Thursday, November 23, 2006

ThanksGiving - for all? hmmmm.......

Last afternoon, I just finished a slightly late lunch with a friend of mine from school, and I was walking on Guadalupe to take the bus to go to office. While I was walking, I was thinking of the long weekend plans and was really happy to see people rushing in and out of all the stores there, buying gifts for their friends and dear ones. This was one day that the whole of America celebrates, just forgetting about everything except fun!

Or is it the whole of America, actually?

I still hadn't reached the bus stop, when I saw four homeless guys sitting down by the street (on Guadalupe), and as I passed them, they asked me if I have a dollar to spare. My heart just sank for a minute. On one end, people are spending so lavishly on their gifts for the people they care. And, that includes me as well, I had just spent close to a 100 bucks on food and drinks just the last weekend for my friends and me. On the other end, there are a few poverty-stricken homeless folks, or actually more than a few, who probably don't even know (not literally) what Thanks Giving is all about!

I walked past as I had stopped this habit of giving money to the needy, as most often they get misspent. But then couldn't control myself, so walked back and asked them whether they've eaten and if they'd like to have something to eat. They were so overjoyed, you should have seen them. They said, "Sure!". I just walked in to the adjacent pizza kitchen, and ordered some pizza for them. While I was waiting, one of those guys came and asked me how long it would take. I said 20 minutes, but didn't know why he was asking me that. After 20 minutes, I took the stuff out to give it to them, and I saw not 4 folks, but around 10 folks now! I was again deeply moved. This concept of sharing is always more prevalent among those who don't have much to share, except their most valuable hearts!

Technically, their per-head consumption is going to go down becuase of the increase in their number now, so I should have gone back and got more stuff to eat probably. But I didn't, I asked them they can share that and they said they would and asked me not to worry about it. hmmmm.... (may be I should have actually). I also wanted to learn about how they landed up in this state, I'm sure they must have had a good background once. But I found it inappropriate at that time, so bid farewell. They thanked me, played a song for me as well and one of them wished me, "Thank you very much for this, and have a good Thanks Giving, brother"

I'm here today pondering on the unequal distribution of wealth in this universe. It is not merely economics. There's more reason to it. We don't realize how rich we are. Statistics in US show that, if your annual salary is more than $45,000, you are among the richest 1% in the world.
We, those who have everything we need, neither realize it, nor deserve it (I say this because, I didn't do anything exceptional to be where I am today. It was just God). God has given us, to share it with those who don't have. When will I make that a habit? I really don't know......

Anyway, that was a good eye-opening Thanks Giving wish for me, and probably the best I'm going to get. Happy Thanks Giving everyone!

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

As Buffet put it you were a part
of a selec sperm club.
Enjoy it.

10:00 AM  
Blogger Padmanaban Kumar (Paddu @ Just for Kicks) said...

Well, I'm not giving billions and billions to my 3 children....:)

11:13 AM  

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