Monday, August 30, 2010

I won the ovarian lottery. I was born with no physical handicaps to a family of loving parents a little less than 30 years ago... and while I can picture my friends shaking their heads furiously at this, I dont have any mental illnesses either; well not by identifiable diagnosis i.e. ;)

I grew up in the capital city, the political hotbed and the centre of development , of the largest democracy in the world; in an age that saw unprecendented economic growth of the country and a burgeoning middle class: the target customer for some of the world's biggest companies.

My parents doted on me, and made every attempt to fulfil every whim and fantasy I had as a child. They put up with my childhood tantrums, teenage rebellion and even the detached ambition and extra demands I imposed them in the recent years. With every decade of my life, they just rose higher in their role as parents and put me before themselves.

Yes, I won the ovarian lottery. My past life karma must have been pretty good!

And chances are, so did you. Sitting in front of your laptop, reading blogs in your leisure time in a comfortable room with worries ranging from next pay raise to next girlfriend..chances are your story is pretty similar to mine.

And yet, as you & I sip our $3.50 Latte scanning the internet for our next purchase.... millions of children are starving in other parts of the world; their mothers forced into prostitution just to put half a meal in front of them once a day. Children for whom that $3.5 probably means 4 days worth of food. Children for whom knowing the alphabet is a luxury reserved for the rich.

They are children who didn't win this lottery. Children who are loved just as much by their parents as you & I are; but whose parents can barely give them anything else beyond that love. Children who grow up living with the harsh reality that love doesnt buy food. And that this world has no heart or place for the poor. Children who grow up either bitter or resigned to their fate, if they grow up at all, i.e.

And why just starving children, the world today is rife with problems, each bigger than the first, each more insurmountable. Corruption, terrorism, climate change, ethnic violence...in no particular order, each one of these problems makes this world worse with each passing day.

And for mere mortals like you & I, who are not the Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa of this century,...who like their money, conveniences and comforts of life too much to give them all up...the question really is, "Can we make a difference? Can 1 person who is neither a Saint nor a Charistmatic Leader, make a difference?

I don't know. But I think we can try. And I think we should. doesnt matter what is our personal motivation...whether its getting tax benefits in this life or good karma in the next...if it makes some one's life a little better, a little easier..if it can make some one's future a little brighter..then its worth the attempt.

And after years of contemplating, and waiting for the right time to come, the right amount of disposable income to reach my bank account, the right cause to fall in my lap, the right NGO to come begging for donation on my door, the right catastrophe to strike the world..I decided to stop looking for excuses and put my inaction aside.

Mom taught me.."Smiles are free so give them away"
I have finally decided to start giving them, 1 day, 1 small deed at a time.

Because not all of us can become saints and change the world. But may be we can become good human beings. Or at least we can try.

And I think we should.

Ed. note: The start of my journey is thanks to WorldVision India, and their Sponsor-a-child program that has over 25000 sponsors for the India program itself, a highly credible global organisation with an immense reputation worldwide; and a hugely successful program globally. At 600 INR ($35) a month, you can literally change some one's life. For more details, visit: http://www.worldvision.in/ (India site) , http://www.worldvision.org/ (Global website)