Of Charity

I don’t believe in Charity. 

I do it many times, like when people in my organization come to ask me to donate money for Joy of Giving (Jog), Child Relief and You (CRY), and many other catchy acronyms, but I’m always indifferent to the money that I give them. For me, the money is almost like I never earned it. I have no interest in following its course. If it helps someone, good for them and if it doesn’t I’m still non-committal. The point is that I don’t care about the money I give to them, and I certainly do not have any noble intentions parting with the money. It is just for the sake of not appearing to be a douchebag to others, and not wanting to take the pain of explaining my stand to someone who is not interested in it. 

If a beggar comes to me while I was drinking tea at a road side vendor, and if the vendor gives me some change, I may give it to the beggar some times. At junctions, if the red signal is too taking too long to turn to green and the beggar is too persistent and irritating, I give him money just to shoo him off. I don’t find any difference between these acts and the ones I do at my office. I won’t count these as the good deed of the day or attribute any importance to them, since there was never any intent. There is a lot of money which comes from people like me to the NGOs. Fortunately, the money’s value does not depend on the intentions of the contributor. If it does, most of it would be worthless. 

I have never been a victim of any natural calamity or disaster, so I can’t speak from any experience of looking forward for charity, but I believe none of them would be waiting or asking for it. I think Charity will be understood the best when we put ourselves in the shoes of the receiver. How many of us would want someone else’s charity upon us? How does it make us feel that we were waiting for someone to make our lives better? I don’t think many would want to be in that place. I certainly don’t. The important thing to notice here is the difference between charity and help. I’m ready to help someone to my capacity, but I can never understand or advocate random acts of charity. I can take help but not charity. 

Let me finish off with a story, something that I heard from a co-passenger on a train long ago which had influenced my views on charity. I don't know if it is truth of fiction.

There is this fellow named Ramesh standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus to take him to office. An elderly looking man comes up to him and tells him that he was from Bhubaneshwar and he lost his bag, wallet and all his belongings and need some money to buy a ticket. Ramesh, with all noble intentions, gives him a 100 Rupee note from his purse and when his bus comes boards it. But something tells him to check out on the man and he gets down from the bus and starts following the man, who was now gorging on a Masala Dosa with his money. Ramesh stands there watching him, as he finishes his Dosa, comes up and washes his hands. Their eyes meet and Ramesh does not flinch. The man throws up violently, vomiting everything out. Ramesh didn't find any signs of remorse, pain or tears in his eyes, instead he found the man looking at him angrily, as if he was accusing him for not believing his story. Ramesh bowed his head down as if he was guilty. 

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[Written for Indispire Edition 31: Charity or Empowerment? Are charitable donations to feed and house thepoor really the way out of the mire of poverty or do NGOs need to focus more onskill development? Should we as donors be more proactive rather than merely donating money? ]