Skip to main content

Dilwale Dilliwale


Delhi has a heart and the popular phrase Dilwale Dilliwale may not be a gross exaggeration.  Yesterday I attended a Partners’ Meet organised by World Vision India.  My being a sponsor of a child through the NGO is one of the many paradoxes that constitute me.  I’m not religious at all.  I’m a staunch critic of religions.  I know that religion has been a cause of strife and wars throughout the documented history of mankind.  Yet, quite a few years ago, when I decided to do something meaningful for at least one child in the country I chose World Vision which proudly proclaims itself as a Christian organisation.  The reason was simple: I wanted an NGO that will put my monthly contribution to good use.  It was after sufficient research that I chose World Vision.

A song from World Vision's children

Until yesterday I was under the false impression that most of World Vision’s sponsors and donors were Christians.  The capacious Sathya Sai Baba Auditorium was nearly filled with sponsors and donors from Delhi most of whom were Hindus.  I observed the names on the list of participants, you see. 

One of the “partners” (as World Vision likes to call them) asked a question forthrightly.  “You declare yourself a Christian organisation.  What exactly do you mean by that?”  I cannot quote verbatim Dr Jayakumar Christian, National Director of World Vision India.  But his answer went something like this: “We do not look at the caste or creed of any child.  We do not run any institution for giving any particular religious education to the children.  We send the children to whichever school that exists in his or her community.  It may be a Panchayat school.  If an English medium school is available we make use of that too.  Letting a child grow up into a good citizen who is not only successful in her own life but also is useful to her society is all what our mission is.  Christianity is the religion that sustains us.”  [I have conjoined more than one answer of Dr Christian.]

We, the partners, met some of the beneficiaries of World Vision’s work in Delhi.  They were Rekha, Shabana Ali, Jyoti, and so on.  They spoke about how the NGO transformed their lives almost miraculously.  None of them mentioned any sort of religious activity. 

A Rajasthani dance by the children

It is possible that the work done by the NGO influences certain individuals who may choose to change their religion.  I don’t know what World Vision’s policy is about that.  I never cared to enquire about it simply because I am of the conviction that if any religion attracts anyone by the good work it does and motivates him to do similar good deeds, it is a welcome conversion.  This conviction of mine is applicable to any religion.  It is applicable to my non-religion, my atheism, too.  What is important is whether your religion or your atheism satisfies you intellectually and emotionally as well as helps you to be a good human being.  Nothing else matters when it comes to religion.

Delhi did surprise me yesterday.  I met people who have been contributing to World Vision for almost two decades.  I watched the enthusiasm of Delhiites who wished to do even more than what they were doing.  There were even college students who said they were contributing from their pocket money.  Delhi indeed has a heart.  I was excited to realise that.  I remain a confirmed atheist, however. 

Comments

  1. That's why I say Delhi deserves to be a world class city.. And I would prefer reading and conversing with a sensible atheist like you than any other believer in this world..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The media invariably brings us the negative and dark sides of the city. Day in and day out we are fed negativity. There's much goodness too in people. And Delhi can be a world class city provided our police and politicians make a little sincere effort. If the religious leaders are a little more honest...

      Delete
  2. College students too? That's so nice. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One of the college students, a girl who introduced herself as a 21 year-old student, expressed the desire on behalf of her friends who wished to do some field work, voluntary service, too. There's much idealism left in our youth.

      Delete
  3. Inspiring and encouraging to know about students with ideals. Am a Delhite. And the city is a mixed bag with the super rich kids flying sky high on papa's connections and super intelligent kids renouncing comfortable well paid jobs to volunteer in the Teach India Project. We just have to see which side is weightier. Regarded

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. I've been used to seeing the former type. So this latter version came as a pleasant surprise. Also the sheer number of people who contribute toward such humanitarian objectives was encouraging.

      Delete
  5. That's sweet to know many have been contributing. How many children can get a better future if we just part with a little money... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Creating an India without poverty is very easy, Lancelot, provided the middle class and the upper class are willing to part with a fraction of their wealth.

      Delete
  6. Yeah,I knw about Dilwale Dilliwale and though I am a misfit in their fast life they indeed are dilwale for sure . Great work by all 'partners' :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fact is that there are all sorts of people everywhere. The good ones are less visible in crowded cities like Delhi.

      Delete
  7. http://freemovies2u.com/.
    http://watchonlinemovies4u.com/.
    http://watchonlineemovies.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. सलमान खान करेंगे बिग बॉस में शाहरुख़ की फिल्म दिलवाले का प्रमोशन जाने एक क्लिक पर http://www.guruofmovie.com/2015/12/salman-khan-will-promote-dilwale-movie.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Don Bosco

Don Bosco (16 Aug 1815 - 31 Jan 1888) In Catholic parlance, which flows through my veins in spite of myself, today is the Feast of Don Bosco. My life was both made and unmade by Don Bosco institutions. Any great person can make or break people because of his followers. Religious institutions are the best examples. I’m presenting below an extract from my forthcoming book titled Autumn Shadows to celebrate the Feast of Don Bosco in my own way which is obviously very different from how it is celebrated in his institutions today. Do I feel nostalgic about the Feast? Not at all. I feel relieved. That’s why this celebration. The extract follows. Don Bosco, as Saint John Bosco was popularly known, had a remarkably good system for the education of youth.   He called it ‘preventive system’.   The educators should be ever vigilant so that wrong actions are prevented before they can be committed.   Reason, religion and loving kindness are the three pillars of that syste...

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...

Coffee can be bitter

The dawns of my childhood were redolent of filtered black coffee. We were woken up before the birds started singing in the lush green village landscape outside home. The sun would split the darkness of the eastern sky with its splinter of white radiance much after we children had our filtered coffee with a small lump of jaggery. Take a bite of the jaggery and then a sip of the coffee. Coffee was a ritual in our home back then. Perhaps our parents believed it would jolt our neurons awake and help us absorb our lessons before we set out on the 4-kilometre walk to school after all the morning rituals at home. After high school, when I left home for further studies at a distant place, the ritual of the morning coffee stopped. It resumed a whole decade later when I completed my graduation and took up a teaching job in Shillong. But I had lost my taste for filtered coffee by then; tea took its place. Plain tea without milk – what is known as red tea in most parts of India. Coffee ret...

Truths of various colours

You have your truth and I have mine. There shouldn’t be a problem – until someone lies. Unfortunately, lying has been elevated as a virtue in present India. There are all sorts of truths, some of which are irrefutable. As a friend said the other day with a little frustration, the eternal truth is this: No matter how many times you check, the Wi-Fi will always run fastest when you don’t actually need it – and collapse the moment you’re about to hit Submit . Philosophers call it irony. Engineers call it Murphy’s Law. The rest of us just call it life. Life is impossible without countless such truths. Consider the following; ·       Change is inevitable. ·       Mortality is universal. ·       Actions have consequences. [Even if you may seem invincible, your karma will catch up, just wait.] ·       Water boils at 100 o C under normal atmospheric pressure. ·    ...