‎‘Have you filled your bucket today?’ This baffling question puzzled the young ‎minds of AVM until their doubts were solved through a drama performed by the ‎students of Suhradam House on 6th July 2019. The theme of this creative assembly was inspired from the picture book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids” written by Carol McCloud with illustrations by David Messing https://bucketfillers101.com).

The value was portrayed through anecdotes which ‎talked about an invisible bucket that everyone carries. By doing random acts of ‎kindness one fills own bucket and the other person’s bucket too. And by hurting others’ feelings, one dips his bucket ‎and the other person’s bucket too.‎

The creative assembly was a result of the noteworthy efforts put in by the ‎students and teachers of Suhradam House. After a team meeting of our house teachers, the central theme of the script was decided and Anju Ma’am then took up the seva of writing the script of the drama. After the script got finalised by our house teachers, the team of teachers and participating students contributed about 2 hours of ‎daily practice for two consecutive weeks to prepare for the assembly. In the end, their ‎remarkable efforts did not go in vain as the message conveyed by the assembly ‎could touch the hearts of all.‎

The play commenced with an elder brother trying to console his younger sibling as ‎the latter has just broken his friendship with one of his friends due to teasing. This ‎is when the elder brother introduces the idea of bucket filling and bucket dipping. The brothers then reach the ‎basketball court to witness the basketball finals. The team which is worthy of winning loses due to the captain playing all by himself. After the match, ‎the brothers witness such a scene where the players of the losing side start ‎blaming each other and dip each other’s buckets. This scene adds clarity to the ‎little brother’s concept of the invisible bucket.

The siblings are then accompanied by two of their friends. The elder brother then ‎shares an anecdote about a grandfather and a grandson in which the grandson ‎spends his personal savings to replace his grandfather’s broken set of glasses with ‎new ones instead of spending the money on a book he craved.

This second anecdote was ‎followed by a musical drama performance by the junior students throwing light ‎on different situations where we end up in bucket filling and bucket dipping.

The performance then continued with a real-life incident from the life of Param Pujya Swamishree’s childhood. In the ‎incident, young Prabhudasbhai, who is standing by the edge of a lake in His ‎hometown Asoj, is pushed in by His friend Bhagubhai who is jealous of Him being ‎a better kabaddi player than him. Prabhudasbhai, who doesn’t know how to ‎swim, is on the brink of death. On the other hand, Bhagubhai, who tries to run ‎away is captured by his friends. With sheer determination and striving, Prabhudasbhai appears out ‎of the waters, choking and coughing, and calls out for Bhagubhai to thank him. ‎Bhagubhai, perplexed by Prabhudasbhai’s behaviour asks Him for the reason for His ‎gratitude. Prabhudasbhai replies that due to Bhagubhai’s action, He had learned ‎how to swim.

Hence through this experience, Prabhudasbhai did not let ‎Bhagubhai’s or His own bucket be dipped. Instead, He helped fill both of their buckets.‎

Overall, this play clarified the importance of showing kindness to others.  ‎

Reported by: Nishkam Patel, Abhay Patel (Class 10)