For someone who always entertained colleagues by singing on-stage at annual functions or every opportune occasion or lightening up the atmosphere with his wise-cracks even on any other work day, it is but natural to be sporting enough to participate in all events be it sports, social gatherings or musical evenings with his broad smile and ‘ready to play along’ attitude.

Having observed various interesting traits in him, which are not so common in many of us, especially those working in the government offices, one is tempted to ask him – what other interests does he have? Apart from being a good singer – he had been singing on stage with many artistes in his younger days with musical troupes and shared the stage and recording rooms with the likes of Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan et al – he has been a keen sports enthusiast, especially cricket, he tells me.

Udit Narayan with our Good Samaritan

“What else?”, I was tempted to ask. “Social work” he replied.

“Society has isolated some unfortunate people from the others, simply because fate has been cruel with them, and has denied them the opportunity to celebrate festivals and enjoy life as normal beings. They are shunned by literate, knowledgeable, enlightened, educated people into leading a life of a loner. I love to go to such places, like the Homes for the Aged, Remand homes for street children or Hospitals for Leprosy patients, where people sulk in their own misery, lose hope and crave for someone to come and ask them ‘How are you today?’ ‘Come on, it is festival time, let us celebrate!’ They like me coming over to share a few moments of fun and laughter with them. I entertain them so that they forget their woes, even if it is only for short while. They feel that there is someone who wants us to be happy, wants to talk to us, wants to see us dance and sing!”

Some even wanted to begin celebrating their birthday with him! Perhaps they want to live longer only because they know he will certainly come again! Every Christmas finds our good Samaritan disguise himself as a Santa Claus and do the rounds of the Acworth Municipal Leprosy Hospital at Wadala in Mumbai, where the lesser fortunate ones wait for his arrival at every occasion. When word went around how one kind-hearted soul makes them dance and sing at parties, some celebrities and wealthy industrialists wanted to organize parties they just had to have him around! So when he visited the leprosy hospital in his civil dress, on the insistence of a well-known celebrity, who accompanied him incognito, the inmates wanted to know: “Why didn’t you come here on Christmas day? We had a ball here! You should have been here – you missed it all!”

As Santa Claus posing with the leprosy patients

Urging them to dance with him at the XMas party

Oh they are all dancing now!

That was indeed a dilemma – he must have hoped he could duplicate himself with a human copier so that he could accompany himself to the Xmas Party! But that is what we too may hope for – so that we can use such a device to duplicate such benevolent souls to spread the joy around!

On the occasion of the Joy of Giving Week, scheduled to be observed from September 27th to Oct 2nd 2009, I feature this story as a tribute to the Giver Of Joys, Mr. Chandrakant Birhade, hoping to spread the message about how ordinary folks can share their joys and devote some time for a good social cause! It aint only about money.

The Giver of Joy, Chandrakant Birhade, who needs no special week for bringing himself and many others joy in this world!

Let us conclude with the wise words of Mother Teresa, who spent large part of her lifetime in the care of leprosy patients.

‘The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.’
- Mother Teresa

Post-Script: Read about Acworth Municipal Leprosy Hospital, Wadala, Mumbai 400 031 Dr. WS Bhatki, Tel: 24147256 / 24150355

About the Author: Gopinath Mavinkurve is a hobbyist writer and blogs at http://whatnonsanz.blogpost.com/

He can be contacted at g_mavinkurve@hotmail.com or on his Twitter ID @gopinathmm

Fear!

Why do we fear, one wonders? You may recall that as a very young child, you were usually free from fear. You may be perched at the edge of a high wall, or about to touch the hot tea kettle – you aren’t scared! But could we call it bravery? Certainly not! Being unaware of the dangers, one is free from the fears. So at this very early stage in life, that parents and well-wishers rush in to make the child aware of the impending dangers and to protect the tender young one.

Again as a child, does one fear other people? Certainly not! A child normally trusts that the world is full of angels they want to meet – except when someone is aggressive. Soon enough, the child begins to think, he/she can do anything on impulse and then it is time to tell the child what is acceptable behaviour and what is not!

“Don’t pick that crystal! It cost us a fortune,” you yell at the child. Not that you want him to know how many day’s wages it cost you to buy it, just that you don’t want him to drop it and break such a lovely possession. It wouldn’t be long before the little imp learns to cope with high decibel levels and continues to do just what he wanted to – pick up that crystal – and throw it! So your effort to control the child’s behavior has just failed and the child has just learnt how to overcome the “fear” of a yelling adult.

Time to look for a better and more effective method, you tell yourself. How about spanking? Or punishing the child, maybe? You are at your wits’ end, nevertheless. When it is time for the child to go to play-school, you are alarmed because you have yet to discover the really effective means to discipline your child. But now you have other folks, who would share the responsibility of conditioning your child to the ways of the world, such as the teachers or the school administrators.

Now that you’ve got the hang of it all, you may be wondering why am I, knowing nothing of psychology should be writing about learned behaviour and fear?

Well, I am motivated by some recent incidents of extreme and ruthless punishments which were meted out to kids as “discipline’. I refer here to instances where children were beaten up or made to stand out in the sun with bricks on their shoulders. Is it not time that parents, teachers, education experts and child psychologists got together and identified punishments that are acceptable to a civilized society and those that are not? Do schools have any guidelines on this subject?

Once out of school, it is time to join college! One is not so sure whether your “conditioning” was complete or incomplete, but you sure did pass the tests and stuff. So off you go to college – to have fun! But one wonders what is your idea of fun? If it is cracking jokes in the canteen in your spare time or slipping away to a multiplex near your college once in a while, then there is nothing to worry about except the occasional irate lecturer who might have noted your absence one day when you played truant. But not everyone is satisfied with such innocent pastimes and you may have to worry about what “fun” means to others – especially your seniors!

Their idea of fun could be ragging newcomers – and that could be you! Fortunately, the practice of extreme ragging is not as rampant as it appears from the extreme cases that are reported by the mainstream media. Some college students do participate in mild forms of ragging – usually for fun – and certainly not the kind which turns “real fun” into its ugly anagram – “funeral.” Some instances of extremely dangerous cases of ragging have taken place notably in the case of young Aman Kachhroo. But, after reading the reports about these incidents, one begins to believe that these cases are not really about ragging but something beyond that –bullying.

It is then that one realizes that the child had not been taught about how to deal with bullies! But weren’t we busy teaching the child to fear all along? Did we spare a thought about how the child would cope with fearsome bullies?

Isn’t it time to introduce courses and discussion forums to embolden the child, so that he or she will have the courage to speak up against the scourge of bullying and deal with this menace more effectively?

Especially, when the world is yet to learn to cope with terrorists, extremists, tyrants, scamsters, criminals and what-have-you – all bullies of a kind!

What is God?
Gopinath: God is a creation of man, born from the imagination and created when all other living mortals failed him. There had to be someone who could be the provider, so God was born out of hope, loneliness, despair, yearning, desires and the need for love. God was created for joy, pleasure, sharing, reaching out and trusting. Man’s God is of epic proportions, so that one would come along and create a larger Being!

God or the Big Bang (or both)?
Gopinath: God, before the Big Bang.

God or Darwin (or both)?
Gopinath: Darwin and Darwin’s God (you may need to hand over these interview questions to him!)

God or Darfur ? (How can Darfur happen if there is God?)
Gopinath: Darfur will create many more Gods!

Who is God’s God?
Gopinath: Probably a Mother, the life-giver on earth, the nurturer, the caretaker, a loving being on earth. God too has many Gods!

Will the real God please stand up? (Why do we have so many religions?)
Gopinath: Oh they are all standing up, respectively, in every creator’s mind. But each one of us can only see the God we have personally created and not the Gods whom others have produced from their imaginations. The trouble begins when we compare notes: “My God is….your God is….”

Is this just a big lab and are we just guinea pigs and God just a researcher?
Gopinath: Quite unlikely, since man felt the need and created God.

Unexplained phenomena = God?
Gopinath: Unexplained phenomena = think hard, think, learn, browse, ask, discuss, probe, dwell, whatever. This is not God. Miracles happen because our mind is not ready to accept what was bound to happen anyway.

I have helped people in distress! How? By forwarding emails that would pay 2 cents for every email forwarded to the little girl who is battling for her life in an ICU in some obscure hospital, with baffling complications, which only some brilliant specialist surgeon can handle. The surgery costs a huge sum though. But no sweat. I need not reach for those purse-strings yet. I need to just forward this email to my 300+ contacts who will so generously forward it again to their kith and kin. I would still contribute to this good cause. I am proud to have done my bit for her. I feel good.

What else? I have shared important information that could help my friends in distress. Like how to deal with a heart attack if you are alone or how not to get trapped by thieves at the ATM and how to bring in the local police by simply typing your password backwards. I do care for my friends and relatives and isn’t that a great social cause?

More. I had been deeply moved by the events that rolled out on our television screens on 26/11. My Mumbai had been attacked! I couldn’t take that, could I? I signed the online petition that urged the Government to proactively take on the scourge of terrorism that was eating into our national fabric. What more could I do?

Are you laughing at me? I just hope you are! Because all my responses described above can be collectively called “slacktivism” -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism – a combination of “slacker” and “activism”.  You don’t need to dirty your hands or spend more time than to lift your finger only to click on your mouse to either sign that petition that you so ardently support or to forward that email that could save someone’s life. Everyone is doing it – all for a good cause!

If you think online petitions work, read about their shortcomings here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp. If you think that the forwards do pay those 2 cents per forwarded mail, please be informed that these are hoax emails with nobody tracking them and no money being offered. Also often, almost always, nobody is in distress either. Thankfully! So what good have I done last year? Except the feel-good sigh that one heaved of having acted on things close to our heart?

The world is going through a bad phase. Corporates, globally, are cutting down on their expenses. One hopes that they don’t cut down on their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) spends this year. One also hopes that we citizens too do not cut back on our social responsibility, which means a whole lot to those who aren’t asking for too much – only their survival and their basic needs in life. That project to build a home for the homeless, that school for the tribal children, physically or mentally disabled children or for the street children of a megacity would surly get held up for lack of funds, while we click away to glory. Back the genuine cause of your choice to the hilt – with some real help – your money, your time and your attention. This is the time when they need it most!

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A management professional, Gopinath is a hobbyist writer since his college days. Humour, language, creativity are the main subjects of his interest. His “artickles” blog provides information, insights into current events with a humorous twist. Visit him at http://whatnonsanz.blogspot.com/.