The summer is a season of plenty of fruits in our garden. We have had different fruits among which the Jack fruits received more attention because we had enough this year to distribute to the neighbours, till they themselves said, 'we had enough'! It is good to go through a season of plenty.
However it was also a season of distress with COVID 19 making human lives fade away in thousands globally. While other countries faced the impact early in the year, we are in the midst of its spread in India now. This is a disaster that I cannot fathom. Human lives remain exposed to extreme vulnerability as never before.
We might have assumed that humans and their technology have the restriaing power from any devastation. But this calamity has exposed our limitations.
This became even more intense to endure when I heard during an online consultation that both parents who were employed overseas lost their jobs and have returned to India with a heavy financial burden. They have not received their termination benefits from their employees. They had taken a huge bank loan to build a house. The monthly payments are now in default. There is no prospect of getting a job immediately in the present economic stress. They are overcome by this loss that they are not able to pay attention to their son who requires some more of support for his early education as he is cognitively challenged. As I listened to this story spoken by grieving parents, I felt helpless! Later in the evening, in a TV show, there were stories of two young men, the only earning members of young families, needing kidney transplants! Their future hangs on the philanthropy of well wishers. But the giving capacity of people are reduced as most of the employed people get a reduced salary now.
It looks like the the season of plenty is over. It is going to be season of shortages and stress.
I was encouraged by a creative story in the evening. A shop invites people to drop their gifts into a box at the end of shopping.. The shop collects the gifts each day and gives it away to a family who is in need. Many families do not have facilities of internet connection which children need for on line learning. This contribution is towards helping families to get the connection. Fortunately there is enough at the end of the each day in the gift box to get a 4G connection. On days, when the collection is not enough, the shop contributes to make the remaining. About forty families have been helped since they started this project.
One shop lighted a candle of hope.
Each of us can light a candle of hope in this distressing time.
We can restore this season to help people to live with less and yet abundantly because we have cared for our neighbours.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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