‘…When we share—that is poetry in the prose of life…..’
Sigmund Freud
Something terribly disgusting in our country is the glamour our political leaders portray through their ostentatious cars and homes they live in. The money they lavish on themselves so blatantly could easily feed a hundred families for a year or even more. And yet with no guilt or conscience they display their wealth to the world at large.
I’ll never forget Col. Tutton from England, a dear friend of mine. We met after a number of years when he decided to visit India again with his wife. We decided to lunch together and I took them to the Taj. “Bob,” he said, “I can’t eat here, when I know the same money could feed those urchins outside. Let’s eat elsewhere and with what we save, feed them!”
We ate in a small though lovely restaurant and yes many hungry went home with their stomachs filled.
A twelve year old, Christopher Daniel penned these lines in England, where he lives.
It was by chance that we were born
To plenty in a land of corn.
In other lands less favoured by
The weather’s hand.
It is a very bitter price they pay
For want of wheat and rice.
Nigeria’s Northern deserts spread
And leave whole tribes to wait for death.
In Bangladesh, the rains spill forth
And flood the plains from South to North,
They isolate the village folk
Who least can bear this heavy yoke.
It was sheer chance where we were born.
Should we not send them of our corn?
Sheer chance isn’t it, that we are born into families where we don’t have to wonder where or when our next meal is coming from? I am sure you will all agree with the twelve-year old poet as he winds up asking: ‘Should we not send them our corn?’ We should, shouldn’t we? But before you shake yours heads in absolute agreement, I’d like to run this little story by you:
A speaker stood in Hyde Park and addressed an audience which was made of just one man. “If you had two houses you would give them to the poor, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” shouted his single listener.
“And if you had two cars, you would keep one and give the other away?”
“Indeed!” shouted his listener.
“And if you had two shirts, you would give one away?”
“Hey wait a minute,” said the man who was listening, “I do have two shirts!”
It was easy shaking our heads about the politicians, wasn’t it? But when it came to our shirts?
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Makes me think of the lady who gave everything she had as we read in the scriptures. My uncle who was an alcoholic would at times return home shirtless much to the dismay of his mother. His response to her insistent questions would be, ‘he had no shirt so I gave mine’. Giving is a blessing while greed is a curse.
We need not worry what politicians are doing.I should decide what I should do and how I should behave.Your friend had rightly decided not to eat in Taj though majority of foreigners preferred eating at Taj.
Yet another wonderful article has impressed me today, Bobby. Thank you! It reminded me of my brother who too gave his shirt to a poor man. It had been bought for him for Christmas. My cousin did it too. It was Jesus who though the King of Kings, was not born in a palace to be accessible to the kings and outcasts of the society, the shepherds.?
The problem is human greed and selfishness God created us as caretakers of the world If we share our resources the way it should be, there would be no rich and poor All would be self-sufficient