NOISELESS CHARITY

 

“There is no exercise better for the heart

than reaching down and lifting people up.”

John Holmes

 

Sunil, who has been printing all our books (for over two decades), is deeply involved with many religious and charity works. They include seva relating to Shirdi pilgrimage, reaching out to poor village kids in schools of interior Maharashtra, serving food on Thursdays at the local Sai mandir or during Ganesh festivities, and so on. Being a printer, he, also, volunteers to do, free of cost, most of the work relating banners, souvenirs and certificates. “This is within my reach, and it gives me a lot of peace,” he says.

But, Sunil gets annoyed when people around him start posting pictures and videos of such charity work on social media. “I tell them not to make any publicity or show of any seva that we do,” he says, “but, many of them don’t listen.”

“Let your left hand not know what your right hand gives,” Jesus had advised. But, that advice seems outdated. People are there all over the social media, blowing their trumpets… Noiseless charity is a virtue possessed by only a minority, today.

Last afternoon, I was with one of my uncles (my mom’s cousin). Uncle Frank is aged 80, but keeps himself very active. He does a lot of commuting in local trains and buses, takes an auto or a taxi only when badly needed. He has a good bank balance and sizable wealth in stocks and real estate. Two daughters are settled abroad, and, here in Mumbai, he lives with his wife. “I don’t like spending unnecessarily just because, I have money,” he says, “Instead, I do help the needy regularly, but, quietly.”

Yesterday, I had insisted on having lunch (with my uncle) at a Mangalorean seafood restaurant. “But, on one condition: your hand should not go into your pockets,” uncle cautioned me. I had to agree to his condition, and let him do the honors for the auto fare and the restaurant bill. He did not let me pay even the tips to the waiter. What impressed me even more was a twenty-rupee note he so lovingly placed in the hands of the boy who cleaned the table… The joy I saw on the face of that boy is something that is still fresh before me!

I have given tips to waiters for all my life. But, the thought of putting a small tip in the hands of those poor boys, who clean the tables, had never crossed my mind…

“No one has ever become poor by giving,” were the words of another young girl. Anne Frank wrote them in her inspiring diary while hiding from the Nazi. Watching my 80-year-old uncle Frank's spontaneous gesture, last afternoon, I was telling myself, “It, certainly, has made that poor boy a little richer!”

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic's.: Pixabay

 

Video: WOW TV