``What? Ten rupees for such a small distance?'' I heard a lady shriek at a rickshaw puller as I pulled in my scooter in the parking slot next to the rickshaw stand. I stood there and watched. The negotiation began. The rickshaw puller was adamant on charging Rs 10 and she on giving eight. As he tried to convince her, her diamond earrings reflected the hot sun rays into vibrant hues on his poking ribs. They seemed to stare at her from his sunburnt skin.In the end, he refused to pull her 65 kg frame, loaded with three shopping bags, for a kilometre for just eight rupees. "I'll find another one," she mumbled. As she looked for another puller, suddenly the appeal was audible: Shanivaar hai. A teenaged boy dressed in saffron robes with a kamandal in one hand approached her.``Oh, it's Saturday!'' she exclaimed as an opportunity to save herself from the curse of Shani had arrived with the boy. Without batting an eyelid, she took out a crisp five-rupee note and gave it to the boy, who showered her withblessings in return. This transaction left her amply pleased with herself, and she went back to her previous task of hailing a rickshaw puller with fresh determination.I stood there and wondered. we would donate our one-day salary for the victims of Kargil without giving it a second thought, but would nevertheless refuse to give away Rs 50 to our maid servant to help her in her daily fight against her underprivileged status.Advertise for any old "save the crocodile campaign", and you be adequately assured of a flurry of donations. Let a labourer ask for our old, wornout clothes and we will scoff at him. We are moved to despair by the fact that rainforests are fast shrinking, but we would coolly dump our garbage in front of the neighbour's door.It is almost a universal law of philanthropy. What happens miles away deeply touches our souls, but what happens in our own neighboured fails to stir a single emotion within us. We would be worried about the starving souls in Africa but would never buy anapple for a poor malnourished kid in the locality. We would write letters of concern to someone dying of cancer in America but would never care to drop in a line of concern to a relative who is sick and has been hospitalised. The hole in the ozone layer is our primary concern, but the garbage dump at the street corner is heaven knows whose!We feel gratified by doing favours for people we would never see in our lifetime, feel elated over serving the ca-uses we have remotely no interest in. But through it all, we tend to remain blissfully indifferent to the issues near us.Millions of hungry mouths go off to sleep under the star-studded sky every night, but we would never save a morsel of food for a destitute family nearby. No doubt, we would rather wait for a high-profile advertisement campaign asking for donations to feed the impoverished families in the adjoining state.We brag about the weighty cheques sent to various organisations to help the ragpickers adopt a healthy lifestyle but do we care tooffer a glass of water to the rag pickers outside our own houses?It is great to serve mankind but remember that old saying, charity begins at home? Do we need to work only for people and causes miles away to attain a feeling of accomplishment? People and causes far away from us do need our support and strength. however, do they need it at the cost of issues near us?
