This author needed a breakdown in a small Pennsylvania town earlier this year when the world was still in the throes of New Year’s festivities. Some epiphanies can only occur when one is sleepless for 180 hours, eating barely to keep the vital organs chugging, standing on the brink of the abyss of despair. I finally understood that being a receiver was as important as being a giver.

Most of us are raised, at least in letter if not in spirit, that the joy of giving is supreme. This simple moral lesson, having travelled far away from Karna’s final act of giving — he donated his golden tooth moments before dying during the Battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata — is now wrapped in the gift of capitalist consumerism. Add to it the relentless pressures of public perception, and no individual or organisation can resist memorialising their act of giving. Giving gets fetishised, giver smug.

Moving from the inscriptions on the plinths of the glorious Chola temples, to the plaques in numerous hospitals announcing contributions, to the park benches and opera donor boxes, giving is now announced via AI-assisted posts accompanying aesthetically curated photos. After all, public donations, naming rights, or participation in high-profile events have been serving to enhance image rather than primarily focusing on........

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