Put on Your Thinking Cap

Charity begins at Home?

A few days ago, while I was climbing the stairs of Malai Mandir, a temple for the Hindu Deity Lord Murugan, in New Delhi, I happened to notice a small marble slab pasted along side the wall. It had the engraving of the name of the person who had donated money for construction of the stairs, possibly put in place for publicity by the person himself. It is not the first time I was seeing such a thing, but then this time it really made me think. Then every passing day, more and more marble slabs in temples or a neat painting in the corner of a bus shed tin roof advertising the name of the person who had donated it, became conspicuous to me. It often makes me wonder why people would do that. When someone does a work of charity, why would it always have to be accompanied by some publicity? Is it direct fallout of our basic human need for recognition? Is it a manifestation of our reputation consciousness rather than character consciousness? If the real intention is to do charity alone, then I don’t think it requires any sort of publicity. It is said that even the left hand should not know what the right hand is donating.


Many institutions even offer options for publicity in a sliding scale such as donations above a certain amount which would be felicitated by proper acknowledgement in the newspapers or inscriptions in granite stones etc. This is very common with these Times of India relief fund, India Today funds or such like funds collected for national calamities like the Tsunami or even the Kargil war fund collection initiatives. Big organizations host expensive dinners under the veil of fund raisers whose invite list would include the rich and the super rich people who then donate a lot of money to these NGOs for their projects. And without doubt, these parties are hosted with the money that has flown in as donations in the first place. A deeper look does give me the wisdom to realize that these are indeed a necessary evil. The pity is that if an NGO does not satisfy some men’s need for public recognition of their nobility and altruism, then big bucks just wouldn’t flow. It’s a case of satisfying someone’s vice to save the needy and the poor.


But if indeed one expects to find his name in the list of donors, neatly engraved on a marble and put up in the most prominent place, where is the nobility and altruism at all? Personally I don’t think the value of money donated goes down, if donor chooses to have his name publicized. If that serves the ends of receiving more donations, then by all means, we can promise every possible publicity to attract more donations. But what puzzles me is the underlying human need for such publicity. These are the same denizens who would criticize the politicians for hogging the media for anything and everything they do. Is it a case of throwing stones from a glass house? Possibly, yes.


Talking about charity, it is said that charity begins at home. But when a person decides to donate a certain sum of money, can he really help not feeling guilty when he donates for someone among his own family? For that matter, the neediest person could be his own son or daughter, or even parents or relatives! Is he being selfish by helping his own kith and kin? Will it make his act any less noble than had he helped an unknown poor beggar or an orphan? If indeed charity begins at home, then what is wrong on spending the money on himself? Where would one draw a line between need and luxury while judging the merit of a case where one needs help?


Let me illustrate with an example. Let us say a person X, decides to donate Rs 50000. Now, who would constitute a better candidate? A Rs 50 meal for 1000 beggars for one time? It would mean, that the full power of Rs 50000 is not being harnessed and its broken into 1000 parts of Rs 50. It is easier to find 1000 people ready to donate Rs 50 than one person ready to donate Rs 50000. So, in my opinion, the power of this total sum must be fully exploited and hence it must be donated to a cause that is in critical need of this sum. Would it be nobler to save a life by helping to finance a life saving operation for a man? Or to help someone to get that education which he is otherwise not able to afford, which when acquired would empower him to earn further and help others like he was helped by someone when he was in need?


But whatever it is, at the end of it all, I always wonder how would it feel to suddenly walk into someone’s life, silently pull him out of that gravest misery he is undergoing, and walk out as silently as we walked in? Doesn’t it feel exciting to play God sometimes? To me, it does!