# India's Untouchables...and the best Christmas gift ever.



## Carol (Jan 5, 2009)

In today's Voice of America, there is a very good (and heart-wrenching) story of Dalit families in India, the people that were doomed to the "untouchable" caste.  I've seen some other sources that estimate that 90 percent of India's illiterate and 95 percent of India's poor are Dalit. Nasty problem.  (If you really want to have a miserable time surfing the internet...look for stories about the Vannan..a subcaste of the Dalit considered so polluting they were not only considered to be untouchable but _unseeable _as well.)

http://voanews.com/english/2009-01-05-voa12.cfm

My sister and I have not always seen eye-to-eye and she has not always approved of the many ways that I appreciate Asian culture....including following a faith from India, Sikhism (which I've kinda fallen away from , but that's a whole 'nother story.  My sister being an evangelical Protestant, has had the most difficult time with my religious path. 

This Christmas though, she totally surprised me.   My sis is a social worker, my brother-in-law is a farmer that occasionally gets some pickup work from his brother as a cabinet maker.  They are not rich people...but they are very giving, and give extensively to people in need.  Personally I think its awesome that they do that...and I do not like anyone in my family to spend much money on me anyway.  

 She gave me some small gifts that I appreciated.  She then said "Well, you're not getting much for Christmas because your real gift is the water buffalo."   The whaaaaaa?

My sister and her husband BOUGHT a water buffalo (through a Christian charity)    To a poor South Asian family, the water buffalo provides milk (and by extension, cheese and yogurt), and will also help plow the land and help haul provisions...and is largely treated like family.

They requested the water buffalo go to India.    

They received confirmation that the water buffalo was going to a poor Dalit family in southern India  

I was floored!   That was the best Christmas gift I've had in a long time (if not ever!)


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## arnisador (Jan 5, 2009)

That's great! A colleague's son asked for chickens for a family in Africa this year. She was really touched.


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## tellner (Jan 5, 2009)

Wow. Just wow.

That buffalo will transform lives in ways we can't even imagine.


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## Ninjamom (Jan 5, 2009)

Carol, that is OUTSTANDING!!

For anyone that would like to do something similar in honor of a friend or loved one, I will heartily recommend the relief group, "World Vision".  Their charitiable 'gift catalog' includes gifts of chickens, cows, alpaca, sheep, oxen and plows, freshwater wells, school supplies, and vaccination kits, among other things.

Thank you for sharing this, Carol!  Your sister's gift has now blessed some village in India, you, and many others from MT who have been encouraged to do likewise.


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## hkfuie (Jan 5, 2009)

Amazing story.  Not only about the water buffalo, but also that your sister gave you something that reflects who YOU are.  This is really an inspiring story.  Thanks for posting it.


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## exile (Jan 5, 2009)

The impulse to do good for others somehow or other often manages to percolate through all the artificial sectarian barriers that we manage to throw in its way. 

I think people really do operate simultaneously at two different levels: one which takes pleasure in increasing other people's happiness, regardless of who they are&#8212;especially people who have suffered greatly through no fault of their own&#8212;and one which looks out suspiciously at how 'we' are doing, compared with 'them', whether 'we' are still OK, in spite of what 'they' are up to, etc. A lot of people, I think, are working in both modes at once. Very nice to see the first of these&#8212;which I think the future of humanity, its very survival, ultimately depends on&#8212;winning out, every so often...


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## tellner (Jan 5, 2009)

One of the oldest and from what people say best run programs of this sort is The Heifer Project.


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## Andy Moynihan (Jan 5, 2009)

Awesomeness.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Feb 16, 2009)

Very cool.  And quite a big step for your sister


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## Bill Mattocks (Feb 16, 2009)

I just want to know how you gift wrap a water buffalo?


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## MA-Caver (Feb 16, 2009)

If the rest of the world would follow your sister's example... I think we'd have a happier planet.


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## OnlyAnEgg (Feb 16, 2009)

Bill Mattocks said:


> I just want to know how you gift wrap a water buffalo?


 
Like you do with other big presents, I would imagine.  Stick a bow on it's horn and call it a day.


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