A quote from February 1st issue of TOI;
"Gates has slammed Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for wasting money on hair transplants instead of helping the starved... Gates told the newspaper 'Suddeutsche Zeitung' rich people spend a lot more money on their own problems - like baldness - than they do to fight malaria."
This set me thinking, irrespective of how rich we are, how many of us think about the underprivileged?
A sad fact - I don't. I am sure most of my batchmates from college or youth belonging to my age group don't think about such stuff either (a select few do and I do not deny that) almost all of them are busy nurturing their own ambitions.
The reason is simple enough. We are trying so hard, to establish our own identity in the society, to make sure that we can eke out a living after we pass out of college, trying to swim towards the elusive 'Indian Dream', that in this struggle we tend to block out every aspect of the society that is beyond our sphere and utility. But this reason isn't good enough!
Why don't we consider social entrepreneurship as a career or volunteer for NGO's in the social service sector.
Maybe it's time we kept aside our dreams of hefty paychecks, big houses and flashy cars aside for some while and looked beyond our own ambitions. It's time we stopped complaining how unfair life can be. It's time we do something to really help those in need of a better life.
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3 comments:
Hey Arjuna - I don't see any wrong in pursuing your dreams....even if they are materialistic in nature...
As long as one isn't mean and doesn't trample on others rights...I don't see any reason why people should go out of their way to think about the under priv. section...
Ideally yes, that should be the case...But if it doesn't happen...it is ok...
no reasons for feeling apologetic I think...
Rjuna,
Good to see you back. Not participating in BAT ? I can understand why :-)
Aap naraaz hai hum se ? Have not seen you around much. Guria mentioned your post in her Top-5 pick for INDImag, so meandered in from there.
I agree with both you and Mukta. Coming from a middle class background many of us have 'making it big' as our main goal. But we do need to help the less privileged and not forget them. Good thing is, they are not mutually exclusive. I would even argue we could do better if we are stable ourselves before we jump in to help -- like they say on airplanes 'If you have a child, be sure to put the oxygen mask on you before you help the child..' :-) .
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