Money can buy Happiness #1

This video inspired me.

Please watch it before reading ahead.

And I decided to follow this example.

Today as I left the Calangute Panchayat office after struggling with some electricity-related work at noon, I saw an old man walking past me with his cycle overloaded with old packaging / cardboard scraps. Before I could gather my thoughts he had walked away. I was shy, but decided that that was not important, found some words to say – I did not want to use the ‘God’ line – and ran after him on the Calangute-Candolim road, difficult as it was for me. Stopped him, chatted about where he came from, how long he had done this & what exactly he was doing. He said he picks these discarded boxes up from the beach areas and collects them every morning and then goes to the ‘raddi’ wala [used papers trader who buys old packaging magazines etc and sells them to recycling firms] to sell them by kilo. That way he makes about a hundred rupees [US$ 2] on a good day. He was from a village in Zilla Kanpur and had been doing this in Goa for 2 years. After chatting I gave him 500 rupees.

As expected, he had tears. And he blessed me. And then I had tears too.

How did I fund it?

These past few days I have used Goan buses and paid for rupees 20 in bus fares instead of Rupees 700 for a rented self-drive car that would have been convenient but a bit of a waste.

Giving it to the man was certainly a more satisfying way to spend that money!

Some say it is a way of paying-it-forward. I see it as a way of expressing gratitude for all the chance circumstances that put me in this position of the donor instead of the other way round.

Feb 24th 2015, Calangute, Goa.

***

This story happened yesterday. Today once again, as I still continued to struggle with my electricity admin issues, I was once again in the same vicinity. And unexpectedly I found the man again. Yesterday I did not feel like taking pictures in that emotional moment. But today, as soon as I saw him busy in his work, I decided to click first and then chat.

Here he is:

The man who made me feel very useful yesterday and today.

jm

Feb 2015