Charity begins at home

Just moved cities and every day brings to me a new experience that is always a first. Some first are related to the city and help me form my first experiences which I will casually toss when some one asks me “…so how are u liking Delhi?”

Speaking to people I live with I realize people just love to talk. This coming from me can be a paradox especially for those who know me but seriously I don’t even need to ask questions and I have entire experiences spread out before me for me to pick and choose and decide on whether I want to form an opinion now or wait till later.

All through college and even in my working life, whenever a calamity struck (natural mostly or other wise) money was always sent off to so called deserving funds and we crossed our fingers hoping it got to where it had to.

Of course then there are stories like these which makes you feel yes one must think before parting with your hard earned monies. But speaking to these Indian versions of yuppies I wondered really what are we so paranoid about?

This fella and felly told me about the time they entered a class and collected money from their fellow students for a proposed good cause, took pains to issue receipts and came away with a good hefty load of cash which was spent and here I quote “.. aisi ladkiyon pe udaaya humne…aur yaad hai aapko , humne aapka denim ka jacket bhi isisi se laya tha..”(roughly translated it means we spent the money by actually tossing the money on girls – aka dance bars and don’t you remember that’s how you got your denim jacket?) – fella told felli.

Another time they “killed” off mothers of one of their friends and well partied hard into the night on the money meant for the final rites. It was laughed off to “kaise nautanki karta hai, dekho!” (Just look at his acting skills).

It pissed me off then and I also realized that they were not the only students who must have ever done something like this. Why even our politicians believe it is their right to relief funds before it gets to the deserving.

But I kept thinking why nobody I knew (till now) or me thought of something like this? And are these kids going to be the next generation of politicians … ? In which case there is not much hope, is there ? And me, the eternal pessimist, who ironically believes in that one last saviour, gets quite upset thinking about it.

Sigh!