Subramoney » Charity

Helping others: You have a choice!

subra — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:57:42 +0000

Oh! The Joy of Giving! The great Joy of Giving week!

Recently the Joy of Giving week was celebrated..and everybody dug into their cupboards, wardrobes, shelves…and one can see a flow of things going from the people who have either outgrown it or cannot use it anymore.

One thing though which can never be ‘second’ hand in the Joy of Giving is giving of ‘knowledge’. Leading a person to the correct academic course, suggesting a good book, forwarding a contact address, guiding a struggling student through the course or helping a weak student in a bad college to a good professional door,….are all in the category of giving. This giving comes easy to some….but many cannot do these at all. They cannot forward a contact, they will not forward a cv, – well they are not people with bad intentions, it is just not them!

Of course you have a choice of whether to help – and I am not passing a judgement at all.

Then there are those who cannot TAKE HELP. They start wondering – ‘Why is he/she helping me?’ This clearly comes from a negative mind set. They attract all the negative forces…and are suspicious. It is almost dangerous to help such people. They can harm you. They can express their suspicion to all and sundry – and this may even hurt the HELPER. It is not surprising to find such people. In a best case scenario you should steer clear of such people – even if it takes an effort!

Here is a story of a sadhu…a nice story I would not be surprised if I am repeating myself…

One sadhu was standing on the banks of a river..when he saw an insect struggling in the water. He tried to pull it out of the water..it bit him. He tried again..and it bit him again.

One smart guy like me was standing there and said to the sadhu ‘You are trying to help the insect…and it is trying to bite you. Why are you continuing the effort..? It beats me’

The sadhu plucked a big leaf and picked up the insect…and helped it come on shore….and said to the smart guy: “Even when it is in so much trouble it is not forgetting its dharma of biting. I am in nice comfort..how can I forget my dharma of helping?”

So if you wish to help…be careful. Some people whom you try to help can hurt. Either change the way you help or change the people you help.

Or like the Sadhu learn to bear the sting…..hope that the sting is not poisonous!

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Charity out of waste?

subra — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:18:53 +0000

One big fascination for me is ‘Charity’ – right from who does it, how, why, etc. Even at the philosophical level I keep asking people whether giving away something that you do not need is charity or not a charity!

One friend uses all his points in his credit card usage (and that includes a lot of foreign travel) points to useful items which he gifts away. Is this charity? Just asking. Tell me what you think that is all.

One project like this which got my attention is www.thebicycleproject.blogspot.com

What do they do? In one line, they collect bicycles from people who are NOT using them and give it away to kids in one particular village. Hopefully this project will spread all over India. As a happy consequence of this your building will be rid off all the unwanted bicycles and some kid in rural Maharashtra will love you for it! A deadly combination, is it not?

So just go there and donate a few bicycles that are rotting in your building! It would rid you off your ‘junk’ in your house or building, and one happy kid will go to school happy!

Caveat: I know about this project because I was looking to buy some cycling related stuff – which led me to a shop in Mumbai called The Gear’ shop http://www.gearindia.in/HTM/links.html. So please do some research before you do any major donation of cash ….I have no clue, but the site looks good.

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Akshayapatra – feeding India’s children

subra — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:26:17 +0000

Akshayapatra (www.akshayapatra.org) is now a reasonably large organization. True to Gandhian values they believe that they should aim high, work high and talk less. One recent achievement is that they are now feeding upwards of a MILLION (11,86,206 if you are an accountant!) children everyday in some school in India.

India, of course, has many more hungry children (who can’t go to school because they are hungry)…so here is a request to all of you ….visit that website and open your purses to them. And talk about them to all your friends , their friends, their friend’s friend’s friends, their…… their friends etc….and let us make Indian children literate. It is just the power of compounding. It reminds me of a nice old story. There was once a poor woman. Being poor there was no charity that she could do. When any beggar came to her she would just point her index finger towards a temple – which did poor feeding. When she died her finger turned golden….so even if you do not give, at least point. This organization has many admirers from Mr. Narayanmoorthy, Nandan Nilenkani, Barrack Obama (you can see his letter on the website)…..and has many such achievements. The biggest if you ask me is to even think you can create an organisation that can feed 1 million children (or like they say One Million and still counting…).

Another friend runs a chotta school for tribal kids. When I asked them are they learning. He said, “Frankly, I do not care. There is a kid who walks 3 hours a day to attend school. If I think he is coming for the learning, may be I will be disappointed. But if he is coming for the food, I am happy that he thinks school is a place where he will be fed.” that is all. My friend is a great soul. And this statement is simple.

Gandhiji said once “God dare not appear before the hungry man, except in the form of bread”. So if kids come because of akshayapatra food, and they learn something, I think we should be happy.

Let Annapoorna lead them to Saraswati. After all both are forms of MOTHER, are they not?

Come on guys…give your hearts out. Incidentally you can surely get tax breaks….give for whatever reason, but give.

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1984: Delhi Anti-Sikh riots

subra — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:26:26 +0000

A few days back while watching a dance reality show on TV I saw a girl – whose name I am not sure – sounded like “Hart Kaur” (in fact it kept sounding like hard core). I just happened to stop on that channel and this girl was narrating what she saw in 1984. She saw a big group of people come into their area and kill her father and her grandfather. It was almost emotionless when she said it. She was a 5-year old kid. I felt sad and horribly guilty that we do not care enough.

None of the participants or judges had a dry eye. However nobody said “We have lived through Congress and BJP governments and no justice was done”. Shamelessly the same guys will now ask for votes. It is easy to say God will do justice. It is time that we sent emails, letters, wrote blogs about these spineless police officers who have learnt to grovel and politicians who will do nothing. Come on India, take charge.

However this girl cannot give ‘evidence’ because she may not be able to remember the names and faces, but surely her experience is etched in my memory.

you must watch www.thewidowcolony.com

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Bihar Flood relief

subra — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:29:40 +0000

I have no clue as to how many of the readers of this blog are from India. However, Bihar has had a major calamity – and I am sure most of the readers of this blog are sensitive – one reader has pledged Rs. 1.25 Lakhs to akshayapatra (www.akshayapatra.org). So here is another appeal:

Bihar has been hit by a terrible flood. It is one of the worst disasters to strike the country. It is worse than the Tsunami, worse than the Gujarat Earthquake. Several million people have been affected. Entire districts – villages and towns – have been washed away. The number of people dead is not even known.

There are over 6 lakh people living in 200 relief camps. In Saharsa district alone there are 2 Lakh people in 68 relief camps. Similar numbers are living in camps in Madhepura, Supaul, Araria, Purnia and Katihar districts. And many more (those who are better off and have relatives and friends outside) have fled these districts.

This is NOT the usual Bihar flooding. Usually the Kosi river overflows its banks and floods the villages nearby. The people in these villages are prepared for it.

This year, the Kosi completely changed course – sweeping across several districts. Thousands of villages that never had experienced flooding before are now submerged in water. The people living there were completely taken by surprise. Many have died. Others have lost everything – they are without clothes, food, homes, money.

The scale of the disaster is much bigger than the Tsunami. But because it is Bihar and people think this is like the usual annual flooding, there has been very little coverage of the flooding and very little support pouring in for relief. There is an urgent need to inform people about the nature of this disaster and to mobilize support.

For a week now, AID INDIA’s Bihar team has been on the field organizing rescue and relief efforts in the affected districts. So far we have been able to organize some rescue operations and have provided food, milk for children, and medical support for children in several camps. But this is not enough – the scale of the disaster is very large and the need is a lot more. Pratham teams in Bihar have also started working with us and we will now be scaling up the relief efforts significantly.

“You do not fix the problem, till you define it” said John W Snow.

After the initial shock, the government has been taking a lot of steps to organize rescue and relief operations. The army has rescued people from most of the places. The immediate focus needs to be on food, clothing and health needs of the people in relief camps. Some food is being provided at the camps – but there is a severe shortage and lot of rioting to get at the food. Children are the most affected.

Our immediate focus is on children – there are about 2 lakh children in all the camps. Milk, biscuits and food for children is the first priority now. We are trying to ensure that milk and food reaches all the children in all the relief camps.

The second need is clothes. Most people left their homes with what they were wearing. We need children’s clothes, saris for women, undergarments, lungis and lots of blankets. Disease outbreaks are becoming a serious threat and we need medicines.

After the immediate phase, the need will be to focus on health, education, shelter and livelihood needs. But at present, given the scale of the problem, getting past the immediate relief and survival needs are the most critical issues to address.

AID INDIA and Pratham field teams need a lot of support at this time. We need:

Funds: You can donate online at www.eurekachild.org/biharflood or you can send a check payable to AID INDIA (mention Bihar Flood Relief) to:

AID INDIA

Post Box No: 4903, Gopalapuram, Chennai – 600086, India.

Phone: +91-44-42636125/ 28350403

Food: Milk Powder and Biscuits

Clothes: Children’s clothes, saris, lungis and blankets

Volunteers: To raise awareness and mobilize support, help with collection and packaging. We also need volunteers to work with our relief teams at the field (but for that you must spend at least 10 days in the affected areas and must be very healthy and ready to work in difficult circumstances.)

To keep everyone updated on what’s happening at the field level, we have set up a separate website for the relief efforts:

www.eurekachild.org/biharflood

Please direct your friends and others you know to this site. We will keep posting new updates, reports, photos and other information from the field at this site.

For more information please contact: eurekachild@gmail.com or

Chandra: +91-97909-20752(chanvish@yahoo.com)

Prabha: +91-98403-51132 (prabha.balaraman@gmail.com)

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Now passionate about charity….

subra — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:43:16 +0000

Bill Gates is a passionate man. First he was passionate about Microsoft, now he is passionate about charity. Making people ask “Is Bill Gates the next Ben Franklin?”. I found the discussion quite fascinating, hence here is an article based on a note I found in my inbox – sent by a friend.

Like Franklin, Gates is a brilliant entrepreneur and inventor who created a new technology that transformed the world. In the process, he became a very wealthy man, and so did thousands of his employees and millions of investors. And like Franklin, Gates retired in his 40s to devote the rest of his life to civic service and philanthropy on a global scale by establishing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates is a firm believer in the vital role of market forces and the benefits of free-market capitalism, but thinks big corporations should be nudged into providing products and services that may not be affordable to the poor, such as vaccines. His foundation, the world’s largest after Warren Buffett’s donation doubled its size, works to improve health care and reduce extreme poverty, and to expand educational opportunities and information technology.

Bill Gates appeared to agree wholeheartedly when Mackey defined “conscious capitalism” as

1) business having a deeper purpose than maximizing profits, and

2) stakeholder philosophy (harmony of interests among shareholders, officers, workers, customers, suppliers and the community, rather than the traditional “conflict of interests” between labor and management).

Gates started Microsoft not simply as a way to make a ton of money, but to provide a useful service to customers – the MS-DOS system followed by Windows software. By focusing on customer needs first, Gates became wealthy.

Investors can learn a lot by his example…

If you go into the stock market thinking only in terms of greed and making money, you are likely to get involved in a lot of schemes and short-term trading systems. Most will fail. But if you choose stocks of companies with good long-term fundamentals, you will make a lot of money in the stock market.

As J. Paul Getty states, “It is possible to make money – and a great deal of money – in the stock market. But it can’t be done overnight or by haphazard buying and selling. The big profits go to the intelligent, careful and patient investor, not to the reckless and overeager speculator… The seasoned investor buys his stocks when they are priced low, holds them for the long-pull rise and takes in-between dips and slumps in his stride.”

Gates does think government has an important role, especially when some vital services and products, such as vaccines, are not affordable to the poor.

Gates interests have shifted from Microsoft to the Gates Foundation. He resigned as chairman of Microsoft recently, leaving behind a company that is flush with cash ($21 billion), with revenues exceeding $60 billion, earnings jumping 40% in the most recent quarter, and profit margins approaching 30%. He was passionate in discussing how his foundation is dramatically reducing diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in poor countries.

Surely there is a lesson for many of us to learn from here. www.akshayapatra.org

is a good place to start…after all feeding a million kids a day..and trying to reach a billion is not a small aim is it? We need all the support for making that happen, NOW.

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Charitable Ideas!

subra — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:21:18 +0000

When a friend called me to say he is making a donation, I got greedy. She works for a large organisation, so instead of jumping at her offer, I asked her to call for a meeting of 20 of her friends – and I would make a small 15 minute presentation on akshayapatra!

I am posting this because in case you can get together a few of your friends, a couple of us here at Mumbai would like to come and talk to your group about having a well fed and educated Indian kids – all of them by a specific date!

Thanks in anticipation….

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Charity – nice things are starting to happen

subra — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:11:08 +0000

When I started blogging I found this as a good medium for writing about charitable giving. Many friends, classmates, relatives had monies coming out of their ears and seriously did not know what to do. The Audis had been bought, the beach house (a 5 BHK should be called a house or palace, I know not), the foreign trips made and were looking for some “feel good” actions.

So when I started writing about akshayapatra.org

I met the people involved, and the enormity hit me. They were then feeding about 900,000 children in schools – the latest count as I have it is 932,000. I found it inspiring and hair raising. Even as I write my eyes turn moist.

A friend who studied from IIM Ahmedabad did some rudimentary research into akshayapatra and has decided to donate Rs. 12,000 (feeding 10 children for a full year) on 10 occasions a year. That makes it Rs. 120,000 a year. More than the amount, I am thrilled about the multiplier effect friends like this can create. Let us say he writes about this in his blog, or his children talk about this in their class, or his wife talks about this with her friends. Or he just tells his kids “everyday when we pray, let us pray to make Indian children well fed”. I guess every thought, every rupee, every prayer, will help akshayapatra help make all Indian kids well fed, and well educated.

Imagine, if you are about 40 years of age – you have seen shortages of milk, food grains, sugar, – and to think that ALL INDIAN children will be fully fed and eduacated in the next 20 years, is that not an inspiring thought?

Come, lets make it.

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Akshayapatra will ensure India is literate and well fed

subra — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:53:44 +0000

Akshayapatra (see other posts and www.akshayapatra.org) is a reasonably large organisation. True to Gandhian values they believe that they should aim high, work high and talk less. One recent achievement is that they are now feeding 917,009 children everyday in some school in India.

India, of course, has many more hungry children (who cant go to school because they are hungry)…so here is a request to all of you ….visit that website and open your purses to them. And talk about them to all your friends , their friends, their their friends….and let us make Indian children literate.

Gandhiji said once “God dare not appear before the hungry man, except in the form of bread”. So if kids come because of akshayapatra food, and they learn something, I think we should be happy.

Let Annapoorna lead them to Saraswati. After all both are forms of MOTHER, are they not?

www.akshayapatra.org

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Charitable giving has started…

subra — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:26:20 +0000

To do charity you need to have a heart. Once you realize that you have a heart, you can give. I have always felt that it is easy to give what you have (goods) rather than the money that you have!

That is why it was easy for EID Parry to give a temple all the sanitary fittings. Now akshayapatra (see www.akshayapatra.org) is planning to enter Maharashtra. Thanks to the link to this site many of my readers have visited the site and made a donation. Of course I do not have a counter to know how much is the amount – but frankly it does not matter to me. I am just trying to spread the word (see giving what i have, not the money!). However some of the people who have donated some money have told me that they have done so. Like a friend who donated 12k. Obviously he was in a mood to give – I should thank him for directing it to akshayapatra. I do not think I can make a person donate – but hopefully i can give it a direction.

Akshayapatra will now need volunteers (always), some space to operate, vehicles (trucks), ..so obviously here is an appeal to all my readers!

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