Begging Glorified

I was aimlessly surfing the net, replying to some mails and wondering what to do next (my life is sailing quite smoothly without Orkut!) when four apparently disdainful gentlemen walked into the room. They didn’t look more worn out than ordinary mortals and their appearance clearly epitomized the fact that “hooligans” forever prevails everywhere.
The two of them who looked liked leaders took the chairs opposite Nirav and the “chamchas” sat behind.
“We are members of a newspaper, we are closely associated with Kanak Sen Deka & Mamoni Raisom Goswami. We are organizing a function soon and we seek donation”!
Their introduction was as snappish and snooty as was their attitude.
When Nirav said that a branch office had no power to sanction money and that if they provide with some written proposal he might as well send it to the Head Office and if the Head Office gives a nod then maybe he can consider something, the one on the heavier side quickly responded “This is the state of affairs in Axom, we don’t have the power even to donate money, why do you have to ask bosses sitting outside Axom, personally can’t you give us some donation, in cash or in Cheque?”
I was listening to all this gibberish and my temper was amplifying within. I kept my cool because I was not a part of their conversation; I had just come to Nirav’s office to check my mails.
They handed out a letter to them. The name of the organization is GRAMYA SISHU BIKASH PARISHAD (ASOM) & AROHAN ARTIST GUILD.
The letter head further had printed on its left hand side a logo and in contrasting red and green were the following lines: RAJJICK SISHU BIKASH SAMAROH, SRIMANTA SANKARDEV KALAKSHETRA (ASSAM) 27TH & 28TH OCTOBER, PRIZE DISTRIBUTION, FELICITATION & CULTURAL NITE, “PRAGJYOTI “COMPLEX, MACHKHOWA GHY (ASSAM).
Then was the subject line :”prayer for financial assistance/ advertisement to the Rajjick Sishu Bikash Samaroh (*th Annual meet)
By now you must have guessed what is the content of the letter.
Below were the mentioned rates for “financial assistance”: there is a wide range to choose from – from Rs.500/- to Rs.10,000/- you can take your pick.
My point here is how genuine are these Sansthas? Do they have records of all the money they receive being spent for the said purpose and not flaunted in booze and filling their own pockets? Can’t these Sansthas be more organized and seek financial assistance by their own means? And this is not the only group. There are hundreds of them representing one Sanstha or the other and making rounds of offices and seeking donations.
Or maybe this is perhaps the next course our fellow humans have taken resort to when pointing the gun, asking for ransom has become futile – welcome to the age of “Glorified Begging”