Giver's hands

‘Denaryane det jaave, Ghenearyane ghet jaave…

Ghenearyane gheta gheta, Denaryaneche haat ghyave!’

(May the giver keep giving, may the recipient keep receiving…

May the recipient eventually gain the hands of the giver!)

- from a Marathi poem by Jnanpith awardee Vinda Karindikar

Every day we receive gifts from persons who make life easier for us… the newspaper boy who wakes up before we do… the traffic cop who braves the hot sun to facilitates traffic… the farmer who toils to provide us with grain… the garbage collector who maintains hygiene… the cowherd who gathers our daily milk… these are faces of effort that make our day.

Rarely do we acknowledge the service and generosity of our benefactors… and when we do it is more often in words and rarely in reciprocal actions. We must be better in emulating the attitude and actions of the givers who help us in a greater or lesser way. We must acquire the heart (spirit) and hands (actions) of those who give us so many gifts.

So often, we insist on receiving as if it were our birthright. It would be better to treat ‘giving’ as a fundamental duty. Our worthiness lies in whether our actions result in benefits for others. We must transform from receiving to giving. We must find ways of responding, to ones who provide us with our needs and wants, by acquiring the ‘giver’s hands’.

let’s be better at the attitude to generously give…
acquiring the ‘giver’s hands’ is the way to live !

- Pravin K. Sabnis