Diwali—A Time to Help the Underprivileged

by Aditi Patwardhan

Diwali—A Time to Help the Underprivileged

by Aditi Patwardhan

How old does one have to be to give up all of one’s profits to charity? 40? 30 at least?

Well, the answer in this case, is 13. Yes, Raje, a 13-year-old girl from Bombay, gives all the profits from her small handicraft business to help out those in need.

One day, when Raje was being1)fussyabout the food prepared at home, her mother took her to a neighboring2)slum areawhere a food truck was distributing food to3)the underprivileged. Seeing children running behind the truck, unsure about where their next meal was coming from, Raje made up her mind to help in any way possible.

Later that year, duringDiwali注, she started making and selling small sky lanterns and earned enough money to buy sweets for the kids and celebrate the festival with them. Since then, Raje has continued her initiative of spreading joy. She makes4)paper quillingobjects like envelopes, photo frames, greeting cards, handicrafts as well as dolls, and uses the profits for a good cause.

When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing5)treatment, Raje began thinking about the cancer patients who could not afford6)medical care. That year, she raised Rs. 30,000 for cancer patients. This Diwali, Raje will be conducting a workshop for underprivileged kids suffering from cancer, teaching them how to make handicrafts.

Her inspiring story was shared over 1,600 times within two days on Facebook, and readers have showered her with hundreds of positive comments. Raje’s story is certainly an inspiration for everyone, it7)reinforcesan important message—where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Here is what Raje said:

“One evening, when I was being really fussy with the food made at home, my mom told me to leave my plate and go with her. She took me to a slum behind my house, where I saw little children, my age, maybe younger, running towards a truck of food that distributed food tothem every Sunday. I was left in tears—they didn’t even know if they would get to eat for days and here I was complaining. That incident made me desperate to help in any way I could.

I’m 13 right now and I hope that in every Diwali, I can add a little more light, and bring a few more smiles. Hopefully the day will come where no child goes to sleep hungry and everyone can afford medical treatments—I’m going to try and give it my all…and that’s all we can do for now—try, until it becomes a reality.”

1) fussy ['f?s?] adj. 挑剔的，抱怨的

2) slum area 貧民區

3) the underprivileged 弱勢群體，下層社會

4) paper quilling 衍紙

5) treatment ['tri?tm?nt] n. 治療

6) medical care 醫療護理

7) reinforce [ri??n'f??s] v. 強化

多少歲的人才能把所得到的收益全都捐給慈善團體？40歲？還是至少得30歲？

好吧，在這個故事里，答案是13歲。是的，這位名叫拉吉的13歲孟買女孩，將她用小小手工藝品所掙來的全部利潤都用來幫助了那些有需要的人。

有天，當拉吉正挑剔著家里準備好的食物時，她的媽媽將她帶到了附近的貧民區。在那里，裝有食物的卡車正在為貧民分發食物。當看到那些孩子們追在卡車后面，不知道自己的下一頓飯在哪里時，拉吉下定決心要用任何可行的方法去幫助他們。

那年晚些時候，在排燈節期間，她開始制作和銷售小天燈，還賺到了足夠給孩子們買糖果的錢，并能夠和他們一起慶祝節日。自那時起，拉吉一直在延續著自己傳播快樂的初衷。她做了很多紙工藝品，比如信封、相框、賀卡、手工及娃娃，所得的利潤也是用于慈善事業。

當她的母親被診斷出患有乳腺癌并開始接受治療后，拉吉想到了那些付不起醫療費的癌癥患者們。那年，她為癌癥病人募捐到了30000盧比。在今年的排燈節，拉吉將為患有癌癥的貧困小孩設立一個工作坊，教他們如何制作手工藝品。

她鼓舞人心的事跡在短短兩天內已在臉譜網上被分享了超過1600次，讀者們留下了數以百計的正面評論。拉吉的故事自然是在激勵著每一個人，它強調著一個重要信息—有志者，事竟成！

以下是拉吉所說的話：

“一天夜里，正當我十分嫌棄家里的食物時，我媽媽讓我放下餐盤和她一起去個地方。她帶我去到家后面的一個貧民窟。在那里，我看到了和我一般大的孩子們，又或許比我還小，正追著每逢周日會給他們分發食物的卡車。然后我就哭了—在他們都不知道接下來的幾天里是否還有飯吃的時候，我卻在抱怨。那次的事件，讓我非常想要盡自己所能地去幫助他們。

我現在13歲了，我希望在每一個排燈節里，我都可以為人們增添更多的光明，帶來更多的微笑。希望這一天能到來：沒有一個孩子會餓著入睡，并且每個人都能得到醫療救助—我也將盡我的所有努力……這也是直到它變成現實前，目前我們所能做的一切。”

注：排燈節（Diwali），又稱萬燈節、印度燈節或屠妖節，是印度教、錫克教和耆那教“以光明驅走黑暗，以善良戰勝邪惡”的節日，于每年的10月或11月中旬舉行。由于排燈節的影響力遠遠超過了其他節日，故其往往會被新馬一帶的華人社會誤解為印度人的新年節日。

排燈節——一個可以幫助窮人的節目

翻譯：法比仔