Richa Chadha, who is known equally for her interest in social issues, recently started a new community-based initiative called 'The KINDry', which aims to celebrate ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
When news of a thief returning the medicines he had stolen with a simple note that read 'Sorry I did not know these are Coronavirus medicines' went viral in April, the Bollywood actor was inspired to come up with this initiative with the help of her co-founder and designer, Krishan Jagota who is also the community head at 'Fluid'.
"I was moved that a person, who had stolen something in desperation, had so much heart and integrity that they returned it. I do not want to tell people to 'be positive' and ignore the painful reality of pain, trauma and loss. That is nothing but toxic positivity. At the same time, 'The KINDry' will not be about fluffy pink clouds and unicorns, but incidents happening around us which do not get amplified as much as they ought to," said Richa.
She added, "People also deserve to hear stories of real-life heroes. We will start small and we hope to build a community or strengthen existing ones. The idea is to celebrate unsung heroes who you read about only in passing. While responding to SOS appeals on social media, I realised ordinary citizens are working day and night to procure life-saving drugs, beds and oxygen for people they have never met. We have seen a truly bipartisan effort, where temporarily people have forgotten even their ideological differences and come through to help each other."
"This gives me hope and I want to share these hopeful stories which are rooted in mreality. We must deliberately amplify the good to ease the pain of real news. It is clear that what will see us through this phase is the kindness of strangers," she concluded.