Indus Valley Times

By Er Taraprasad Mishra

Jajpur, Octo 3 : “HELP” is a very small word that has greater depths in it. Help can be small or big depending on the time it is been given or done. It always gives joy to help others. Help is something we may need at any time in our life. Parents help us to walk, talk and to know the world.

 Teachers help us to learn new things and to differentiate between good and bad. They guide us throughout our life. As we grow we should help each other in our needs that is why Mahatma Gandhi once said – The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.When you see someone in need of help, what do you do? Would you just leave them there alone, or help them? Honestly. I would help them.

 A helping hand is always what everyone needs. When you help someone, it makes you feel good inside. And everybody should help each other My law of life is to be caring. Whenever I see someone in need of help, I try to do everything to help them. People may not look like they need help, but maybe they do. When I was in fifth grade, my friend, Saashah, looked ok to me. But actually she needed help. She was having problems with her family, so I decided to help her. In the end, she came out alright, and I was relieved.

I love to be kind, funny, and caring. But I don’t always stay that way. I can be cruel and mean sometimes, but I try hard to become what I want to become. I pray to God to help me become good. Of course I have to try on my own, but God always gives out a helping hand as well. One thing I can’t stand is people being racist. I think everyone should be treated equally.

I would get mad whenever someone would call me Chinese. They would make fun of me, but I tried to ignore it. I also can’t stand it when my friends get pushed around. My law of life is highly involved with God. He gives me faith, and I the things I need to try and fulfill my law of life. I was encouraged to be kind and helping by one of my personal experiences.

 I was again with my good friend Saashah. Saashah was a really nice and funny girl, sang pretty well, and she was black, which didn’t bother me. I wouldn’t think that anyone would try to hurt her but they did. When I was in fourth grade, it happened. I was on the swings with Saashah, and we were just hanging out. Then a group of white girls, (not trying to be racist) came over to us and they just stared at us. Then they started to make fun of us.

They would say “Look it’s an asian hanging out with a black.” But we would just ignore them. And since we ignored them, they noticed and came over and pushed us off the swing, when we came down low. We both full off, and they swung the swing back at us and it hit our heads. When I looked at my friend Saashah, I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

That was when I actually stood up for myself. Before, I would get bullied, but I just didn’t want to mess with them. But seeing my friend all hurt, I had to stand up for us. I got up off of the ground and glared at them, but then again they would make a comment about how funny I looked when I glared with my “Chinese eyes”. So I walked up to them, and told them to leave us alone.

Then I went to help my friend up, and my friend also found courage to speak up. She told them to back off, and she dragged me back to “our” swings. Then even though they said more mean, and hurtful words, we ignored them and kept swinging. So, they saw we weren’t scared and didn’t care what they said about us, so they went away.

That experience gave to me courage to stand up against bullies or mean people when someone is getting hurt. And whenever I showed courage, it helped other people show courage as well, like my friend. A part of the bible that helped figure out my law of life, is Psalms. Psalms is full of inspiration, and knowledge about life. Technically, Psalms is about my law of life.

The whole chapter of Psalms is my law of life. In Psalms 82:4 it says “Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hands of the wicked” I learned from this and all the stories and quotes from Psalms. Psalms talks about how the Lord has helped us and that we should help others like God has done to us when were were in the time of need.

 Also the other chapters in the bible, Luke, Proverbs, Genesis, Romans, etc. also gives me knowledge to help the weak and needy and give them courage. To tell them that we are all special in our own way. So, we need to help people you are in need.

And when we show that we have courage to help, it will probably give them courage to help other people as well. The Bible, or specifically the chapter Psalms, can also help people become more helpful to others, as it did to me.

Social Security is the largest source of retirement income and an essential part of an individual’s retirement. For nearly 80 years it has helped Americans pay for their retirements. In Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell, the animals have overthrown the humans and live under the leadership of a pig named Napoleon.

 When the animals first come together and re-name the farm “Animal Farm”, they set retirement ages and agree on pensions. However, when winter comes along and resources and food are scarce, the idea of retiring is dismissed and the situation grows much worse; the farm falls into greater

poverty with each day.

The government should continue to provide Social Security retirement benefits to its citizens once they have exited the workforce because these benefits plays a crucial role in reducing poverty, they

help people become economically secure, and people depend on them.

 A friend in need is a friend in deed. In school days, if we have lost our pen and someone lends their pen. They will automatically become our good friend. Helping actually builds good relationships, be it in family or society. When someone helps us we feel happy, but when we help others the joy we feel is incomparable.

We should help our parents in every small way that we can. Helping old people cross the road will get us heartfelt blessings from them. Helping someone can never bring us any harm. If we help someone today someone else might help us when we are in need. Helping one another is the basic essence of life. If we see someone is hurt in an accident, it is our responsibility to help them.

Spending few minutes of our time can save someone’s life. It can be a very small favour from our side, but for their critical situation that would be the greatest help. They would remember our help forever and they might too help others in future .It is like a chain of good deeds. No one can live alone, we live as community.

Each one of us must help one another in our own little way to lead a happy and contented life. Anne Frank In her famous diary wrote – No one has even become poor by Giving. Sometimes we see, even animals go against their nature and help other animals. We being humans have the utmost duty to have humanity and help all beings. It is by caring and helping that we can see the Almighty. We need to spread the joy of helping.

I believe in helping others. Whether it is something big or small, I think that one simple act of kindness can make a huge impact. When I was nine years old, my family and I were in a bad car accident. It happened late at night, and we were caught in the middle of a busy highway. While waiting for the paramedics and firemen to arrive, a semi-truck pulled alongside our car to protect us from oncoming traffic.

 The driver immediately approached us to ask if anyone had been hurt and if anyone needed assistance. My family and I were amazed, not only by his desire to take the time to stop and help us but also by his willingness to make sure that our lives were no longer in danger. The most astounding thing was that he did not leave the scene until he saw that each and every one one of us was being taken care of by a paramedic.

 As he drove away, we noticed that his license plate read ‘California’. The accident happened in Ohio. For all we knew, he could have had a deadline to make thousands of miles away for the company that he worked for and because he stopped, he lost precious time. Months later, I decided to participate in a community service project with my church.

I volunteered with a group that went around neighborhoods helping elderly people with their lawns and housework. My eyes were opened to how something so little as mowing grass or pulling weeds could mean the world to someone else in need. One elderly woman even welcomed us into her home for cookies and milk after a long day of work.

I lost track counting how many times she thanked us for taking the time out of our busy day to help her. After that weekend of volunteering, I was reminded of that truck driver and the impact he made on my life. I thought about how tight of a schedule he must have been on yet he still stopped to help us. Because of his generosity, I have been volunteering ever since the accident in hopes of impacting someone else’s life.

 I think that if people took the time to slow down and to notice others around them that are suffering, then lives would be changed and steps toward a brighter future would be taken. I believe in helping others because hope can be given to the hopeless and love can be felt

Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. According to Dalai Lama, our prime purpose in life is to help others. Helping each other is what makes us humans special. Compassion and altruism are the basic components of humanness. Even the most hard-hearted person might have helped someone in need at some point of time.

Helping others is the fundamental characteristic of humans, but different people do it in different ways. Some tend to donate money to charitable organisations, some people give money to the poor directly, some people volunteer to do social work, while some create work for others. It is important to understand which type of help is most beneficial to humankind.

 As a Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This essay gives examples of alternative ways of helping people that are more helpful than just donating money.

Recently, Chennai experienced one of the worst floods in over 100 years. Life had come to a standstill. The repercussions were such that almost all aspects of life were affected in the city, from public transport, railways, flights to electricity supply.

In such crisis, help poured in from different corners of the world. Many contributed to flood relief fund. But this help couldn’t reach the Chennai residents in time as the transportation facilities were derailed. This money could be only used for rehabilitation. But the helping nature of the locals, the various business entities in Chennai and initiatives by tech companies helped immensely in avoiding a major disaster.

 Individuals opened their houses while schools, movie theatres and marriage halls welcomed families and persons who needed a safe and dry shelter. Facebook initiated a Safety Check feature for Chennai floods, BSNL gave users in Chennai free local and STD calls, Paytm gave residents of Chennai a Rs 30 recharge to help them stay connected during floods, Ola joined hands – and resources – with the Chennai fire department to help residents reach their homes safely and Zomato launched ‘Meal for flood relief’ wherein people could order free meals for flood victims. Chennai floods made people united and take efforts to combat the disaster.

 Clearly, the helping hand lent by individuals and different companies helped the Chennai flood victims more than the money donated to the flood relief fund. This principle can be seen in our day-to-day life too. Many of us tend to give money or food to beggars. This doesn’t really help them to get out of poverty. In India, begging is quite often carried out in organized gangs.

Beggars have also been known to deliberately maim and disfigure themselves to get more money. In these circumstances, real help would be, to provide some source of livelihood to them, rather than giving them money which incentivises them to continue their lifestyle. It would be more compassionate to buy an item from a street hawker, even if we don’t require it, to provide him livelihood.

 Many of us tend to donate money to different welfare organisations, orphanages, old-age homes, NGOs etc. But some of them could be just scams, while some organisations may waste money on managerial duties instead of actually helping the needy. It would be much more useful if we give clothes, blankets, food or time to these organisations depending on the need.

 Instead of giving money, it would be much more useful if one can lend his/ her expertise to help others. For example, a teacher can provide free tutions for the poor, a doctor can volunteer some time in a week at a free clinic, a lawyer can provide his legal services to the poor and a software engineer can help in decreasing digital divide. In this way, one can ensure that their contribution directly benefits the people in need.

In democratic states, the governments have a tendency to provide a number of freebies, especially during election year. Loans are waived, electricity is subsidized, water is subsidized, free television and laptops are given and so on. But the need of the hour – better governance, timely public services, corruption free state, good public infrastructure, good business environment, reliable law and order etc – are not provided.

If there are no irrigation canals, the subsidized fertilizers are of no use to a farmer in drought years. If there are constant power cuts, the subsidized electricity doesn’t help the industries in the area. Providing free education without increasing the number of quality teachers doesn’t solve the problems of education.

Clearly, doling out money instead of providing good governance is not a step in the right direction. Even in international relations, the utility of rendering a helping hand rather than giving aid in money can be recognized. America has been giving billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan to keep a lid on the Taliban issue.

Much of the American money is not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban. This is an illustration of how aid money can be wrongly utilized and in fact can be counter-productive to the intended purpose.

 In contrast, India’s aid to Africa is quite productive as it contributes by supporting human resource development, building Pan African e-network which now connects 48 African countries, increasing foreign direct investment, sending peacekeeping forces etc.

Clearly, there is larger scope for misuse of financial aid than the aid provided in kind. Projects like developing roads, developing human resources, constructing dams, providing medical services in countries like Afghanistan will nnot only ensure that aid has reached the deserving people, but it will also increase the goodwill towards the country providing aid.

 This principle can be used in Climate Change negotiations too. More than the money given for the less developed countries to counter climate change, giving them technology that enables development at lower carbon emissions will help them more. This has to be recognized and focus should be on transfer of technology rather than on increasing money for Green Climate Fund (GCF).

It is not that money and financial resources are unimportant, in fact they are essential part for success of most of the humanitarian efforts. While a major disaster during the Chennai floods was averted due to the helping nature of the locals, the rehabilitation was possible because of the money donated by philanthropic people.

While some of the beggars are part of an organized gang, there are a lot of people languishing in poverty who do need financial assistance. Social security net for the poor is essential even in developed countries.

Many under-developed and developing countries do need aid money, so that the help received can be utilised in accordance to the needs at ground level. Clearly, money is intrinsic part of most of the help being given, but one should recognize that there is much more to helping others than just providing money. Doling out money should not become the de facto method of helping others. There are many more valuable ways in which one can help others. Giving financial help is just one of the ways.

Helping others should be the primary motivation of any human being. The help need not always be in the form of donating money. Rendering a helping hand through offering services or expertise is much more valuable. Moreover, one should recognize the kind of help that is required.

Different circumstances require different kinds of help. In the example of Chennai floods, the most appropriate help at that time was to provide shelter and food, which could be arranged at a short notice, thanks to the helping nature of Chennaites. In most circumstances, one should help people help themselves. As Henry Ford has said, “Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving”.