willingly, But the purest of pure hearts does not need acknowledgement from the deed they’ve done. And that is the magnificently beautiful teaching of Islam”