Does charity begin at the doorstep?

Gone are the days when you bought, with complete trust and faith, sarees, biscuits, soaps, handcrafted incense sticks, ghee, electrical appliances and what not from the direct-to-door sales person. These days, there is another category of direct-to-home marketing that happens. Charity. With so many people thronging your doorstep ranging from donations for orphanages, old age homes, charity for the less privileged, financial aid for college education, alms to fulfil prayers by collecting money for their daughter’s marriage or for a pilgrimage trip and so on, you are sure to be baffled if the saying Charity begins at home has a different meaning altogether!

The problem is, with fraudsters and false schemes and beguilers everywhere people are now bound to view anyone at their doorstep with suspicion. You are left with little choice – either oblige without being sure that your intentions reach the right people or turn them all down. That includes the genuine too because identifying the genuine from the gimmick is so challenging that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

There are a variety of them out there - I have had a person at my doorstep who took the liberty to talk to me as if we have known each other for years claiming he is the ‘auto driver at the auto stand round the corner’ asking for donations for the festival arranged at ‘our’ temple. There is the ‘see it to believe it’ man who quotes your neighbours for being so generous with them and proves it by showing you the receipt book that claims to have collected donation from them. Then there is the gentleman who assures you he is not ‘yet another salesman’ and asks you to come a little closer when you suspiciously peep out of your living room behind locked gates.

And then there was this lady, neatly dressed, speaking fluent English, carrying a bunch of pamphlets, files and photos of children at an orphanage. All she wanted was my presence at the celebrations happening during the weekend at their orphanage which would make the children happier. Sounds good? Oh wait, she sure is smart enough to know people would rather prefer disposing her off by giving some money than spending their precious time. Unfortunately for her, the ‘suspicious sam’ in the neighbourhood started probing her as she was spending too much time walking up and down the same street. By the time her true colours were revealed, she had managed to collect few thousands and had enjoyed a hearty meal, tiffin and snacks at few homes.

But what makes you a cat on the wall is when there are representatives from charity organisations like CRY sporting an identity card and talking to you, without a pause, about some cause when your mind is all set on the milk boiling on the stove or the toddler sneakily polishing off his favourite chocolate spread or the phone call that you have put on hold for answering the doorbell. Being the self-proclaimed good mannered fellow that you are, you feel bad to interrupt the conversation (well, just listening makes it a ‘conversation’) in the fear of offending the person’s good intentions. I have faced quite a handful of such people and came up with a brilliant (so I thought) response – that I would check the details at their website and do my best to help them online. Ahhh, snap comes the answer, that donation would go to the common pool but not to the specific cause they are addressing for. And what’s more? They are not here to accept any meagre amount of money for a cause demanding immediate attention. They accept cheques, mind you!

At the expense of sounding rude, a word to all those Kind hearted souls ringing my doorbell. Please leave me alone! It’s MY hard earned money, I have the right to use my discretion when giving it away, be it for charity or anything else for that matter. When I want to share something with the less fortunate, I want it to reach the right hands. If you interpret my apprehensions as unwillingness to help, so be it!