Relearning- the joy of giving and sharing

Donate blood and enjoy the joy of giving screamed the pamphlets and the posters. The whole of last week, I have been facing the same joy of giving week everywhere.

Be it papers, the cricketers, the schools everybody talks about the joy of giving.

I go to pizza hut, they want you to donate rs 10. (the amount is very small), but do you think forcing us to give is good?

Last week at Westside, I was asked if I would like to light a diya, and the proceeds of that would go to a needy organization. I told the guy, I would like to donate the diya also to the needy. he said that is not in their policy.

We are basically the most giving people in the world. When and why did we stop sharing and caring. We do not want to give a helping hand to the old lady who wants to cross the road because we will be late to the place by a minute??. We do not want to give the food that is left over, to the needy, but want to keep it in the fridge for a day/week, before you decide you do not need it and ask your maid to take it home. (This happens in many a homes.)

Navarathri, purattasi (the auspicious month to go to tirupathi). We have a inflow of people asking for help to go to tirupathi, perform marriage. The same person would have come the month before saying it is my sister’s marriage. I would have given 10/50 rs to them, and got scoldings for the same for being a miser too. When I question how come she is coming for the same marriage, she starts of scolding me so rudely in telugu (assuming I do not understand) and then I tell her, if you are in need of money why don’t you work, she says why should I, and who are you to ask me.

I give money, thinking my maid cannot pay the fees for her kid, and she takes it, and then I come to know that she gets a scholarship, and the money I gave goes towards getting her the latest clips, bangles and things
It does definitely leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Did we need a Mr.Venkat Krishnan, to start the Give India movement and then come up with the joy of giving week to awaken the dormant giving nature. I don’t know.

may be the joy of sharing, giving, caring has got lost because of above stated incidents too.

How many of you did see this ad.
Each one of us would have been in the shoes of the boy with the lollipop, many a times. But overcoming the temptation to enjoy it and to give it to the boy on the street is the best form of giving. Just look at the smile on the other boy after receiving the lollipop. Well it may be a lollipop to you, but the smile says it is a treasure to the other kid.
Maybe we did need the week to tell us to rekindle the feelings of joy of giving..

Well giving a handful of what is in your overflowing basket, is not going to put a dent in your basket but starts filling an empty basket.

Here the basket, is figurative. Each of us can do our simple deed that makes a pleasant, satisfying feeling. The deed could be in kind/action.

I stand in the ration queue to get the oil, wheat, and other things, to be sent to the orphanage and old age home I patronize, collecting the ration cards of the neighbors too sometimes. The satisfaction, that this will go towards feeding a few elders and kids gives me the strength to stand in the same queue again again.

The simple prayer the orphanage says for my family (the person calls me when they say the prayer) makes me donate for a day’s meal almost every other month.

The more I reach out, the more I learn of things, and I enjoy the joy of sharing along with everybody.

It is nice to know that there are lot of individuals and organizations coming forward to think of giving back to the society. Look at goonj, where a revolution is taking place, A piece of cloth that does not mean anything to us is not just a piece of cloth, but is going to help a lady, a kid somewhere.

Let us leave the skepticism of whether what we give goes to the needy, do our part of giving with a prayer hoping it reaches the needy.

I have a prayer of pardon for myself..

Dear god, my intention in helping out was genuine, if somebody is misusing it, and if I am a part of it without my knowledge, please forgive me and show me the right direction.

Joy of giving should be felt all through life, not restrained to just this week. Don’t you all agree??