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Wow vows

Last Updated 16 December 2015, 18:34 IST

The topic of conversation was the morning’s news story. Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg and his wife had announced the birth of their daughter, and declared they will donate 99 per cent of their worth to charity.

“They must have made a vow”, Manju said with an air of someone who knew it was so.

“His wife had three miscarriages and the child has come after a wait of many years”. Q.E.D. I must admit it is easier for us to understand the reason why as spelt out by Manju than accept the  explanation given by the Zuckerbergs, even without the naughty math that people are explaining it with.

As you grow up with coconut shattering as thanks giving for every favour received, making deals with god and fulfilling the promise seems more normal than giving away your wealth so that the next generations can experience better things. The next generation is one’s own daughter, right?

World Giving Index report published by the Charities Aid Foundation ranks over 130 countries in the world according to how charitable they are. India’s rank in the 2015 list is 106. In 2014 it was 69; A clear pointer to Indians having become more godly over the last one year. It is probably the first fact of life that we pick up.

God answers prayers for a fee.
I recall an incident at school. A classmate had lost some money and was in tears. A pious friend suggested that a vow be made to a certain god. Much to the awe of the onlookers, the grieving girl dramatically made a bhishma vrath and promised to donate all the money if it was found. It didn’t seem to make sense but then a promise was a promise!

As we grow old, we learn that the currency for deals with the gods doesn’t necessarily have to be notes. Those days, in middle class families where money carried a higher value than anything else, penance as a barter for divine favour was popular.

My mother once went without sugar in her coffee for a whole year! There was one uncle in the family whose pledge came closest to  Zuckerbergs’. He had openly declared that he would give away 50% of his big money to the lord of the seven hills. The wealth he was talking of was the prize money he would get if any of his lottery tickets hit the jackpot.

To end the musings with a joke; a peasant and his wife had made a vow that if the cow were to live they will walk to the shrine with chickpeas in their shoes. The prayer was answered and the two set out on the long journey.

It took a while for the poor man to realize that while he was struggling at each step, the wife was walking quite comfortably. He was eager to know what the trick was.  The woman whispered her secret; “I cooked the peas.”

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(Published 16 December 2015, 18:34 IST)

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