Play cricket or be a movie star. A week ago a top Indian bureaucrat told me that when the Asian Games village was being constructed in New Delhi one of the roads in that locality was named after a former medal winning athlete in acknowledgment of his bringing glory to the country. Great idea one might say except for one disturbing fact—one of the manual road construction laborers who did work on that road was the athlete who was sought to be honored !

A week later came the report that the kid who became an international star after SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was evicted from his slum in Dharavi by the Mumbai municipality .

I also remember a report about 2 decades ago when a film buff found living on the footpath in Andheri a former acclaimed cinematographer who was obviously living in penury.

In all such instances and you may know many more we feel sad and helpless, When extravagant rewards are given by the government to already rich sport stars like Dhoni and others we cynically remark that money begets more money.

Now comes another report. War hero dies in penury, bravery counts for nothing. Radhe Sham Tiwari won 7 bravery awards but lived in poverty and his family had no money to cremate his body when he died of cancer.

What is the way out? How can the great achievers in activities that are not lucrative be helped to live in dignity ? Recall how the genius Bismillah Khan lived in poverty in Benares and got some reprieve when on receiving the nation’s highest award of Bharat Ratna the government was shamed into giving a pension to this gentle genius .

When I see the response to such reports I can see that people are in pain but feel helpless.The only suggestion they offer is this—why can’t the government do something ?
In fact this is the only solution that most of us can offer for almost any problem.

To my mind this dependence on the government may paradoxically be our main problem .The official system is incapable of delivering us from most of our problems.The polity and the bureaucracy have one or more of the following qualities : venality, inefficiency, contempt. Stupidity, vested interests, cronyism, negativity, .I do not deny that not all can be dubbed this way .It is the overall system not some individuals I refer to.To be sure there are several individuals who are fighting against great odds and it is due to them that India is making progress.

Till such time as we develop the resources and mechanisms to bring succour to all the dispossessed I believe each industry or group etc ought to come up with schemes to help the less fortunate among their fraternity.

Thus what prevents the film fraternity from setting aside a portion of their astronomical earnings to set up a fund to assist indigent artists ?

If you visit the locality in Andheri west in Mumbai where TV channels have their offices you will be shocked to see the pathetic road conditions. I once saw a fleet of Mercedes Benz and BMW cars on these roads stuttering to a halt while navigating the potholed roads. My quick calculations showed that the cost of repairs to these cars will be more than the cost of repairing and maintaining the roads . But does this statistic stir these TV magnates to repair the roads ? I did a little investigation into the feasibility of my idea—that the corporate residents pool in the money required to improve and maintain the roads. I found out something very interesting the TV channels had informally broached this idea but ran into a typical Indian wall .It appears that a pre-Independence act forbids anyone other than the government from even covering a pothole ! Ever heard of the game called Dog in the MANGER ?This is more of an Indian game than kabaddi !

Such ideas can be given for many of our problems. How about our fabulously rich cricketers donating their salaries from some critical games to charity for indigent sportsmen ? How about our rich industrialists setting up charitable trusts to provide scholarships to poor students .

In my forthcoming book called CAN INDIANS THINK I propose to examine a lack of compassion to the poor that is a feature of our culture , You will read about this soon. At the moment I can say that barring exceptions our rich would rather donate RS 42 crores in the form of a diamond studded crown to a temple. Or build the world’s costliest home in one of the costliest pieces of real estate in India.
JAI HO!
K.R.RAVI