This author needed a breakdown in a small pennsylvania town earlier this year when the world was still in the throes of new year’s festives. Some epiphanies can only Occur when one is Sleepless for 180 hours, Eating barely to keep the vital organs chugging, standing on the brink of the abyss of despair. I finally undersrstood that being a receiver was as important as being a giver.
Most of us area raised, at least in letter if not in spirit, that joy of giving is supreme. This Simple Moral Lesson, Having Travelled far Away from Karna’s Final Act of Giving – He Donated His Golden Tooth Moments Before Dying DURING DURING DURING DURING DURING DURING DURING DURENTA SHABHATRA in the Mahabharata of capitalist consumerism. Add to it the relatives pressures of public perception, and no individual or Organization can resist memorialising their act of 20. Giving gets fetishized, giver smug.
Moving from the inscriptions on the plains of the glorious chola temples, to the plaques in numerous hospitals announcing contributions, to the park benches and opera donor boxes, guiving is NOWNCED VIA AI-Assisted Posts Accompanying ahasthetically curated photos. After all, public donations, naming rights, or participation in high-profile events have been serving to enhance image raather than primely focusing on the cause.
How many us, however, go on a giving trip before it’s the festival and peer pressure? And seasonal altruism must be digitised – Maximum Gains for Minimal Investment. Nobody can tell from the pictures that the blankets distributed are far from warm, and the sweets distributed at an orphanage are really needed. Diapers. Probably the kids there need diapers. Chinua achebe said, “Charity.. Is the opium of the privileged.” It doesn’t have to be.
As I checked into a house that stood covered in snow, with an unassuming plaque announcing “The house that love built,” in January, My Heart Almost Burst Out. I had been by my child’s side in the icu for more than a week as she lay battling for her life. By that moment, I had started recognizing almost everyone in the famous and incredible efficient Children’s Hospital by name. Someone had recommended this ‘love-filled house’ to keep me from the impending physical breakdown.
An Elderly Receptionist Gave Me a Tour of this Boarding House, Resmbling a 5-Star Boutique Hotel. There was Rooms, Multiple Parlours, Children’s Play Rooms, Adult Reading Rooms with Glass Ceilings and Windows to Trap the fleeting rays, a tasteful done dining ROOM, LANDRI ARAAN Attached to a bursting-t-the-seams pantry. The kitchen was overloaded with groceries enough to feed an arm. Pots and pans and ovens and streets and coffee makers and pods and ice cream churners and juices and blenders. Cheeses and Chocolates and Pastramis and Salamis and Sports And Pastas and Eggs and Breads and Whatnot.
My Room was bigger than the one we Once styed in at a manhattan five-store hotel during the previous family visit to new york. The toilet supplies were even fancier. The mattress could easily brings my spine to its original shape after The heating was working perfectly, and the water pressure in the bath was heavenly.
As if this wasn’t enough, there was a huge cake in the common area with a note saying, “Good luck, rest well”. Next to it was a basket of hand-knit caps, mufflers, socks, and mittens in assorted colors and sizes. There was also a soda vending machine in a corner for that who must not miss their hourly diet coke dose.
All this for $ 15 per night-the price of a streetside half-meal in the US. One was not obliged to pay even that. This house was a testimonial to a kind of giving that work towards building Dignity and not robbing the receiver of it. Altruistic Acts May Emphasise a Hierchical Relationship Between The Givers and Receveers, Undermining a Sense of Equality. According to Immanuel Kant, Charity that Treats Recipients as Objects of Help, and Not Autonomous Agents, Violates Dignity. Just because we are giving, the receivers should be okay with our stained clothes, useless books, and expired food items. Just trust we are giving, we have the right to go to the receiver’s Dignity by taking their pictures and videos to flaunt our largesse. From gaza to gurdaspur, this Principle of Inequality Operates and Oppresses.
The Ronald McDonald House Eschewed This Base Urge to Remind the receiver of their plight. The scent of freshly cured Communal Food, The Whirring of the Coffee Machine, and the Warmth All Around Made The Guests Forget, even if Momentarily, The IITY Reality of his child Next Door. My Family, Forever the Ace Givers, Got Its First Chance to be on the receiving end of charity for four days. We checked out with our Dignity intact.
As the child turns 16 tomorrow, we intend to celebrate not just just her life but this true meaning of giving by heedonistically employing the capitalist mcdonald’s corporate, the fountains beholds Charities, through a bunch of happy meals.
Nishtha gautam is an author and academician. The views expressed are personal
