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The Joy of Giving

Writer: goldenstateservicesj
goldenstateservicesj
Jul 14, 2023
8 min read

Hello and a warm welcome to Swarupa’s World 😀

It’s been months since my last post, so here I am today with a special post that will go straight to the heart.

This post is about experiencing the joy of giving without expecting anything in return. More so, if it is something that has been treasured for a long time before it is given to someone who can make the utmost use of it for growth and success.

It is said that people experience more happiness on giving than on receiving. That’s true and I say this from my own recent experience.

Going way back into the past, I spent around nine months in Mexico before returning home in 2008. For six months, I worked at the corporate office of Omnilife in Guadalajara, Jalisco.


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The remaining period was entirely dedicated to travelling solo across the country.

Related post:Discover Mexico

Being stylish, I had plenty of beautiful clothes and shoes. So before leaving for the trip home, I gave two bagful of my personal stuff, weighing 20 kilos or more, to charity. One to a friend who was the director of a charitable organization in Guadalajara. Her team came over to take the bag and gifted me a book on Hospicio Cabañas, one of the oldest and largest orphanage and hospital complexes in the Americas. I gifted the lovely book to another friend who had presented me a lovely book on the Olmec and Maya Civilization as a parting gift. The second bag went to a charitable organization run by a friend’s husband in Pachuca, Hidalgo. I had spent New Year holiday with her.

Although I was very keen on donating my personal stuff, the reason behind donating so much was so that I could carry home 10 kilos of books & printed matter. It comprised of city road maps, country road map, travel brochures of all places that I had visited, etc. I had covered half of Mexico. The travel material was in Spanish language.

Back home, I treasured them for 15 years. At one point, I had decided to gift the collection to the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara AC on the next opportunity to visit Mexico. You see, I used to frequently visit the University library to chart out my travel plans. The large country map in the library had been of great help to me. I would spend hours there surfing the internet for free, have lunch at the University canteen and also avail of photocopy service at the University’s books & stationery shop.

The University has a professional football club Tecos Fútbol Club or “Tecos” Its 30,015-seat football stadium Estadio 3 de Marzo (March 3 Stadium) named for the day the university was founded in 1935, is situated within the huge sprawling campus. It hosts rock concerts too.

Back to the present… after 15 long years, I decided to let go of the attachment to my Mexican souvenirs.

mx IMG_8015
mx IMG_8016


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With the Mexican Ambassador to #India Jaime Nualart at the Mexican Embassy in New Delhi on 11.06.13 at 11am #Mexicopic.twitter.com/42W6cpeGfc

— Swarupa (@swarupa007) June 24, 2013


— Swarupa (@swarupa007) March 2, 2018


Welcome to #Mumbai#India El Buque Escuela Cuahtémoc 😍😍😍 @EmbaMexInd@SEMAR_mx @AlmSoberon #BECuahtemoc#Mexicopic.twitter.com/pWLBkVzJMA

— Swarupa (@swarupa007) June 21, 2017


Yours truly with the Mexican flag at the Mexican Independence Day celebrations in #Mumbai@EmbaMexInd@SRE_mx 🇲🇽🥂🎉 pic.twitter.com/Ag2ng4nXwp

— Swarupa (@swarupa007) September 10, 2018



When I learnt that the Mexican Consulate had newly opened in Mumbai, I immediately set on meeting the Consul General to hand over my prized possession to him. After all, it would be very useful for Mexican tourism promotion.

Yours truly with the Mexican Consul General Adolfo Garcia Estada at the consulate on 07 June, 2023…

Besides my Mexico travel collection, I also treasured a small India travel collection.

After dedicating two years or so in total (from 2009 to 2012) on research, writing and publishing my ebooks, I badly needed travel & adventure.


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I travelled to Ladakh in July-Aug 2010, and a few months later, to the North-East in Nov-Dec.

By then, I wanted to travel through each and every State of India. So from May 2013 onwards, I started travelling from time to time and finally fulfilled my dream by the end of 2015.

Related post: India Travel Series

My India travel collection had greatly helped me in writing my detailed travel blogposts. I treasured it for almost 8 years until I decided to gift to some library so that it can be useful to others too. And maybe inspire them to explore and discover India and its rich culture.

Related post:  Discover India

My first thought was, of course, a library of the Indian Army so I sent an email. The next day, I received a reply advising me to donate it to any school/College/University library for better use. So I googled for schools in Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh and emailed a few of them.

I would have loved to personally hand over the collection. That way, I would also have photos to remember. Nevertheless, sending by courier was the quickest and best way ahead in the absence of any travel plan.

The first reply that I got was from Ladakh’s Druk Padma Karpo School.

Ladakh was the first place that I travelled solo to in India after returning from Mexico and also after completing my almost 400-page manuscript on Mexico, which I later converted into 3-ebook series in 2012. Ladakh was also the place where I came close to the Indian Army for the first time, and visited the Siachen Base Camp and the LoC. After that I had travelled with them in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. So it was only fitting that a school in Ladakh should be the one to receive my travel collection.

I couriered my collection to the Druk Padma Karpo School in Shey, Leh-Ladakh on 23 June, 2023. A few signed copies as requested by the School Principal, Mingur Angmo…

I had requested the Principal to email me photographs of her students with my collection in the school library as a memento.

And she sent me these oh-so-sweet pictures…

So beautiful… I was overjoyed! Words cannot express the tremendous joy in my heart when I laid my eyes on the photos.

The beautiful presentation in the beautiful library…

Nope, I’m not done yet 😉 A few months ago, I also gave away a dozen or so of my stylish jeans and pants, which I had brought from Mexico. They were my favourites so I was unable to part with them at that time. Back then, I was very thin but a couple of months after returning home, they no longer fitted me. So they remained in my bag for 15 years until I finally emptied the bag.

I often take relaxing spa treatments at a wellness spa where the team includes some from the North-East. When I had been to the North-East, I had noticed that even in the villages, youngsters in the pre-dominantly Christian states mostly wore Western clothes. So I handed my clothes collection to my regular therapist who hails from Nagaland, for giving on my behalf to those on the thinner side.

So you see, this year I have done a good amount of giving. It was not just giving away something that I didn’t require. I mean, we always give away things that we don’t require like clothes, shoes, etc.

It is about letting go of something that mattered a lot to me and had been with me for years and years, so that it will be of use to others.

Those were just things, but after giving them away, I feel so much lighter. As though I don’t have much baggage to carry around.

I have always been a light traveller. I can travel for two weeks or more with just one medium-size bag and a handbag. It is easier and convenient to travel this way so that you can enjoy the travel experience. It is the same with life.

No matter what our circumstances in life, we all have the ability to give, and not just take. To bring equilibrium in our lives, we have to give some and take some. Only giving or only taking is unhealthy and tilts the balance to one side. Giving and taking are two sides of the same coin.

Giving others is an important contribution towards building peace and harmony in our environment. Even a small contribution makes a big difference to the world, making it a better and healthier place to live in.

I did my bit and shared it with you all. You can do your bit and spread the chain of goodness. Come on, let’s do this 😀

Before ending this post, if you are a first-time visitor here and also a space enthusiast, allow me to introduce you to my 6-part SpaceX series: My SPACEX Series Enjoy 😀

See you soon, take care and… keep visiting 😀


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