This incident happened a decade back when I was in my first year of college. I was leading a flood relief campaign on behalf of my college. The aim of the campaign was to collect fund from the local residents and send it over to a place called “Orissa” to help people effected by floods.
On that particular day I had stepped onto about 50 houses, with a banner and a box, asking for donations. At last I stepped into a locality where poor people lived, just for the sake of covering an entire region as part of the campaign. An aged person started running towards me after looking at the banners of the campaign. He escorted me to his so called home which was nothing but a thatched roof supported by four mud walls. He leaned towards a small, so called, shelf and picked a kitty box. A kitty box was something I used to save money when I was a kid. The old man broke the kitty box and gave all that money as donation.
I do not even know the name of that old man but I will never forget the smile on his face when he broke that kitty box. He had a heart to donate his entire life savings to help those people of his nation who were suffering. Donating thousand bucks when you have a bank balance of a million is not extra-ordinary but donating all of one’s life’s savings was indeed extra-ordinary. He is not a figure in arts, literature, politics or business but he is the figure I most admire and will keep admiring for the rest of my life.
That was the day my thought process about charity changed. It does not matter how much you contribute but the intention to contribute matters.
Monday, March 1, 2010
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3 comments:
Very touching !
Perhaps tats why charity is such a gratifying job :) Keep it coming :)
Did you ever go back and meet him?
Nice to hear such real life accounts.. of people so sincere!
I did not meet him again. I do'nt even remember the route to that place but I do remember him.
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