The picture shown is that of a young girl and her little brother at the Dakshineshwar temple in Calcutta, now referred to as Kolkota. Sadly, the politicians had the time to devise name changes and the mammoth efforts to implement such change but starving and helpless children like these still beckon the humanness within. It’s at times like these that the fleeting realization of the vainness of my Wall Street dream comes to unwind and play havoc on me.

A wish for skyrocketing bonuses, to hob-nob with the "smarties," paying mortgage type rentals in the East Village and to be culturally well-versed seems to have played on my mind. And if this all happens there will be no difference made in the world. I would have joined the bourgeois in my insignificant and fleetingly wealthy existence in the Big Apple and passed life by. The poor will be poor, the rich will be richer and sandwiches will still be made the good old-fashioned way.

In the fight for survival and economic upliftment, we have forgotten the need to look within ourselves and see what we are giving back. That we might not be richer than Donald Trump drives our GMAT preparations for seeking higher ground and real estate deals, but to the homeless man, every man with a roof on his head is a Donald Trump. True giving is not what you don’t need but what you need. Our responsibilities don’t end with pledges and donations that give us tax beaks, because in our busy world, our most precious commodity is time.

Afternoon teas mulling over BCBG and Calvin Klein seem sullen to me now. What pride lies there in bragging about the dresses you purchased in the last three years that you haven’t felt like wearing? Did you ever consider not buying those and donating that excess to the needy? Do you ever wonder it is like to struggle to have rice and salt for dinner for life?

I paid Rs. 5 to the girl and she readily posed for me. That’s the equivalent of 10 cents. It made a difference to her. It made me realize how much I still have to give and how less of it have I given. It made me realize that all of us can give in some way.