"Giving" is way of life
In India Inc, the moment we say philanthropy one or two names come to mind immediately, the first undoubtedly being Azim Premji than the lives of Shiv Nadar, Narayan Murthy but never have we heard of PNC Menon, the founder of Sobha Group of Companies. Mr.Menon has been ranked as the 21st Richest Indian by the Gulf Cooperation Council. This is also something which we didn’t know about, being always used to hearing the names of the Ambani brothers, the Birlas, Mittals and Bhartias.
Thus it came as a big, pleasant surprise to know that Mr.Menon who has a fortune of $600 million plans to give away half of his personal wealth to charity. He holds the view, like most of the ‘big givers’ that beyond a certain point, money cannot make a difference in your life. And more than charity, it is about accountability and responsibility to the society. This is exactly what Mr.Azim Premji and even Bill Gates, Warren Buffett thinks. Clearly beyond a certain point, money stops giving any satisfaction reminding one of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory where once the basic needs of life and social status needs are taken care of, satiated, human being looks for self actualization and like the way these great industrialists have shown, philanthropy is the next step ahead for self gratification.
If only there were more like these ‘givers’ then probably we would not have so many poor and illiterate Indians. It is too much to hope that philanthropy alone can make people happy but at least it will reduce their sufferings.