MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING THE NEEDY NEEDS

Pic. Nirmala Sundar

A month ago, the health of one of the watchmen in our housing society suddenly began to deteriorate. We learnt that he had mouth cancer for which he had undergone a surgery some ten years ago. Now it had relapsed and he was fast sinking. We have outsourced the security work to an agency, and, through this agency, he had served our society for nearly eight months, now.

Two or three days before he had to be operated, this time, I asked this watchman as to how he would finance his treatment. He had not sought from us any financial help, nor any sympathy. I could see on his face a silent resignation and a great deal of dignity. He told me, that he had found some help from a couple of Charities, including Salman Khan’s ‘Being Human’.

It was his last night in our society. Two days later, he had to be operated. Something was weighing me down… The very night, I made a list of twenty of our members, including me. I told them about the condition of this watchman and urged them to contribute just five-hundred rupees each so that we could pass on ten-thousand rupees to his family. The next day, nineteen of us had put in our money. One hadn't…

“Who gave you permission to include my name?” was his question!

Nobody argued with this member. Another member quickly sent in five-hundred bucks, and the following morning, we called the watchman’s son and handed over the small amount we had just raised.

Two days ago, we got the news, that the watchman had succumbed to the killer disease!

I went silent for a while…

We cannot solve every problem in this world. All that we can do is: do what we can, within our own means and reach.

Money is not everything the needy needs!

This familiar episode had helped me rid of my nagging guilt… ‘The ‘bit’ I could do had helped me feel good about myself… That ‘bit’ was within my reach, within my capacity…

And, yes, I am not at all complaining about the member who had asked me:

“Who gave you permission to include my name?”

After all, the watchman, who died of cancer, hadn't sought any money from us!

GERLAD D’CUNHA