When we call young HR professional Theja Harjani, she is in the bylanes of Shivajinagar, distributing blankets to the homeless. “I do this around Christmas every year and this is the fifth year,” she says.
She became sensitive to the plight of the homeless when, on her way back home after a night shift, she noticed people curled up under the winter sky.
She says, “I wondered when we feel so cold even in our quilts, how do these people cope?”
The solution was easy. “We blow up thousands on lavish dinners when a few hundreds can be spent to keep people warm. I started collecting blankets and every year, I manage to go from one street to another and distribute over 1,000 blankets. I got married just a week ago and so managed to collect only about 500 blankets but a local radio station has joined the drive and am hoping to collect a few more this year,” she says.
It is a sad commentary on our times that people do not open their hearts easily unless there is a very good reason to. Theja agrees, “It is only around Christmas that a large number of people are prepared to make donations and do charity, hence I tap into the spirit and try to make the most of it.”
She also says that most donations that people make around the festive season go to orphanages and old age homes but no one considers the plight of the poor on the streets.
She says, “The real message of Christmas is to give, to share, to make a difference in some way to another life. But we seem to have lost the plot somewhere.”
Her Facebook page Blankets and Quilts for the Poor – Season 3, invites Bangaloreans to look outside their lives at those who could do with some human warmth and compassion.
Those who wish to join her in her drive to bring cheer to those who need it the most may write to her at thejageorge@yahoo.com
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I am truly proud of my daughter