|
|
|
Your trash: another man’s treasure
The sight of shabbily dressed grubby children, gorging ravenously on stale fruit scattered in the garbage dump shakes you up for a moment. One scene of the popular TV drama Kashkool was flayed and condemned for showing the chicken thrown disdainfully outside the car window by a genteel affluent young boy to the famished poor children who grabbed it voraciously and the barking of dogs given behind the scene to portray the sorry condition of the class living in utmost penury. Bitter and ironic it may have seemed but that’s the picture which spoke volumes of the poverty stricken society in search of food, clothes and other basic needs of life through the powerful and effective media.
At times we think that helping them out will do no good and we will end up only pauperizing them. But that can be said of professional beggars (children, women, adults all). Looking around us we come across our brethren who are in need of things which we (the more fortunate and blessed) take for granted. The present generation has deep insight into the problems faced by Pakistan as a Third World nation and is always ready to solve these problems and do their bit. If we make a little effort, we can bring a drastic change in the lives of many people, thereby making our cities and the country a better place to live.
Rejected clothes in good shape, shoes which you no more want to use and other stuff like blankets, pillows, crockery which we would like to do away with can be handed over to the people who need it. Specially in winters, it is very hard to combat with chilly, nippy weather. Blankets and sweaters to warm them up will not only please your soul but will help you win favours from your lord, who by showering bounties on us expects us to help those who are in need.
Once, a teacher of a government school narrated her story: once the pupils of a school in a slum and shanty area of the city, held a party. A girl joyfully announced that she had brought biryani for the party, when she opened her box, rice with yellow and orange food colour scattered on it to give it a biryani effect were welcomed with open arms by her class mates. Biryani with no meat at all. She was glad enough to have had what others eyed enviously. This is the level of poverty in our country.
It is our responsibility to share things with those who are in need of it. They are right in front of us (not the beggars) with empty stomachs and torn clothes waiting to be helped. God loves us even more when we give from something that we hold dear. After all we are the ones chosen by God to help the ones in need. All we need to do is give a little from the wealth and bounties gifted to us by our creator. The feeling of taking care of others around us is that of complacency, gratification and smugness. Isn’t this the finest way of pleasing God and winning favours from Him?
|
|
|
|
