Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Connecting with GOD

(This article written by me was published in the August-September issue of the Our Lady of Egypt Church Parish Bulletin, Olep Flight)


The last decade has seen a spurt in the use of mobile phones. Mobile phones have become a big necessity in our lives. From starting our day with the alarm ringing on our mobile phone to wake us up, to reminders for birthdays, anniversaries and meetings, no other instrument has been able to control us so much as this small hand held device. Just think about it.
Using the mobile phone, one can constantly stay in touch with family and friends at our fingertips. One message or one call is all it takes at times to catch the attention of the opposite person. The mobile phone has been one of the most interesting inventions. Moreover, this has helped us all to connect with each other.
Most of us Christians visit the Church to attend the service. While some of us visit the Church daily, most of us only attend the Sunday service. Why do we visit the Church? Well, most of us do it so that we can connect with GOD. While some of us do it, just to fulfill our religious obligations.
Anyways, the reason is not important here. Once a person decides to attend the service, it is the responsibility of the person to ensure that he or she does not, directly or indirectly cause inconvenience to the congregation.
I am not going to talk about the dressing part here that is not what I want to do. However, coming back to mobile phones, I fail to understand that if a person has decided to come to Church to connect to GOD, why that person cannot switch off the mobile phone. I know we will have some excuses for that too. Important calls, urgent messages, and so on. Valid reasons one might say.
However, I am sure that every mobile phone on earth has an option to keep the device on Silent mode. If the call or message is so important or urgent when we are in Church, why do we not use this feature then? At least, it will not cause inconvenience to the faithful, who are a large number, gathered in the Church.
From my personal observations in the recent past, most of the time the mobile phone beeps, the device belongs to an adult or an elderly person. More often than not, they do not know how to use the mobile phone features, and struggle to switch off the device or keep the device in silent mode for that matter. Children nowadays are more knowledgeable in handling such devices, and at least they use the silent mode feature at a minimum in the Church.
I hope I have not offended anyone’s feelings with all that I have written. I just wanted to state my perspective, which is, “Once you are in Church, you decide for yourself, you have come there to CONNECT with whom?”

Sunday, August 28, 2011

This one is for you, Sister.


Growing up as a kid involved a lot of fun,
As I had two siblings and I was their loved one.

My sister was quite elder to me and hence was very protective of me as a kid,
Hence, I felt like she was my second mom and about that, I am candid.

She being the eldest sibling and I the youngest, ninety-nine percent of the time we always got along,
Hence, whenever I had fights with my elder brother, I got all the support even if I was in the wrong. :-)

My sister used to experiment a lot in her recipes, and I enjoyed watching her cooking,
However, the best part was her recipes turned out good every time, about that I am not lying.

She got married when I had just completed my schooling,
So living a life without her presence at home, I started adapting.

At a time, when I was growing into adolescence and increased feelings for the opposite sex,
I missed my sister's presence, started lacking the confidence to interact with girls and at times was feeling like a wreck.

Someone did say that time is the best healer, and this definitely seemed the case,
As I grew into a man, everything in life started falling in place.

Now that I am married, and look at the way you have brought up your two kids,
I can only sense what you might be feeling, as to you more than a brother I was a kid.

I had just started scribbling few lines thinking about you on my writing pad,
Here I am thanking you SISTER, for all the good times we had.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Who will help me carry him?

The movie Gladiator that released in the year 2000 had quite a few good dialogues. However, the sequences of dialogues towards the end of the movie always makes me emotional.  
After a fight between Maximus the main protagonist of the movie and Commodus the emperor of Rome, where both men die, the following dialogues follow.

Lucilla: Is Rome worth one good man's life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him.
Gracchus: Who will help me carry him?
[Gladiators surround the body of Maximus and carry him out of the arena]

The dialogue  Who will help me carry him?” reminds me of the times I have had to carry a few men in my family to their final resting place. It is definitely not a good feeling. In the last 5 years, this has happened quite a few times already.
  • Charles Dias, My Dad, 2006
  • Victor Fernandes, My Uncle, 2007
  • Eric Sequeira, My Cousin’s Husband, 2010
  • Philip Dias, My Uncle, 2010

I can just say "May Their Souls Rest In Peace".

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Today

Exactly a year since the time, we first met.
Exactly 100 days since the time, we got married.

The first part you remembered, the second I did.
 :-)