From rags to riches

Last week I went to the Digital Print guy at Koramangala to take a color printout. As I waited for my turn I saw an expensive SUV driving into the parking lot. Three guys and a girl got out. The guys wore expensive clothes and gold bracelets on their hands. They walked in with an air of familiarity and greeted the graphic designers (GD) sitting down next to them. One of the guys was practically showing off his expensive lighter, cigarettes, mobile phones etc. I saw a Rolex in one of the guy’s hands.

Then they gathered around the GD and started giving him some instructions in Malayalam. It was a brochure that they were making. From their conversation I could gather that they were into some sort of NGO or charity organization helping the rural poor. The brochure was being made for the many people abroad who had sent money to the organization.

"Put a photograph of a smiling child. The whites like to see that."

"And put some nice background for the village from those sceneries you have. We do not want the vellakaars (white man) to think we are doing nothing."

"Yes. These guys like to see all that."

"And put a 'before' and 'after' picture of that little boy. The ‘before’ picture should look thin and the ‘after’ picture should look fat. You can do that in Photoshop right?"

This was the conversation that was flying thick and fast as they ‘directed’ the making of the brochure. As I sat listening to them and peeping into the monitor while pretending to be impatiently pacing around I saw a con job happening right in front of me. The finished brochure made from scanned photographs of the village and some images from photo libraries looked spectacular. In fact if I hadn’t seen the making of the brochure I would have been tempted to make a donation for the yeoman service they were doing for the poor.

These guys had found a unique way to get rich quick. They had created a 'Charity' organization, made a few impressive ppt's for the consumption of charity funding agencies and got funds to look after the welfare of the poor. A part of the funds are actually put into charity, the rest they appropriate. It is a win win situation. During the nineties I had heard of the rush to do “charity’ work. And I have seen many people, some of them even my own relations making it big. Then I heard there was clampdown with the government bringing in certain legislations to check the misuse of ‘charity’ funds. But I guess our intrepid Indians will find a loophole everywhere. We are an ingenious people indeed. We will even make a living out of the poor.

(An aunt of mine who works with Oxfam informs me that a percentage of money that come from abroad are donated by old people who do not think twice about donating a pound or a dollar or a few pennies from their pension towards the poor in India.)