being a philanthropist

JOURNALIST: “What do you feel about being a philanthropist?????”

ME: I feel like a human!

Had I been some money dude, I would have answered somewhat like that!!! But the irony is i am not a rich man. And may be this thing prompted me to do something for people.But at least I can assure myself that I am on my way to be something for the society!!! When I read newspapers about BILL GATES and WARREN BUFFET about their philanthropic activities, it took me by storm. I came to know about “BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION”. The biggest foundation in the world collecting billions of U.S dollars just to help people. Seeing WARREN BUFFET giving away 85% of his fortune in financial aid!! Where people save every single penny for themselves, eliminating a record eighty five percent of his own hard earned wealth in a second is not merely a charitable act!! It’s something that god should have done!

The founder of Seattle based software giant Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, officially announced in somewhere july 2006 that he is shifting his position from Microsoft to other activities such as philanthropy. He made that announcement when Microsoft needed him most, as the share prices of Microsoft was plunging day by day and the threat from it’s potential rival “Google” was increasing quite rapidly. But he did not care about it too much and clearly said even in this horrific situation that he is not completely leaving the organization, but most of his focus will remain on philanthropy. When I came to know this I thought about this for a long time that why someone who created an empire of this kind is diverting his mind from business and instead of increasing it more he is shifting it towards philanthropy. But when I went to the roots I found myself a mean human who was after the money and thinking of his personal gain. And at that time I remembered the famous “Spiderman”- “with great power comes the great responsibility.” And it was right. As today nothing is more powerful than the money and when you have it then use it wisely!!

I thought of different people who keep on increasing their fortune just in order to get their names on Forbes. And then I thought of these people like Warren Buffet the chairman of “ Berkshire Hathaway” who gave 85% of his wealth in charity just to help poor people. I found a contrast between them. And more interestingly when I compared both of the philanthropists, one the founder of software giant and the other the richest person on this planet after him “Warren Buffet” was far from acceptable. Both of them are agnostic!! Being not so religious they are doing the religious work!! May be they have taken place of the so called god!! Whatever was it, it was far from normal. But I came to the conclusion that by just worshiping god you can’t get religious as I have already seen people who do a lot of spiritual activities but they are not laying standards like these people do for living. therefore, for me whether you are rich or an evangelist, a true man is who calls himself a philanthropist!!!!