give back something

I watched this video about Banyan a charity organization for women started by 2 ladies.



This reminded me of an image that had been haunting me a looong time.

Once during my 9th/10th/11th standard(not sure when) I was returning from school on my bicycle when I saw a bedraggled woman in her late 30's walking along the road as if she was drunk.
Then I realized she was mentally ill and she was wearing only a saree (i.e there was no blouse) and suddenly her saree just fell down, thus exposing her whole upper body.
& I just turned away and went home.
I did "NOTHING" ... I dont know if someone helped that lady or if she just wandered around like that forever.

But I have been haunted by that day and I still dont know if I could have done anything at that time.

Ever since that time I did resolve that I would help the differently abled people and support worthy causes.

I was fortunate to have been one of the students who were chosen to help blind students while in college. Blind Students doing their masters in arts from a nearby college would come to my college (Madras inst. of Technology) and we used to take them to our classes and read out their text books or record the passages on audio tapes. I still remember reading about Shakespeare and also history of Rome and Greece to some of them.

I gave away my entire first months salary from Infosys to different charitable organizations and since then I set aside a month's salary every year for such causes.

I have promised myself that after I retire I would either work for such charities or volunteer in several of them..

I would like to lead by example and I know there are several people who are already doing great things for the under priviledged.

I will give back something to the society that taught me to survive in this world.