"Hi. Did you join us recently? I haven't see you before in the office. I'm Deepak btw"

This is how a fellow colleague introduced himself when I was waiting in line for lunch, on the second day at Thoughtworks. I didn't know a lot of people then and an unknown colleague breaking the ice helped soothe a lot of my nerves. I followed him around asking him questions about everything at the office and he answered diligently and without getting annoyed. He then told me to reach out to him anytime I had more questions.

Over time, as newer people joined, I started doing the same. I would introduce myself, answer their questions, tell them of my experiences and ask them to reach out to me if they needed help. I felt that this was a way of repaying the kindness that was shown to me by treating others with the same kindness. Apparently this is called "paying it forward".

The Internet Dictionary defines "Pay it forward" as an expression for when the recipient of an act of kindness does something kind for someone else rather than simply accepting or repaying the original good deed.

Regardless of whether you do it for family or strangers, if you wish to make the world a better place, paying kindness forward is an amazing way to achieve it.

People deserve kindness and kind people deserve to have theirs shared with the world.

Thank you Deepak.