Act of giving – The Indian style

Sudha Varadarajan
First Published : 24 Apr 2011 11:26:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 24 Apr 2011 11:55:20 PM IST

A few weeks ago, Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft, made a quiet landing on the Indian sub-continent. We were told that the American industrialists, together worth over $100 billion, had both pledged to give away all their wealth, in their lifetime, for the less-privileged to benefit from it.

Having built empires of wealth, brick by brick, the gentlemen duo has now resolved to experience the “bliss of giving”. Divine philanthropy, indeed! We acknowledge and nod in adulation.

Hey stop! But what were the two billionaires doing in India? No sooner did we welcome them with wide-opened palms to accept their doles with utmost grace and gratitude than our palms began to shrink with a shiver, on hearing about their mission in India, with dismay and disappointment.

The “rich and famous” gentlemen were here to exhort the rich in India to “open their wallets”. “India has a remarkable tradition of giving. We are so happy to notice growing enthusiasm among the first generation entrepreneurs, who have made fortunes, to give back to the society, which made them successful in their endeavor,” Gates told a press conference.

How atrocious! What audacity! The much-publicised agenda of these two gentlemen threw India Inc into a state of stupor, even as their underprivileged brethren, the aam aadmi of our developing economy were already dreaming of better times.

Apparently, both Buffett and Gates, who had spent decades on multiplying their dollars, had grossly miscalculated the virtue of generosity or the “ethos of giving” (as they famously termed it) in our country.

For their rich and famous counterparts in India, charity not only begins, but also ends at home! In this land of the mystics, the “ethos of giving” and the much-prevalent “ethos of taking” conjure up multidimensional images of underhand dealings clinched in the corridors of power politics and the lobbies of corporate sectors. Familiar as we are to such scandalous anecdotes of our morally bankrupt netas, babus and corporate honchos, should we not make due allowance to the ignorance of the rich men who have come visiting?

Perhaps, the ‘poor’ guys had timed it all wrong! These ignorant ‘wise men’ had chosen to preach to a country that was busy indexing and classifying a valuable data base of all its scams in politics, business, bureaucracy, media and judiciary, to name just a few. The perennial flow of scams had kept our leaders on their toes, scurrying into conference halls where more cover-up designs were hatched with amazing intellectual agility. The media was busy too, lurking around the shady pavilions to pounce on the ‘breaking news’, which of course broke every minute, engulfing the credible and vulnerable aam aadmi who were glued to the TV screens with gaping mouths, devouring the sensational cocktail of recipes dished out to them, hour after hour!

And amidst all this chaos, who do you think was listening Warren Buffett and Bill Gates? And how dare they exhort our own millionaires and billionaires — and there are quite a few of them in the Forbes’ List of super rich — to part with their wealth that has been accumulated by no ordinary means?

After all, they did not realise that India has always been the sacred cradle of virtues — a land that embodies the shining virtues of charity, compassion, dharma, righteousness, truth and ethical governance. Our history books say so, don’t they? Sure, the foreigners need to take their lessons on Indian history! Instead, they had come calling, in haste, to deliver sermons on charity and the “act of giving”.

Alas! They are not aware that for most of us Indians, it is the “act of taking” rather than the “act of giving” that appeals more!