Mangalore : Residents of Mangalore, this Eid, have decided to distribute ‘The Packets of Happiness’ among the non-muslim brothers in order to promote peace and harmony. Last month, on 5th of May, in the wake of terror attack in Sri Lanka, Muslims in Mangalore distributed the date-fruits and the cold water among the Christian brothers and sisters in the premises of Milagres Church for peace and solidarity, who had gathered for Sunday morning mass. Quite after one month of this service to promote peace and fraternity, the self-proclaimed volunteers have decided to distribute ‘The Packets of Happiness’ among the non-muslim brothers and sisters, just to maintain the brotherhood.

“A few weeks back, when we went to the church and distributed dates and water to churchgoers there, people asked us what are your next plans. Exactly a month later, we now have a beautiful message to all. The same team from Mangaluru have come together to make 1,000 Eid gift boxes and distribute as ‘The Packets of Happiness’ to non-Muslims.

“The plan has been set and several teams have been designed. After offering Eid prayers in the morning, 10 teams each comprising of 2-3 members with 100 boxes of sweets will go around prominent streets” A volunteer said. “The plan is to reach out to all public servants, police stations, post offices, rickshaw and bus drivers and passersby. The distribution of sweet boxes will begin from the office of the city police commissioner and teams would meet MLA Vedavyas Kamath at his office and visit Bajrang Dal office, church and bhajan mandirs”. “As a community, we feel that we have not made enough effort to reach out to others. We believe in ‘India-utva’ and this is a step towards communal harmony. We have to start cementing the differences and this should motivate people from across the country to take up such initiatives. Hindus can come forward to distribute sweets for Diwali and Christians during Christmas,” said Saif, one of the organiser.”This is just the beginning, hopefully, next year we will distribute one lakh boxes of happiness. With 1,000 boxes, we are sure to reach 4,000-5,00 hearts” Saif further added.

With Eid Mubarak in different languages like Hindi, Kannada and English, the boxes are imprinted with a beautiful message in Kannada that reads: “Anyone who is against humanity, Allah will not be happy with you!”

The Packet of Happiness contains the juice, moong dal, cup cake, chocolate and dry fruits.