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The Reward of Giving
By B.G.Verghese (150-J '44)
It was heart warming to read the 2nd DSOBS report on the Dosco Tsunami Relief effort. The quantum and quality of assistance rendered is impressive. More than that was the very fact of giving, and giving collectively as a community of Old Boys of a very privileged institution.
When I was in School (1936-44) we used to visit Tunwala, a small village some four miles away from Dehra Dun. One of our activities I do recall was instructing and helping dig compost pits to promote sanitation and the production of organic manure. We also held adult education classes.
I’m not sure how much Tunwala benefited from this innocent do-gooding, but it certainly did leave an impression on many young minds that we were highly fortunate to be who and where we were and that we could, by sharing, attempt to bring some comfort and joy to others.
For time to time the School also mounted relief expeditions during the holidays.. The first, as I recall, was to Midnapore in Bengal in 1941 or 1942, to distribute medicines and blankets to those devastated by a terrible cyclone. In 1944, another expedition was despatched to provide relief to Kosi flood affected villagers in Darbhanga, near the Nepal border.
These efforts were a scaled-up extension of regular STA (spare time activity) in School, largely devoted to cleaning up the estate or, at that time, building the Rose Bowl. Arthur Foot, the first Headmaster, always spoke of the dignity of labour and the philosophy of dirty hands. He would say that the boys at School belonged to an elite but would quickly differentiate that from elitism, with its connotations of arrogance, greed and exclusivity.
And then there were the morning Assembly prayers.
One of them went
"Teach us good Lord,
To serve Thee as Thou deservest.
To give, and not to count the cost;
To fight, and not to heed the wound;
To toil, and not to look for rest;
To labour, and not to look for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will."
We left School, some with First Divisions, others with Thirds. But if we remembered Tunwala, STA and “to give and not to count the cost”, we all went away truly educated and better men, able to share our learning, talents and such wealth that might come our way with those less fortunate than ourselves.
So when the Tsunami came, the Doon School Old Boys were there – with tens of thousands of others of our countrymen, to reach out to those who had been ravaged by the waves. We need to rebuild in a manner that converts the disaster into an opportunity for better living and better livelihoods.
The December 26 tsunami was a natural visitation. What of the many more and no less savage manmade tsunamis that affect our nation – poverty, gross discrimination, communal and caste hatreds, the gender divide? What can we do to rehabilitate the many more and daily victims of these avoidable social and economic tragedies with which we have learnt to live with too much resignation and too little outrage? Rehabilitation means to invest with dignity. What a rich word! Doscos, like others, surely must give richly to accomplish that task not merely by what we donate occasionally but by what we do every day.