Have you ever wondered if your random actions could change someone's life? Not in that simple, make-someone-smile way, but as a great, life-changing experience; something similar to Pay It Forward without the goal of changing the world. I once shared this idea with my cousin. We were hopping through London central singing "The Glory of Love" at the top of our lungs:

 You've got to give a little, take a little

Let your poor heart break a little,

That's the story of, that's the glory of

Love

…when we passed a couple arguing on a park bench. Well away from the distressed couple, I stopped and asked my cousin if our random passing had the ability to change their lives forever. Maybe they honored Bette Midler with the glory of a second chance, maybe they eternally postponed their divorce or separation and, maybe, just maybe, they ended up happily ever after due to two random strangers singing about the hardships of love while passing them on the day that they sat on a park bench, at the brink of the end. My cousin shrugged off the idea and told me that I think too much. However, it is an idea that has never seemed to leave me.

I thought about it again when a customer had started crying at my cash desk. I had been working part time as a cashier and was explaining to the customer that we were unable to exchange a garment she wanted to return due to some arbitrary small-print policy. She reacted by throwing the garment at me and stormed out of the store crying. I wondered if I had been that "final straw" — the last event after a series of bad days/weeks/months that causes you to break. Did it lead her to some drastic end? Did it cause her to reassess her life? Did it leave her crying for days?

Before my uncle passed away, he had bought me The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. He was from Botswana and occasionally came to visit my family during the Christmas holidays. He had always brought me a book or CD when he visited. Though I have never finished this novel, it had a huge impact on the way I approach strangers.

In heaven, the protagonist encounters the "Blue Man" who was inadvertently killed by the protagonist. The "Blue Man" explains that we are all somehow connected and that our actions have the ability to alter people's lives forever, and vice versa. Most of the time we will never know how we change people's lives, but we do. A simple insult that passes our lips with no ill intentions can cause a person to subconsciously destroy themselves, while a simple compliment that you give little thought to may cause a person to reconsider slitting their wrists.

Today I gave a bunch of yellow daisies to a random stranger who happened to compliment them. I will never see her again, nor will I recognize her if we do happen to bump into each other one day. However, I would like to think that those flowers meant something more to her. Maybe it empowered her in some way, or maybe it simply made her smile.

Tharuna Devchand