Clemency?

(Emotional)

Thursday evening my wife informed me that there was chaos in our area because of a mad dog probably suffering from rabies. Aunty (my friend Sid’s mom) made her cautious about the event. When a dog control van came to catch dog, there were few people protesting catcher. They wanted dog to be left open. In my area there are many animal lovers who give biscuits, roti and milk to roadside dogs resulted in rise in their number.

There is a small temple in front of my house. In Sharavna (A holy month of Hindu calendar) many devotees offers milk and various food items to lord Shiva. All these items are then draw off into sewer.

Being a Hindu I do believe in all rituals. I believe what is offered to an idol reaches to God in heaven. But in a country where children die due to malnourishment and food scarcity it hurts to see liters of milk and food being drained out in gutters or fed to animals in the name of faith and creed. There are some wise men who maintain balance between faith and fact using a small portion of offerings to fulfill their rituals.

Indian weddings are fabulously full of functions and food. But behind the stage you will enormous wastage of food. Unconcernedly plates full of food are thrown in dustbin. Some communities have started cautious step towards thing aspect. Some insist their guests not waste any food while other restrict number of food items.

Our abundance does not give us any right to misuse resources of our country. No matter whether we get with our money or freely available, resource must be used responsibly. I cannot help repeating Gandhiji's famous quotation. "The earth has enough resources for our need, but not for our greed." At times due to shyness or hesitation we understand these things but resist taking steps.

Helping poor is advocated in all religions. I see many kind hearted person giving alms to beggars. But there is a dark side to this especially in Mumbai. The emotion of kindheartedness is exploited very brutally. If you are residing in Mumbai and observe minutely you can see that what is shown in movie “Slum dog millionaire” and Hindi movie “Signal” though exaggerated but is true. 

Earlier when I used to take rickshaw for my office I noticed that on a particular signal* there are batches of beggars which changes periodically. Apart from kids and old lady you could also notice girls with walking sticks, women with an infant and empty milk bottle etc. At railway station you would see many blinds or handicaps sitting on bridge.

When I see these people scenes from the movies flashes in my mind, horrifying me to death realizing  that a perfect person is  made handicapped for the alms I give, a kid is tortured to beg, a infant is poisoned with afyun (opium) so that baby is asleep on her shoulder while lady is asking alms.

It very difficult to be hard on face while your heart melting with tears to deny any help to a poor kid, an old lady, a physically challenged person when it is suspected that your money will do more harm than anything good for the society. Confusion of helping or denying always overshadows me when I come across anyone of them, but I resist so that my money will not go in producing more of them. It is very painful.

Now the question I poses is how to help needy removing smallest possibility of inducing their artificial creation. One of such way though not prefect I see is helping them in kind like food, clothes etc. But again there is a possibility because things can be sold in market to convert it into money. So other option is to give in such manner which cannot be sold in market for example giving cooked food like roti, open bread or biscuits packet, a fruit etc. Please suggest if you could think something else.

For me most touching scene of the movie “Gandhi” was Gandhiji giving away his cloth for an uncovered woman.

By the way now days I receive calls from call centers appointed by some NGOs for contribution to their organization.  Looking at all above pseudo, a question arises why NGOs are appointing marketing agencies. May God turn my doubt untrue.

* In Mumbai road crossing is popularly called as signal