Hunger.
I walk an hour a day to shed excess flab acquired over years of feasting in marriages and ceremonies,overeating after delivery and gorging on snacks and sweets dripping with ghee that I prepare for the festivals that occur in clock work precision every month of the year.
I have never known hunger. At the rare times when I actually do I am not unduly perturbed because I could always find something to eat as my kitchen shelves and fridge are always well stocked and I am never lacking in money to order food from outside.
When I chance upon write ups about starvation deaths due to poverty in Orissa or Bihar and that villagers are forced to eat inedible and poisonous roots and seeds to stave off the gnawing pangs of hunger and that a unbelievable number of people, nearly 200 millions of Indians go to bed hungry each day , my stomach knots up and I am swept with shame and remorse.
The anger and angst of the fiery poet's, 'Bharathiyar' words at once comes to my mind.He decreed in his realm [writings] ''Let us destroy this world even if a single person doesn't get food to eat''.
Well off Indians are the butt of criticism for spending lakhs of rupees in gaudy marriages ,showy social and religious functions and extravagant evening parties.
According to Hindu Dharma a 'grihastha' or in other words a householder is enjoined to earn a good living so that he may maintain himself ,his family ,relatives and friends in good health and cheer.He is also directed to wipe the tears of the distressed and the orphans and to do at least one charitable deed a day.
The fact is that no Indian is heartless .It is the lack of a reliable social mechanism to galvanise fund raising from middle and upper classes and its sincere distribution to the needy that is aggravating this heart rending misery of a quarter of our population .
Every well off Indian would gladly contribute his mite only if he was sure that his contributions would actually reach the beneficiaries .
Who will take up such onerous duties ?Who will bell the cat ?
I have never known hunger. At the rare times when I actually do I am not unduly perturbed because I could always find something to eat as my kitchen shelves and fridge are always well stocked and I am never lacking in money to order food from outside.
When I chance upon write ups about starvation deaths due to poverty in Orissa or Bihar and that villagers are forced to eat inedible and poisonous roots and seeds to stave off the gnawing pangs of hunger and that a unbelievable number of people, nearly 200 millions of Indians go to bed hungry each day , my stomach knots up and I am swept with shame and remorse.
The anger and angst of the fiery poet's, 'Bharathiyar' words at once comes to my mind.He decreed in his realm [writings] ''Let us destroy this world even if a single person doesn't get food to eat''.
Well off Indians are the butt of criticism for spending lakhs of rupees in gaudy marriages ,showy social and religious functions and extravagant evening parties.
According to Hindu Dharma a 'grihastha' or in other words a householder is enjoined to earn a good living so that he may maintain himself ,his family ,relatives and friends in good health and cheer.He is also directed to wipe the tears of the distressed and the orphans and to do at least one charitable deed a day.
The fact is that no Indian is heartless .It is the lack of a reliable social mechanism to galvanise fund raising from middle and upper classes and its sincere distribution to the needy that is aggravating this heart rending misery of a quarter of our population .
Every well off Indian would gladly contribute his mite only if he was sure that his contributions would actually reach the beneficiaries .
Who will take up such onerous duties ?Who will bell the cat ?
posted by K.C. Sujata at
4:09 AM
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