Doing God's Work

The Predicament

Ignoring advise of many of her friends Sunandha had selected "Kabhi Kabhi" song as her ring tone. She learnt why the hard way. The phone started singing early that morning and not giving up. On any other day, she would already be heading to work. The NGO “Save The Child” needs her early in office. But that day was a National Holiday. Nothing gets done, so she decided to sleep in late. The phone had different plans, it was ringing continuously and not letting her sleep. So, she decided to give up sleep. She was ready to pick the call and give an ear full to the whoever was calling with all the expletives she has in her vocabulary like a stupid, idiot, good for nothing etc. But the call was something she was never going to forget ever in her life.

It was Padma on the other side of the call, her friend and confidant. Padma was not the one to call very often. As they worked most of the time together and Padma hated phones. Sunandha wiped the sleep off her eyes and glanced back to the blinking mobile screen to confirm. The mobile showed name Padma and the time was 5:30 AM. Sunandha started to panic with millions of thoughts in her mind. Was it about Reema, the girl with a serious heart condition? The operation was scheduled only for next week. Her condition was critical. Was it about Ramu, Arvind, Suma? All thoughts came to her mind in the seconds before picking the phone and answering it. Sunandha could hardly say hello and say hello. Padma started speaking, after that Sunandha had no words but panic on her face.

She got up, walked into freshening up and get ready for the curveball life had thrown at her. She filled her hands with some water and washed her face and looked at herself in the mirror. The tears just started rolling off her cheeks. She thought her tears dried off when the kid she was trying to save died. But they are not. Every time she seems to find some hope and start to move forward the tears seems to load up for the next round. She wanted to find god and ask the question "Why?". But seeing so many kids dying makes you believe there was no god. She got ready and headed to her office. A stream of reporters was waiting outside the office. Before she could realize what was going on, they started with their questions.

Reporter 1: Madam, did you and your boyfriend use this NGO to make money for yourselves?

She turned to see who it was and answer a firm "No". Before she could do that the second question came flying.

Reporter 2: Where did you hide the money? The tickets you brought for Swiss, were the

She could not believe they know so much about her already.

Reporter 3: Were any of these kids sick or you paying them to act?

After that question, Sunandha lost it. She shouted at the reports, "Shut Up". But the reporters did not stop asking questions. Sunandha did not register any of the questions after that. The only thing that was ringing in her ear was "Did you pay the kids to act sick?". Padma reached the office, she dragged Sunandha into the office and asked the security to keep the media out. They saw the toughest days together. But she never saw Sunandha this broken. Padma just hugged Sunandha tight and let her cry.

Hours had passed by before Sunandha could finally speak. Sunandha with anger in her voice, "How can they think I am using kids for money? My father remains a rich man. I don't need to do this for money. The media even went to the extend of calling these sick kids as just props. How can they say that, Is humanity dead in these people?" No one had any answers. After venting out her anger, she started to mellow down a little. The reasoning side of her mind started to work. "How can this man do this to the kids? And why the hell these guys think I am his girlfriend? If a man and woman work together everyone starts thinking them as a couple."

Rajesh met Sunandha one day as a volunteer. He already had a history of helping kids when he came to Sunandha the first time. She let him into "Save a Child" as he was getting funds to help the children. These kids do not deserve this at all, they have hardly seen anything in life and they are facing life-threatening ailments. All she wanted to do was help. She stopped spending on costly dress, costly food, costly house and left her rich father. All this for what? And the media was heartless. With one single word, they erase all her work. Sunandha was made to look like a devil feeding off these kids. For the next few hours, she kept questioning every decision she ever made.

The crime

Rajesh was an unemployed engineer from a remote village in Maharastra. He came to Mumbai in search of a job. For the first few months, some money was coming from the home. The family was looking forward to Rajesh getting a job. It did not happen. Finally, one day they sent a mail saying they cannot send money for Rajesh anymore. Disappointed he was sitting on the platform of the tea shop with his smartphone and was browsing through Facebook. He was skipping through all the happy faces of his friends enjoying with their spouse and kids. One item on the FB dragged his attention.

The news was about a kid who was seriously ill of a heart ailment and his parents had no money for his operation. The parents have requested for donations on Facebook and Whatsapp. The post also had a picture and a small video of the kid in the hospital. He followed up the story. The kind people on social media reacted to the news and donated. The parents were able to collect more than what is required for the treatment.

An evil plan sprang in Rajesh's mind. He started to put it into action. He visited the nearest NGO which was helping the kids with serious illnesses. He told the volunteers that he will try to get help for the kids. They were happy to get additional help. But they said they cannot pay him. He collected reports of the kids, took their pictures and took a copy of treatment details and the cost. The next step of his plan, he posted these details on Facebook on his page and many other pages which are there to help the social causes. He also sent this to all his friends and all the contacts he had in WhatsApp. It was all good, but the evil part was he gave his account number to transfer the proceedings. In less than a week, there were more than 15 Lakhs in the account, icing in the cake was all donations were under 1000 and very few were above 5000 so it did not drag too much of attention. He took the money, closed the account and moved to a different city.

As they say, the money obtained by evil means does not last long. Soon there was not enough money to cover his rich lifestyle. He decided to repeat his earlier successful plan in a new city. As part of his plan, he found the NGO “Saving the Child”. He started using every kid coming to the NGO “Save the Child” and started making money on every kid. This time he did a little good deed by paying for the kids’ treatment and keeping the left for himself. After hundreds of kids and 3 years down the lane, he had crores of money.

 

The victim

After hearing what Padma had to say Sunandha did not understand how she was dragged into this. If anything, she was the victim. That culprit used the kids of her NGO to dupe people and make himself rich. Padma then switched on the TV, for Sunandha to hear what the media was saying.

"Rajesh could be the brain behind all the scam. But he would have not done this without Sunandha's support. The donors have given information that they have called “Save the Child” to confirm the details before transferring the money. Most of them confirmed the calls were picked by Sunandha herself. Now it is clear that Sunandha had her hand in this."

Sunandha turned to Padma and started explaining. "I got the calls from donors asking about the kid’s medical details. I gave them the information. When asked for donations they said they will get back to me. After that, I never got any calls from them. A few of them confirmed transferring to our accounts when I called them back. I always thought the transfer was to our account listed on our website. I should have been careful and asked more questions. I was foolish. I even let Rajesh handle the books."

"How can you know he got us money more than we were expecting all the time?", said Padma.

"I should know, that was why I am here. I told my father I know how to do this. Now, I look like a failure. "

Padma said, "He only took money using us. Don't let him take our hard work and self-respect. Let us give out a press statement to state that NGO has nothing to do with that person's evil plans. We will give complete details of our assets. We will go to a lawyer to get out of this."

Sunandha's phone started ringing. It was a donor who promised to help big money. Reema's operation was dependent on the money he promised. He was angry being cheated and said he longer will give them the money. Sunandha tried to convince him but he was not listening to anything she had to say. Now, Reema's operation cannot go ahead. Sunandha felt because of her stupidity, the kid is going to lose her life. Sunandha started to hate herself for that. There was another phone ringing this time, Padma's phone. It was from the hospital. If by morning the money is not paid Reema must leave the hospital. Sunandha's tears took no time refilling for the next round. Sunandha went into her room and locked it.

Sunandha started doubting every one of her decisions. Every thought ending at calling her a failure. She wanted to kill Rajesh, she wanted to kill the media. The media never supported her cause. Today like hawks they were ready to eat her alive. They did not even do their background work to know the facts about her. She felt disgusted and disappointed with every one of them. Anger, self-pity was eating her away. One thing, however, asking us to keep all this aside. The money for Reema's operation. She started calling every one of the big donors for help. Few of them started abusing her in the call. Few of them did not pick the call at all. A few of them still had confidence in her. But they said they cannot pay her now till the case was sorted. All the doors were closing and closing fast. She was eagerly looking for the next contact she can call for help. That was when she noticed the display picture on her screen. She promised she was not going to take his help. When she started the NGO against his wish, she promised she will not ask his help. He laughed at her sarcastically that day. All these 5 years she never called for his help. But today she was ready to let go of her ego.

She called her father after 5 years. The father picked the call and said, "How are you my kid?" as if nothing happened for the last five years. Sunandha could hardly answer, she does not want her father to know she was crying. He asked again, "How are you? Had breakfast?" Sunandha could hear the familiar and comforting voice of her father. She let go of her leftover ego and replied in a tear-filled voice, "Dad, I failed". Her father said, "You can never fail as long as I am alive. Tell me what you want?"

She told him how she needs money for the kid's operation. He immediately said, "Money we have a lot of. We don't have a good CEO like you." Sunandha immediately knew what her father was implying. Sunandha's father always wanted her to handle the businesses. But she did not like to leave the NGO. Her father asked how much she needs and disconnected the call.

Her father called for the accountant and asked him to transfer the money. The accountant asked why he looks sad. 

 

"Today my daughter called me. A phone call I was looking forward to for 5 years. She felt only when she fails, she needs to call me. But what the kids never understand was the parents can never see their kids losing, even if it is against them."

 

"You might want to ask me why I asked her to come back. She is my daughter I want her with me. Her victory or failure I want to sit next to her to give a pat on her back and tell her I am here. I am selfish that way."

Sunandha started to think what her father had to say. If she understood the call well, he wanted her to take over the business. She cannot leave the NGO. It is her baby; how can she leave it. Then, she was reminded of the donors' words. The reason for not paying the money was Sunandha. He stressed the point that Sunandha getting involved makes things worst. What if everyone starts feeling the same way? The NGO cannot exist after that. Immediately she took a decision she felt was right. She typed a letter, stormed out of the office and handed the letter to Padma.

Padma did not try to read the letter instead started to say something. "I asked all our employees to consolidate what they know about the calls and Rajesh. I called a lawyer, we can ask him to write what sort of press statement needs to be given. We can fight this in court."

Sunandha had not given any attention to what Padma had to say. She pointed to the letter and left the room. The letter said Sunandha had no more relation with the NGO. Any mishandling of money to be handled between her and the government. The letter also detailed the case about Rajesh and how it will only be dealt with Sunandha but not NGO and many other details leaving the NGO free of any legal problems. Padma finished her letter and looked up to say something to Sunandha. But it was already late, and she had left the premises

 

The punishment

Rajesh knew this day would come. He kept paying a good amount to his lawyers all these years. He had enough money to get costliest of legal minds. He had no feelings for any of the people including Sunandha. They were all just pawns his big game of life. The game will have ups and downs. There will be times when the king will be at risk. All the opponents try to kill the king. The king should keep moving. Till the last checkmate was done the game was not over.

The case against him was watered down soon. All the books he maintained showed the money he got had nothing to do with the NGO. But one thing Rajesh did not have was people in big places. The NGOs big and small were angry with Rajesh. The perception was made as if NGOs are bad because of Rajesh. His actions made any future donors think a lot before donating. So all of them together created a big media storm. They were not ready to settle for anything but jail for his charges. His lawyers were trying hard to stop that from happening.

Sunandha started her life in her father's business. Her father had a stream of businesses, transport companies, small and medium scale industries, and many other retail businesses. Sunandha was overseeing all of them. Before starting the NGO, she did her MBA from London. Worked a few years in her father's businesses. Death of one of the worker's kids in their company made her start the NGO. The money she was accused of cheating was not even a fraction of their property. Father said to Sunandha he will take care of her case. He got in the best of the lawyers to fight the case.

The lawyers on both sides fought tooth and nail. The longer the case runs the more the lawyers make. The media too lost interest in the case soon. The other NGOs too had their day to day problems and could not give enough attention to the case. The bad ones were busy finding gullible people to make money for themselves. The Judgement came after a few years. Rajesh was sent to jail for 3 years. Sunandha was fined a large amount. The NGO was handed over to Padma. Sunandha cannot get involved in the NGO or any NGOs in future.

 

The fat lady is yet to sing.

Rajesh came out after 3 years. He now had less money than what he had before the case. But he had money more than what he started with. His driver was waiting outside the jail to pick him up.

The car was started, and they got on to the highway. The driver asked, "What will you do next?"

Rajesh said, " I will find a new set of people and new ways. There are many people with money, we need to show them reasons to spend the money." They both were laughing hysterically at the idea. Out of nowhere, there was a big sound. The driver looked in the mirror to see what was the sound. He saw a big lorry in the mirror and the back of the car was under the lorry wheels. That was the last of Rajesh and his evil plans. The people believed there is a god after all.

P.S.: Padma was going in her bike when she noticed Sunandha getting in the car. They kept in touch over the phone. Sunandha frequently donated anonymously to the NGO but they did not see each other that often. She asked Sunandha what she was doing there. She told she was there to give bail to one of the drivers in her transport company. He was involved in an accident. Sunandha still does not believe in God, she had to take actions to make things happen.