Giving Pledge-- make a resolve

The last few funerals I attended,  I was curious to find out as to how much wealth a person can take away with him to the next world. To my utter surprise mostly the people preferred to proceed empty handed. What about the wealth that was stashed in accounts and invested in stocks. It appears that all was left unattended at the mercy of the heirs.

This is a strange state of affairs. People do not like to cede control of precious things and their wealth in their life but they leave it all behind at the mercy of others , not knowing how this wealth will be used or plundered.

A different approach has been adopted by the rich and the super rich. They have refused to leave it to their heirs. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have started the " Giving Pledge" Campaign. In their own words, "The idea of the Giving Pledge came from many great conversations that Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett had with philanthropists in the U.S. and abroad. With their ideas and input, this idea developed into the Giving Pledge."

Although this is an American Phenomenon as those making pledges are American Billionaires but the idea is worth sharing.

I read many of the pledge letters; the letter of Laura and John Arnold states: "We view our wealth in this light -- not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change."

They have pledged half of their wealth to philanthropy and their foundation website talks about Transformational Change through philanthropy and not the Incremental Change.

Ted Turner is another billionaire amongst the many who pledged. In his letter he attributes this to his father who instilled in him the desire to contribute by giving scholarships to two African American Students. Ted has taken this modest contribution to new heights by pledging and spending over a billion dollars. While his letter says many interesting things but reference to his discussion with Jacques Cousteau ; where he asked him if he ever got discouraged or worried that the problems he was working on were insurmountable. The answer was, “Ted, it could be that these problems can’t be solved, but what can men of good conscience do but keep trying until the very end?”

Michael And Lori Milken talk about a few lessons that charity has taught them :

•Whether in education or medical research, early funding of promising young talent generates a lot more progress than handing out lifetime-achievement awards.

•Philanthropy is far more than just writing checks. It takes an entrepreneurial approach that seeks out best practices and empowers people to change the world.

•Follow your passion. We believe philanthropists should begin the process of giving by asking what they care about passionately. Intensely felt core beliefs provide the motivation to stick with a project through successful completion.

Without commenting any further on the points that have been reproduced above I would like to refer to the pledge of Warren Buffet.

Three things emerge from his letter;

One he values "time" as the most precious resource and feels that this can be donated to charitable causes. Though he feels that it would be a superior donation than writing cheques only. In his own words:

 "Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including -- I'm proud to say -- my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. A struggling child, befriended and nurtured by a caring mentor, receives a gift whose value far exceeds what can be bestowed by a check. My sister, Doris, extends significant person-to-person help daily. I've done little of this."

Second he talks about the asymmetry of contributions of various people in society and the relevant rewards.
To copy his words: "My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate's distribution of long straws is wildly capricious."

Third the way he values possessions and their contribution in his life, may those be luxury planes or living houses. He takes them as means to achieve quality of life but does not see them as an end in themselves.

Material things do change the way we live but as he says:  "Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends."


As I read these pledges , I found them very interesting and thought provoking. I am moved by the thought of being able to help a struggling child by providing support and time; and being able to make a superior contribution than money itself.

I look back in life and see a lot of opportunities lost where I could have made a difference just by giving time and care to someone in need. But I think I can make a pledge; to contribute time, as much of it as I can to those who require it.  I can make a pledge to contribute a good portion of my fortune to some noble causes. Only I have to remind myself that myself like most of us become lucky due to the asymmetry of information, reward system and market inefficiencies. If we share some of this good luck there is no harm in it and in most of the cases it will not change our circumstances.

I am reminded of one of my friend and associate Bakhtiar Hakeem, who contributes time in a number of ways. One of the activity is where he visits the Oncology Ward of a local hospital once in a month with a stalk of flower for each patients. He has told me stories how many patients break into tears with this little gesture of love and care. Many of them tell him about the wait that they have done to receive this one flower and what that means to them in that perpetual isolation; where there own kith and kin have passed on their responsibility to the doctors and nurses by paying the fee (writing the cheque).

His second activity is visiting few schools in a poor neighbourhood on a  monthly basis, where he distributes prizes to the children who show progress and attain positions in their competitions of various academic and  extra curricular activities. Normally the prize is a bag that the students can use to carry their books to the school.

Billionaires have made these pledges and many others like my friend Bakhtiar Hakeem, who are not billionaires are making even a superior contribution. I am willing to make these pledges. Do you want to wait till the last day or start making the resolve today??

Mr. Titus

He was a short heighted person with gray moustache and dark complexion. He told my father that he was the House Master of Tipu House. He further assured my father that good care would be taken for his son who he was leaving behind at the boarding school in Murree. The famous and traditional ... Lawrence College.

His name was Fredrick Titus and he was my House Master. Once I look back I remember a lot of things that I feel like sharing with everyone. I will share my experiences of how he shaped the personalities of the students and how passionately he undertook his work in some later posts. I would share later as to how the boys would mimic him and how he would many times only smile and let go of a naughty boy with a warning only. He would write in his personal capacity to the parents discussing with them the progress of the students and exchanging ideas how the boy can be groomed further in debates and athletics etc.

But today something different. It is one thing that has been ringing in my memory for all these years. It is about an incident that involved his nephew who was also a student and our class fellow. He was in my House (Tipu) and we shared the same dormitory. As he was Christian so as a young boy of class V we saw him becoming a target of rebukes and jokes that were only hurled due to his religion. We had many other roommates and some of them had no better understanding of Islam than any of the other young boys around them. Rather the central characters in the story were those who would often bunk the evening prayers which the college rule prescribed them to observe as part of the daily schedule.

When we used to go to the dining hall many would prefer not to sit next to him as there were some sly boys who would whisper that we should not be sitting next to a non-Muslim while eating. Often this was said by the same kids who would otherwise skip on the compulsory prayers. Interesting thing was that when the poor boy would not eat his share of butter in the breakfast and would offer it to any one, they would readily take that and eat it too. At that time eating butter from a non-muslim would not disturb their belief. As I look back and reason out with myself as to why the boys were doing all this, I presume it was a misguided  mischief of some naughty boys.

This state of affairs continued for a few weeks. Initially it was a minor irritation as many of the kids in my house did not participate in this campaign and would talk and play with the non-muslim as usual. But with the passage of time the campaign grew stronger and many of those boys started giving in to the propaganda where they would prefer not to talk to the boy.

Obviously this became difficult for the boy also as he faced increasing isolation. I believe the boy complained to his uncle; the House Master. I thought, like many other boys that now we would face the cane and the House Master would thrash the hell out of those who had been leading this mischief. But nothing of that sort happened. Rather the whole of my Dormitory was invited by the House Master to his house at a nice party. We all went and were treated with cookies and other snacks. The family of the House Master entertained us; his two sons sang and played the guitar which they played well. I thought as a kid that in the end he would at least say something about this "special treatment" to his nephew, but he said nothing.

We came back from the party and nobody talked about what we were feeling in our hearts. I am sure like myself, everyone would be feeling ashamed and touched at the same time. Ashamed of the ridiculous behavior which many of us have maintained towards the house master's nephew and touched at the care with which the house master has handled all of us. The result was instant and the negativity subsided. He could pass his time with relative ease.

But today after almost thirty years here I am remembering the lesson and the way it was conveyed. With the experience of life burdening me, now I see the actions of my House Master Mr. Fredrick Titus in a very different light.

Now I want to say that persecuting minorities on the basis of religion or ethnicity is very wrong. I further feel indebted to my Christian teacher who taught me the prefect Islamic lesson of humanity, love and tolerance through such an effective medium of care and love. He did not use his cane which he could have easily as the House Master but he left behind life long lasting impressions which the cane could never had.

He taught me how we need to use our position to correct something that is wrong.

I want to tell Mr. Titus that he was a great man and the time has made him even greater in our eyes.

But with this lesson of love and tolerance that I learnt from him, makes me speak loud about all minorities in the world that are persecuted on the basis of religion, cast or creed.

I am reminded of Rohingyas of Burma, Muslims of Assam and Gujrat and many more. But I do not want to give any license to the majority of my own country to kill, prosecute or harass the minorities . As I am no one to grant license or to revoke it but I can understand this thing for myself and make a promise to myself ; may be to my House Master also that I will be just, tolerant and caring towards those who are in a position of weakness in my presence due to their cast or creed.

Let me ask all of my friends , to remember the down trodden of their own communities in all the places where they are in a minority and then treat the minorities near them in the manner they feel just for their own kind.

While I promise in my heart to change, I feel some body smiling at me from the corners of the blue sky, just behind the silver lining of the clouds. Yes I recognize him and how can I forget my House Master Mr. Titus.






 Prep School- Lawrence College