Compassion has No Drought

Translated from a Kannada letter written to the editor at ThatsKannada.com. Kannada Original by Dr.Vijayalakshmi.

As I was about to visit the famous Banashankari temple the other day, a poor elderly woman approached me and asked me to buy rotis (flat Indian bread) from her. I told her I was not interested, to which she said "There has been a terrible drought here for the last four years and living has become difficult. If tourists such as yourself buy bread from me, we can survive."

As soon I heard the word "drought", I was drawn to my duty for charity and I gave her ten Rupees (equivalent of a twenty US Cents) in sympathy, and went inside the temple.

After I finished with my offerings and prayers at the temple, I was pleasantly surprised to see the elderly lady waiting for me with her merchandise - two hand-rolled rotis. She suggested a couple of dips I could use to enhance the taste. I was touched by her affection and gave a hundred Rupees to help her out, for which she was overjoyed and wanted to sell me all rotis she had in the basket! I told her that I was not hungry at all, and could not accept her goodies.

"If so, ma'am, there are a lot of poor and hungry people in the village. Shall I gather some of them so you can distribute bread to them from your own hands?"

I was speechless at the sense of her sharing and her sense of justice, that I do not find in educated and well-off citizens of our nation. I am writing this experience at the suggestion of M. Chidananda Murthy, as an insightful incident into the Indian value system.