Helping Others

I am a kind of girl who generally doesn't believe in taking help of others, no matter what kind of relationship I share with them as I consider myself totally capable of doing all those tasks which others can do for me( except those few that require more energy and practical intelligence than what actually I possess). You can take it in this fashion also that my past experiences of getting betrayed by the people when I needed them the most, have taught me this strict lesson of doing things by myself without involving anyone. Moreover you can’t expect a genuine and unconditional help from the people of  21st century ( again with few exceptions).

I don’t know why most of us are like this? I have observed that Americans or Europeans help each other so much, Indians don't. Why? Are they insecure that someone will get something easily or more than them or from them? Are they too lazy to help others? Do they prefer getting things instead of giving things? This particular attitude of Indians always saddens me. They worship God, read religious books, talk about all those good and big things in their life…but when it comes to helping others...most of them just withdraw themselves. And you know what astonished me more…that the people who once were in the dire need of help are the one who withdraw themselves first ( Reason….Hum kyo kare?? Humari to help kisi ne nahi ki?) Jabki  it should have been like this…as I know the feeling of not having…now I take an oath of giving others or helping others even more. No matter what our religious books taught us…we usually don’t bother helping each other much. Even you will find several categories of people in this context. Like some are those poor guys who just don’t know anything about this word called help(not their fault),they just inherited it from their parents, some do offer their help but with conditions, some with if and buts and some till it will not create any discomfort in their status quo. So I often wonder how this world is surviving given the selfishness of a vast majority of people?I think it survives because of few endangered species who put others before self, for them helping others is a moral obligation. Moreover if everyone of us were to be selfish, and motivated by self interest, then who would care for the people who have no one to look up for help?

I somehow trying hard from many years to get into this last group of people and for this I constantly appreciate my Maa and Papa .They are the one who have inculcated this habit of giving and helping others into me. What to talk about humans? my father has been feeding animals in our premises and his office from last so many years…he doesn’t only feed them but bear their medical expenses too……I am observing my mother from the very childhood that she as well is in this kind of offering unconditional help to others. I still remember one of her strange habit of making some extra chapattis daily…she has been doing this from years…earlier I was not aware of this fact that why she took this much of pain?? But, now I know…It is actually going in this manner….. First chapati for the holy cow, second for the birds on our terrace and rest for the dogs of my Papa's office.

But listen there is no correlation between doing charity and helping others because usually I have seen that people are doing charity just for compensating their sins. They don’t know that their good deeds are not going to compensate their bad ones. No matter how you much you flatter God, You can’t make fool of him. He will punish or reward you individually for both. You can consider this example…A billionaire is having everything except a healthy child.So beware of this type of misconception. 

I firmly believe that life on earth is precious and we must use it for serving others.Moreover a person who merely looks after himself cannot really be said to be “living”.But we can’t teach our children to help others if we ourselves don’t do this".  So every parent should try to teach their children not to be selfish and the importance of service of others. They should try to inculcate this feeling of sharing in their kids from early childhood. If they do not pick up desirable values when they are young, how will they grow up to be responsible adult? An easy to remember one liner that we can teach our children is “Desire to be generous”. So it doesn’t merely tell us to be generous, but urges us to desire to be generous. It must be spontaneous with us which should not come through any compulsion. Here, I am not negating the significance of school and teachers in this but the role of parents come first as the child spend most of the time with their parents at least till the age of 15 ( India). Therefore they should help their kids to understand their role as a human by involving them in community as early as possible. Visiting orphans and old age homes on their birthdays, sharing things with their siblings and friends willingly, and giving importance to the child of neighbors, relatives and maid equally before your child could be few among many kind gestures.

The reason for giving children a value based education is as values picked up when one was a child lasted life-long. Helping others becomes second nature to a person, if that is what he has been doing since the time he was a child. We too should not think that youth is not just a time for enjoyment, and that acts of charity belong to one’s old age. (Once I had an argument with my flat mate over this).And it is never too early to begin to help others. In fact,Charity and this desire to give others must being when one is young, and it is for this reason that our lessons for children should always emphasize on this.