THE BEST EXCHANGE PROGRAMME











“Your servant is not your slave,” I keep reminding myself every time I deal with those who ‘serve me’ – be it a peon, driver, maid, watchman, waiter, a sales boy or courier or delivery boy, the cobbler, or the barber… Yes, these people are around me not to make me feel like a king by massaging my ego… They are there only to make me feel, that I am privileged and blessed because of them.

So, if my day should start with peaceful and secure thoughts, so should my driver’s, peon’s and maid’s. How can I ever feel blessed if I do not treat them with respect, dignity and love… What is the point in doing my early-morning Yoga, Tai Chi, walk, Gym or attending Satsang, if I am rude, sarcastic and abusive towards those who ‘serve’ me right from the sunrise…

No human wants to be criticized and feel low when he or she starts his day… You and I don’t want to be… We yearn for our self-respect, dignity and love… Money that we earn is not the only thing we work for, yearn for. The watchman does his twelve-hour duty at our gate, when we sleep inside our homes safely and peacefully, has a family back at his home… He does his job not for those five-six-thousand rupees a month… Nor does the maid, who comes from the nearby slums, even before we get up from our beds… Ditto for the sweeper, who picks the garbage from outside my door… The doodwala, the paperwala, the istriwala… Hello, these guys are not my ‘slaves’… they are my ‘assistants’… the ones who assist me to live my life well, hassle-free…

Imagine the life of my peon or maid, who I treat like a slave… abuse and constantly criticize… What kind of service can I expect from them? For fear of losing their earnings, they may put up with my arrogance… but, imagine the domino effect when they go back home! Have I bothered to know the plight they live in? When we ill-treat, they suppress… but, when they go back home, they let it out on the innocent dependents in their lives…

“Love thy neigbour as you love thyself.” Who is my neighbor, by the way? And, how can I have different yardsticks of love for me and ‘him’?

My education is a total waste if I haven’t learnt to treat my ‘helping hands’ – my servants – as I treat myself… with respect, dignity and love. No matter who I am – a doctor, lawyer, teacher, actor, singer or a tycoon… my success is, also, because of the presence of my ‘spot boys’ and ‘behind-the-scene’ hands. Hello, my talent and skill alone haven’t got me where I am today… I better know this!

Empathy doesn’t come from our school certificates and degrees. I may have amassed wealth to get my children educated in some of the prestigious schools… I may be in a position to enroll them for the ‘best exchange-programmes’ the school can offer… make my young one go to Germany or America and live with a family of different culture, then, in exchange, invite the young one from the other family to come over and live with us in order to learn a few things about our culture… Oh, yes, all this sounds so beautiful, so idealistic!

A very dear student of mine, who hails from a well-off and grounded family, was listening to my daily ‘sermon’ last morning, with rapt attention. This girl had been to Germany, recently, on an exchange programme and the German counterpart had been here… Now, my student has been a very sensitive and grounded girl… I was happy that she could benefit from the exchange programme. “You know what sweetheart,” I looked at her and said in the class, “I think, the best exchange programme for a young student is go and live for two weeks in your maid’s house and invite your maid’s child to live with you.”

As I said, I was very happy that my student had been through her Germany experience… Yes, she, in my eyes, is a very sensitive learner. So, when I said, yesterday, what I did, she knew, that I wasn’t mocking… She knew, that charity and education, always, began at home.


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Kamal Kishore Rikhari

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