A Muslim Burmese lady was feeding abandoned kittens by the roadside. She declined to have her face photographed.
As I photographed the kittens, a busybody stranger remarked that she’ll be getting massive ‘pahala’ points (based on the concept of receiving blessings as reward for good deeds).
I thought the man’s Malay accent sounded like that of a Bangladeshi migrant living in Malaysia. When I met him later inside a Toto shop, he told me he is Rohingya as well.
The lady seem annoyed by his remark. She declared: “I’m doing it because I can’t bear to see a living thing die of hunger. Not for any reward.”
Compassion. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures” .
Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 320, f4, 1/200 sec.