It was a chilly winter day and I was excited. It was my taekwondo competition, where, along with the medals, the winners were going to get cash prizes too.

I had been saving my pocket money for a PlayStation 5 and if I win the match that day, I would have enough money to buy the PlayStation. Fortunately, I won and when I counted all the money I had, I found that it was more than the price of PlayStation. I was so happy.

I asked my dad to take me shopping immediately so that I could buy my favourite gadget. It was night by the time we headed towards the gadgets store. I was filled with excitement, but on the way there, I noticed many homeless people sleeping on the footpath. There were all kinds of discarded trash lying around on the footpath, while dirty water surrounded the footpath, making it a nasty and unhygienic environment. Crawling insects added to the unhygienic mess of the surroundings.

It was freezing outside and the homeless people had no blanket or warm clothes to brace the cold. We felt sorry seeing them all huddled together in the cold to sleep. I turned to my dad and told him I did not want to go to the gadget store, as I had decided not to spend my money as I had planned. My dad was surprised by my quick change of mind.

After we got back home, I told him that I wanted to purchase blankets from the money I had and give them to the homeless people. I felt troubled by the feeling that we slept on comfortable beds with fluffy blankets at home, while so many people slept on the hard, dirty ground, and they did not even have blankets! My father was pleased with my idea.

So, the following morning, we went and got a bunch of blankets for them and prepared little bags of edibles and water bottles. Then, later in the night, we went to the same footpath and without disturbing any of them, covered them with blankets and placed the food bag next to them.

When we were leaving, a man woke up. He thanked and blessed us. The impact of his words filled my heart with a deep sense of joy and satisfaction that I couldn’t have gotten from buying the PlayStation I had craved.

As the taekwondo competitions took place regularly, I participated each time and tried my best to win. With the prize money I earned, along with the pocket money my siblings and I had, we continued to purchase things for the less fortunate and distribute among them.

These homeless folks had a greater need for blankets and warm clothes than I had for my PlayStation 5.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 17th, 2024