Charity Begins At Home

I dont know if I have any strange connections with mute people. This one is also related to a mute man. So it was a usual day at work. I was doing the usual Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V work (as most of the programmers do). I personally think all the programmers in the world owe a lot to the person who found this Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. If this was not there programming would have been a nightmare. One more thing, the programmers owe a lot to- Google. Any code, any logic just do a “Googling” and you have the code already in front of you, and this is where Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V comes into action. Anyway, after doing an intensive such kind of work we all (me and my colleagues) went for lunch to a Chinese fast food kind of a place. When we were eating, a lean kallu (black man) came at our desk and placed a paper. I started reading and it said "Hi brother, I am.....”. Even before I could finish reading the first sentence, one of my co-worker grabbed the paper and gave it back to him and he searched his pocket for something and he actioned him that he had nothing. Then I understood that he was mute man and he was asking us some money. As my co-worker told he had no money I reached over to my wallet and took a dollar bill and gave it to him. The guy took it happily and thanked me and I think he was trying to say "God bless you".

Now I felt happy for myself having done some good charity work. My mom always says that helping others is good deed and it will bring good for us. She lived to the words:

"Do All The Good You Can,

To All The People You Can,

At All The Times You Can,

As Long As Ever You Can."

So I was happy that I did a good deed and continued to have my lunch. Then my co-worker started saying that this guy often comes to our office asking for money. He has been doing this for almost a year. He would just walk into the office and ask them for money. They call it as "bumming", meaning that it bums them out when someone comes to them asking for money.

Then I started to have some confusing thoughts. By donating some money I did a good deed. A charity work. That certainly ought to be good for me. But on the other side this man has been doing this like forever. He is living his life in this way. He is not doing any work or whatsoever. He manages to get the money for his food by getting it from others. Directly or indirectly I am encouraging him to not to do any work and lead a life like this. So am I doing a good deed now? I wonder. I presume that making someone lazy, or not to do work is not a good deed.

So what charity actually means. It does not simply mean to give away money that you have. One of my friends was telling me "Money can be given by anyone who has it. But charity is more than that. It is about helping the real needy. Giving a life back in whatever way you can to a 10 year old boy who lost his whole family in a moment to the ferocious hands of tsunami is charity. Giving any amount of money to the boy would be nothing more than being at the place for him and hugging him and soothing him. That is charity."

So what I am trying to say here is, just giving away money or giving a huge tip to a waiter/waitress at a hotel alone would not be considered as charity(as many might think). Helping the needy, whoever it may be, friends or family, in the way they would want us is the real charity. After all "Charity Begins At Home".

P.S. - The friend I was talking about is Viji (for those who know her)