The Business ? no Art ?..no... Joy of Giving :)

This week whilst visiting a good Bombay hospital for a regular checkup of my Mom I stumbled across a little girl in a wheelchair with her mom. She apparentaly was suffering from some birth defect which I judged by her slightly disfigured face. But what was most upsetting was to see that little arm of hers with a plaster cast almost to keep that IV needle in place and scanty air probably a sign on a more scary disease. Yet there she was like a little girl, talking to her mom about the little things that a child does.
Later on the same day a friend had a post on his facebook of a collection drive for treatment of cancer kids at Tata Memorial who cannot afford it.

That day I was very upset because it is moments like this that remind us of how precious good health is, and how much responsibility we the people who "have" have vs. those who needs help the "have nots".

While I have taken an oath in April 2010 that from that month onwards I will contribute an X % of my monthly nett salary to charity till the day I am earning a wage, it pains me to see so few people who give either money or time to any social cause.
These very same people will without thinking leave the 10-15% tip at a fancy restaurant or tip the valet but never give anything to charity. Why ? Or why is it so difficult for all of us to maybe give 1 hour a week on a weekend to physically or mentally help out somewhere with the skills we posses and use in our sphere of work ?
I mean i am sure many NGOs and social organizations can do with the skills of practicing lawyers, accountants, doctors, management experts, chefs, computer experts ,etc. It is NOT only about funds and money.

What also got me thinking is that I don't know why people seem to think that giving is only the duty of the rich. I did a simple example to disprove this or show you how giving is not about large sums.
India by some account has a middle class and above population of 200million. Assume now I asked these people who earn 200,000 and above a year to give just Rupee one per month towards charity. Surely 1Re a month is easily doable ? and I am sure all these people somewhere in rounding off errors would not think twice about a mere Rupee.
Yet those 12 rupees combined by 200million would give me a annual corpus of 2.4 Billion a year ! Think of the Miracles...yes Miracles ! I could do in India with this.
But alas it is not the case. Because everyone assumes the billions given away by Gates & Buffet and Premji is enough.

Do i sometimes think of the X% i give away and all the material things I could have bought if I had kept it instead ? Yes I do. I am human after all. But then at the end of the day I remind myself that, that Swiss watch that I crave or the new TV that I want, will just take 3 years of savings instead of 1 or 2. So what, I can wait.
Do i regret it ? Not at all. I cannot describe the pleasure I get everytime I write that cheque and hand it over to the orphange or cancer home or hospital. Yet to experience a better high :)

And that's why I say.....Giving must be a Joy. Give with your heart. Don't think of it as a compulsion or business or duty. It will give you more mental peace than anything in the world.

I've experienced it, when will you ???