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Life has become all about taking, and little about giving.We take things from others which are either voluntarily or involuntarily given to us as gifts. Now-a-days, people also think about taking away the simple pleasures of life like sharing and enjoying from a packet of roasted peanuts on a sudden, sultry afternoon. Or it may be an impromptu banter over cups of ‘masala chai’ near the Academy of Fine Arts. These are gone. These have become memories which are just like candles in the wind, blown out by the sudden gust of modern life.
Giving, as opposed to taking, provides a joy which is sublime. Just try giving the icecream you just bought for yourself from the roadside vendor, it may just be a Kwality Walls’ Vanilla cup, to the street urchin, clad in rags and watch the godly smile spread across his/her countenance. The joy which you’d get is worth its weight in gold.
There was a time when I used to borrow my mother’s lipsticks, without her knowledge with a guilty conscience. For that matter, I still moisturise myself with creams from my mother’s dressing table. My mother, fully aware of what I had been up to, is the one pillar around whom my being revolves. It was just today that I gave and recommended her a particular brand of medicated soap that I have been using for sometime. She had been developing skin problems recently. I was jubilant when she accepted and provided her assent to use it. And needless to say, she was hugely benefitted.
This simple instance came to mind today while writing for the topic of #DaanUtsav. Actually I believe giving someone –anyone – something in kind is far better than giving in cash. Hasn’t everyone heard of the Pauper King? He was the king who had plenty, yet was a pauper. Riches doesnot always define wealth. Inner integrity and a sensitive attitude towards others are the real riches by which the true value and merit of a person is defined.
We, my mother and me, make it a point to donate clothes to certain charitable institutions whenever natural calamities strike our land. So #DaanUtsav is nothing exemplary for me. The fact that a few days, a week to be precise, (2nd -8th October) has been kept aside for the Joy of Giving Week, is giving me immense pleasure. I will try to keep this in mind, live and let others live along with me during the time.
We have taken away a lot from others as well as from our Mother Earth. It’s about time that we give back to a certain extent however we can, to them who had laid down their all for us.
