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{mosimage}The pressure is on.. Since I have lot of unfulfilled dreams like learning Tanjore painting, work outs in a gym, learning carnatic music and associating with an NGO / Non-Profit Organisation etc., I decided to make it possible now in my Chennai stint. After seeing 'Mozhi' I am fascinated by the sign language, so I added that also in the list. I have got 2 day leave on weekends, so if I could manage my time, I am sure I could make something possible out of these. My 'anni' happened to see my "Google" search for these and I told her about my intention to join some NGO, so that I could do something useful at weekends. Thats it... she mistook that I am choosing social service just to dodge the marriage. Then came a l...ong advice session about marriage, life status and social service. What bugs me is that people mistake social services to under privileged people as altruistic / ascetic. I think this is the basic reason why most of the people shy away from social work.

My point is "You can live your life yet be philanthropic at heart". Even our vedas and other religious books say the same. No book tells you to deprive yourself from earthy pleasures and do charity. Every book says that you take care of yourself & family first and do for the society, but don't be greedy when it comes to your welfare. A small example is that we spend lavishly on Birthday celebrations / anniversaries. If somebody preaches us not to celebrate & enjoy on occassions but donate those expenses to some orphanages / rehabilation homes, then I think that is too much. We hard earn money for living our life and we deserve it. If we could cut some expenses out of it and donate to under privileged in form of sweets / cash / left over dishes, it is a practical solution.

{mosimage}Admitted that I hate marriage but that doesn't mean I am going to lead a life of ascetic sort of. I will definitely satiate my wishes and live a happy life, but I make sure that I take care of some under privileged people around me. There are millions of poor / disabled / spastic people in this country and obviously I cannot take care of everybody. But if everybody takes care of some of them within their capability, then there won't be any short of sponsors & those under privileged can have a decent upbringing.

Unfortunately our society has been imbibed with the materialistic mindset in the name of 'economical' and 'spend thrift'. After all we sell our school text books to 'waste paper shops' for money rather than giving it to needy people who doesn't have funds to buy books. Again we keep the college text books for 'future reference', that remain untouched for years than donating to needy / libraries so that more copies can be available for circulation. We proudly claim that we have been treasuring a dress for 10-15 years worn once in an year or two, but we never think about people for whom even those can be a luxury. Else we are trading for vessels. What a shameful society!

{mosimage}Just because I tend to be preachy, I am not a hardcore philanthropist or altruist, except that I feel/think for people from strata lower than me. I do give away my books and dresses for free just because I have got what I could expect from those. In a way it is a selfish attitude of disposing once the work had got done, but I don't want to be greedy of "extracting" the maximum even while disposing in form of money / vessels. If those dresses can be worn by somebody for day-to-day use, then I am glad about it. I am happy that I have lived my life that I wore new, read new, used something new but again happy that somebody finds those used things useful. My intentions, like spending my weekend evenings with blind / cancer patients by reading out to them or chatting with them, could be a craving for a new experience, but if that could put a smile on somebody's face, I consider it valuable.

The bottom line is "Just lend your helping hand to under privileged within your possible limits. Living life to the fullest & being charitable can go together contrary to what the world believes"