Swapping the immediate for the mediated

It is not unnatural these days to do online counselling and priests need to be prepared to sometimes even go the extra mile as that would provide extreme relief to someone and also be a learning process for the priest himself. But is it really possible to talk to someone who is at a distance and make sense of what they are telling you? Can this be termed counselling in the strict sense of the word? How do I know who I am talking (chatting) with? What if someone is fooling me or checking me out?

Every technology will bring along with it sceptics who will question the need and efficiency of anything new and whether it is indeed needed. Can this really replace the good old face to face talk and camaraderie?

Chatting with people long distance is a challenge as it involves different time zones and understanding a language which may differ in the way it is expressed. Even a harmless smiley at the wrong moment could send the wrong signal. But this does not mean that counselling this way is impossible. Just the fact that two people are not doing face to face communication actually works in the opposite of what we think always. We cannot pause a direct talk but we can pause, think and answer during a chat online. Some people feel shy or scared to talk face to face while they open up more knowing they have the cushion of being at a distance.

Chatting with someone definitely qualifies as a counselling session which can be shallow or deep, depending on how much is shared. Usually we take up counselling sessions with people we know but there could be one off sessions with people we may not completely know but who nevertheless talk to us about something that is bothering them. It is not necessary to know who we are talking to as long as we know whether they are male or female and they are sharing the truth. We could be mislead and sometimes even fooled but anonymity in the church is something we should offer to members, especially women until they trust us enough to say what they want and share who they are .

The sceptics are a bit scared of losing ground here. Will the church building be replaced by an online, invisible church? What will happen to the present power arrangement? The biblical prophecy that mountains will become valleys and valleys will turn into mountains should ring clear in our minds. Change is inevitable. But one can only say how it takes place after it actually does so. So far people still cherish the pleasure of meeting each other in person and online activity helps or hastens this. But to ensure this immediacy, the help of computer technology is used and therefore we can call it a mediated technology, whereby we are in interaction with each other with the help of technology and this then leads us to commune in a common place later on. Truly very religious as well…what you see is not truth in entirety, what you don’t see is where truth lies in waiting…swapping the immediate for the mediated.

Jesus s(h)aves!!!

Advertisements have become such an integral part of our lives. It is another thing whether we like it or not! Many will feel the bite while watching a movie and getting interrupted by hundreds of advertisements asking, luring and begging us to buy a particular product. It is another matter all together that we end up paying for the exuberant bills associated with award winning adverts. Like it or hate it, it is here to stay. A testimony to that is the advertisement industry which is worth billions of dollars world wide and crores of rupees in India.

The good side of an advert is that it is the product of hard hours of burning the midnight oil and waiting for that one creative burst of energy which will bring forth something so unique and eye catching that it will lead us straight to the product. Many such products then lead to a replacement of identities and truth itself. We replace in our minds natural products from nature with products that are manufactured by companies in real time and in our minds as well.

The other side of an advert is that it is made so that it helps a product sell! Nothing else matters pretty much. It is true that there is an overall view that adverts should try to tell the truth but much overlapping blurs what truth is. So we advertise everything. We advertise our child’s baptism, our wedding, our success (our enemies advertise our failure :)), and eventually even our death is advertised.

The new Gillette ad doing the rounds now has women in India vouching for how smooth the skin of their boyfriend/husband is after such a smooth shave and how they prefer this over against a beard or stubble. The ad blitz even came out with Women Against Lazy Stubbles (W.A.L.S.). So much that even a bearded priest like me, strokes my chin to see what it would feel like after gliding a Mach 3 blade through the unruly beard. I wonder what kind of pressure boys/men feel to get that perfect smooth skin? After all they have to be presentable and acceptable to their girls/women. The video showing the depressed man with a stubble changing into a confident person after the shave does get one thinking. Should I or shouldn’t I?

I guess religion is also going through the same phase of high income adverts. Jesus saves is a very old slogan which has been in use in India. So much like the Mach 3 comfort one will feel. Posters and banners hanging from trees and posts, bible verses on walls, preaching on TV, we are all into the s(h)aving business. So much that Jesus is portrayed like a young, shaven, confident man, asking us to jump into the bandwagon. But what about the bearded Jesus we are all so used to? Maybe not so confident and seemingly much ordinary than the macho, all knowing young man. Also every bit vulnerable and a bit more attached to ground reality rather than being a high flying, super man capable of doing anything and everything at the flick of a switch. Hmm…following Gillette…should we then run high flying adverts saying, Jesus, the best a man can get or just leave Jesus as Jesus, with stubble, beard, et al.?

The Pain of a Tragedy

How does it feel when life becomes death?
When the very air we cherish turns into a noose around our neck?
Who will know that what they see are the scars of a battle unexpected?
And the hurt will never heal but only be forgotten by years of neglect?

How could this come on us with no warning sign?
Despite our collective thoughts of good to all?
Who will take responsibility for the thousands buried together?
While the ones above are still reminded by every breath?

How many generations will suffer for an irresponsible act?
Will ill-distributed compensation cover up the fact?
Who will bring the guilty to justice?
Even as we grimace in the pain of unfulfilled promises?

How trivial have we become in your pursuit of glory?
Gassed were we, our entire city became a gas chamber in a hurry?
Who will hear us amidst the deafening shout for a new India?
When all we remind you of is an old and forgotten tragedy?




(The Bhopal gas tragedy took place 25 years ago. The victims still await justice while the guilty remain scot-free. Almost 25,000 people lost their lives due to the irresponsible act of the Union Carbide company. Successive governments have not ensured that the deserving got the help they needed. We have conveniently forgotten this ever happened!)

Disappearing to appear

Numerous stares, sympathetic faces and uncomfortable postures go along with the disabled person wherever they go. Especially in countries like India, we have a highly judgemental attitude rather than understanding what disabled people feel like. The term which should be used to refer to this is also confusing. Should it be people with disability or disabled people? I feel that the term disability means that ‘we’ have the ability. In contrast, when we use the term disabled, it suggests that the ‘disabled’ have been made that way by us, the ‘abled’. This sounds more correct and defines the truth of how the disabled people are basically in the condition they are because of the so called abled.

Are we all perfect or do we seek to be perfect? Do we need to be perfect? Is perfection a necessary condition that human kind should go through? Obviously for me, being a priest brings me closer to the problem of the disabled people. Why are they like this? Does God allow disability or are the people disabled by the abled? Is it punishment from the higher echelons of justice? But what have these people done? Even my referring to the disabled people in the way I do, suggests a difference between us and them!

What am I going to do? Am I going to tell my congregation that people with disabilities are serving God’s purpose? Or am I going to tell my congregation that part of the problem is us, those who are holding onto this built up conception of perfection and for whom there should be people whom we perceive as imperfect, to maintain our perception of perfect. Thus the existence of the perfect depends on the existence of the imperfect.

Our relationship with God is a funny one. We let God appear when we want to and then allow (force) God to disappear when the use of God has passed. This suggests an appearance and disappearance. This is so taken for granted that it has completely slipped our mind, so much that we may even deny it. But this is one reality that we should bring back into our consciousness. God appears and disappears. God disappears so that we may appear. But we take our appearance for granted and forget that this is what we are encouraged to do as well. We too have to disappear, so that others may appear! We too have to be disabled so that others may be abled!



http://disabledfeminists.com/

http://donlavin.blogspot.com/2009/04/living-with-disability-in-india.html

http://saintfaron.blogspot.com/2009/08/to-have-eyes-and-not-to-see.html

http://www.jochopra.blogspot.com/

The journey

There was a deep sense of distractedness in my mind. Each breath of mine was pushed away by the rumblings of a mini quake, the epicentre of which was right next to me, in the train berth occupied by an old man. The train within the train took me by surprise. The spate of train related accidents came to my mind flashing through with the help of a view finder. But never would there have been an accident within, because of a train within a train!

The drive to the station was like a joy ride on a giant wheel in a fair. Everything seemed exactly the same, unless one chose to look with intend. Then faces became clear and with it lives and stories were revealed in a matter of seconds. It was the usual grind: paying the auto driver, walking to the station, passing through the detector, spotting the train platform on the screen, buying water and something to munch and then walking to the train, checking my name on the chart stuck to the train bogey and then placing myself on the booked seat. It was one chain puzzle, neatly put together and played to perfection.

Bodies lay strewn all around. People were shouting, ‘get down, down.’ Just as you thought it was all over, came one more shot and then a volley of shots. How does it feel to lie on your tummy and wonder, ‘what the f*** is going on here?’ and ‘will I get out of here alive?’ How does it feel to be derailed even before one boards the train? So many prayers went up that day to a variety of Gods, all asking for divine intervention and a fortunate ending. Was this the end of the world? The faces of my loved ones came to my mind in a flash, so fast and furious that I felt like a turtle in an F1 racing car.

I got up with a jolt. Where was I? In the train, sleeping safe and sound in my berth, listening to the divine snore next to me. How I wonder, a few moments ago the snore sounded like a quake and now after what seemed a salad of a dream, the snore became a sweet sense of awakening. An awakening of being alive and okay. The sense that everything was back to normalcy.

Love Jihad: A need for acceptance and rehabilitation and not war mongering

Where war persists, love is not far behind or maybe it is the other way round!. A lot of us may have heard of jihad as a waging of war. But there is also an interpretation that it is practising religion in the midst of oppression and persecution. For those of us who are moulded by the utterances of the main line media, jihad is a negative connotation. It is an attack on freedom and the public space of people. I wonder whether this is the original intention of the word jihad. But this post is not about that. Rather it is about how we use love as a toned down means of aggression to bring people to our side.

The print and online media this month did a story on what they termed the ‘love jihad’ in Kerala and Karnataka. The story outlined how Muslim men trapped women from other religions, and married them as part of a larger design to add to the Muslim population in India. The case came to light when a couple of women filed a case in the courts of Kerala and there was a unusually high rate of registration of marriages. So much that the court has asked the government to do a preliminary enquiry. It has even led to a silent understanding between the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and some Christian groups, to pass on information on such conversion attempts and prevent it. The problem should be grave as otherwise the VHP and Christian groups will never be found on the same side of the coin! The response from Muslim youth groups is that there is nothing unnatural about this as every religion has conversion. But is it acceptable to give money to men and tell them specifically to go behind women for a period of two weeks and get them to convert by luring them in the name of love?

The media and Hindu and Christian groups have so far been crying foul about this. But what no one brings to light is the plight of women! Be it war or love, women are seen as an object to be conquered. So from one religion to the other, they are conquered and subjected. Why is it that the woman has to always convert to the religion or denomination of the man and not vice versa? It then should be debated as to whether the problem is conversion or the freedom of women!

The other point to be debated is whether this goes on in other religions as well? The truth is that it does in small quantities. Whoever sees survival beyond truth, follows the teaching of using war or love to multiply the number of followers. Everything this way is fair in war and love! I have come across a similar phenomenon in certain new Christian denominations aka sects. In an effort to have a foothold in society, girls are lured into the sect and then told that their partner is a man, who of course belongs to the same sect! This the leader of the sect/denomination says is what God wants! The girl is thus torn away from her own cultural roots and beliefs.

The final point to be debated is why do girls fall into traps in the first place? Is it a lack of independence, feeling cared for, not being given respect? Obviously for the girls to be lured, a good enough trap should be in place. This could be anything. A bit of love and concern and maybe a bit of everything, put together with a flashy lifestyle. This is what lacks in many of our houses. Our women are not given the respect that is their due and right. In the vacuum, someone else provides this. Furthering this, have we thought about how it will be when these girls/women come back? What will be their status? A girl who has brought dishonour upon the family? A girl who went astray and has come back and therefore has to be looked after because there is no other alternative? Which girl would then come back?

I have come across a similar instance in my home church. A young girl similarly left her house. She is in touch with her father but won’t talk to her mother, because they are not on good terms. As far as I understood, she doesn’t mind coming back. But the church members have already started talking about her and how she has brought a bad name to the family and church. I couldn’t help but wonder how this girl could come back to a land of stigma, exclusion and judgement! Would girls like her be given legal advice and lawyers to argue their case? Which is why we should look at this phenomenon of the love jihad, which truly is not anything new but the same old story of women being treated as objects. This then is a time for acceptance and rehabilitation and not war mongering.



(Many thanks to Cissy George, my school mate, who provided the initial push and material on the 'Love Jihad' which was helpful and responsible for the writing of this post)

Language at it’s Kerala best!!!

In the previous post I did try to bring out the differences that one can face in a single language. Which is why people may not understand each other despite knowing the same language. These differences are cultural and group specific.

Kerala is a state in India which uses Malayalam as it’s official language. Obviously the use of a single language should not bring about much confusion. But the way Malayalam is spoken in different parts of Kerala is indeed confusing with people finding it difficult to understand each other.

Mimicry has been a cultural activity which is now a part of a genre which is entertaining and thought provoking. For entertainment purposes certain things are bloated out of proportion but never the less the point is driven home. One similar performance outlines the Thrissur (a town in Kerala) slang. (http://www.youtube.com/user/malayalamcomedyyoutu#play/all)

The setting is a court room with the advocate examining a witness in a stab case. The witness gives his version of what happened… “Eecha kadayude kadai keri eecha navadi- therikkan nokunna machu ennu paranjapam chullanu kalichille- ee gadi oru boost ittu koduthille- appo matte gaddi oru bush ittu- oru jathi show ishta- gum ennu nenchil kittiyappol chullan madhillil veenu wall post aayille- ee chekkan chavarinaduthu paranjatha ee spot sheriyalla, skoot aakan nokan- avide, chullan skoot aayilla- ee gediye chindha padundo therichonnu, ellenkil medeyiyonnu- last-il pettiyinnu chuvannavanu pathiye vannu ara pacha thangiyappol chappada round vendannu kenji paranju eshta- oru kizhi kittiyappol avande arayil dushma veeshi andam kundam nokathe kuppiyeduthu pallayil otta keerangu keeri- panchayat pipe pottiyapole alle chora cheetiyathu.”

A bold but not accurate translation of this would be “one guy tried to act smart with another fellow and they traded words (beautifully put by using the words boost and bush)- it was a show off- the guy got it on his chest and flew to the wall (became a wall post on the wall)- we told the guy that this place is not good and so beat it (words used are spot sheriyalla and skoot) but he did not go- we told him not to fight a losing battle- but he took a bottle and stabbed the guy without a care- blood sprayed out as if from a panchayat (village) water pipe.”

For many in Kerala this won’t be a language that they will understand and yet it is Malayalam! And it is a way of speaking Malayalam with a special energy and bringing life to the language itself. This then is the concept of how a language is accepted by a people and eventually made their own. Indeed, language at it’s Kerala best!

The language of the dogs

Language is a way of expressing oneself using words and even actions. It is a cultural learning that we are put through, and eventually we will add on to our traditional learning with our own unique experiences. We have the official language that is thrust upon people and the un-official language which is a public outcry and protest. In India too we have Hindi, struggling to assert itself as the national language, English as the most used language across different states largely by default and maybe as a colonial hangover which has turned into an advantage for Indians, and many other languages hustling for space in the Indian sphere with slight similarities and differences at the same time.

There are unique and almost extinct languages which are spoken by small communities and which express meaning to specific groups while being completely strange to others. But what happens when we have classifications within a language which make it confusing to one and clear to the other? The English language despite being a colonial infusion into India, has been absorbed into the Indian fabric which has even made English dictionaries sit up and take notice and add new Indian English words to the latest versions of their dictionaries.

This difference and new way of talking the same language is not just a matter of accent and words used but the way some words are used and perceived. ‘Heh dude’ and ‘heh dog’ in the U.S. for instance would not strike a chord for a majority of Indians. This could have been one of the reasons why the Oscar winning “Slum Dog Millionaire” was seen derogatory by some in India for the use of the word dog, even though it was not meant to be derogatory.

Similarly, there will be sections of the population in India who would not battle an eyelid before saying, ‘what the f##k’, while others would find it inappropriate and in bad taste. We see here a total shift of language according to the perceived culture of a group of people. So even though we speak the same language we don’t understand one another!

This confusion in language can also be separated into a rich, fortunate group’s indulgence or the spontaneous expression of ordinary people who have made the language their own. Which is why I suspect that many heated discussions are due to small confusions. And when it is done in a small space with minimum words like on twitter, the confusion is bound to increase. Which is why it is not enough to learn a language but to learn a culture. Journalists cannot swoop down on single words but need to understand the culture setting in which it is made, thus expressing a new meaning. The language of the dogs then expresses a whole new meaning, a different culture, a whole new world, waiting to be explored.

From Gandhi-giri to Goonda-giri

India is a place of the opposites embracing each other. The richest and the poorest have their own take of the much hyped government budgets, single God’s and multiple God’s are worshipped, parched lands are replaced by water soaked soil in a matter of a few kilometres and loud noise is challenged with a louder silence. Gandhi Jayanthi this year is placed in this context of opposites.

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation did inspire a whole nation into freedom with a lesser known tool of ahimsa (non-violence). Today as we celebrate his birth we are caught up still between the confusion of violence and non-violence. Raj Thackery in his latest piece of news making has asked the producers of the Hindi movie “Wake up Sid” to apologise for the usage Bombay instead of Mumbai. Obviously the producers were quick to do the same in fear of the film release being stalled by a bunch of goons. It is amusing that no one asks for an apology from politicians for denying basic rights to the poor and powerless of this country!!!

Mayawati is also not doing the dalit cause any favour by spending public money to install thousands of statues all across Uttar Pradesh. There is a strong argument that these statues are a reminder of the resistance that the poor are putting up against the upper castes. But wouldn’t it be better to bring a better understanding of resistance by assisting people to have food on their plates and change their destiny?

Gandhiji dreamt of a single, united India. Many have pointed out that this was a hollow dream as this single united India would also mean keeping people at the same level they were. The scope for being what one wanted to be was perhaps eluding the ordinary people of this country. But one cannot forget the power of non-cooperation and non-violence. The freedom one gets by not doing and being silent.

But for some reason India today is a reflection of violence rather than non-violence, goonda-giri rather than Gandhi-giri. A rule of violence over and above peace. Pakistan is a constant irritation and Indians mistrust their neighbour and don’t see the country on equal terms. The hurry to inflate the India bubble, which is honestly outrageous, brings us into direct confrontation with China and we are deeply enraged with the so called incursions that China is undertaking in the North east part of India. Kashmir is a continuing cause of concern and violence is unleashed every now and then. A new threat in the form of naxals suggests that there is a growing un ease with the way India is conducting itself. Violence is being met by violence with heavy consequences.

I wonder then whether Gandhi Jayanthi is just another day, a holiday, a time to remember the Mahatma, who is maybe much talked about outside India rather than inside, with the U.S. president mentioning that he would have liked to dine with the Mahatma if given a chance. Is there a chance for peace in India? Are we boiling with a violence inside which makes us fight one another and those outside? Surely Gandhi is not going to answer that. We should!!!

Who is my friend?

Friends are a realistic constant that not only come next to family but in today’s world have replaced family, in some cases, as the number one shoulder one would select to cry on. The transformation has been swift and ruthless and we are reminded of the importance by the soap opera “Friends” telecasted and re-telecasted for years now in India. It is noteworthy to mention how friends become family and stand up for one another which is somewhat new in the Indian context.

But are we ready for this friend concept that is invading our lives and do we need to be more specific when we use the word friend? Our real lives have more or less been replaced by our surreal lives which are not projected to an audience but have taken over the life we are used to. Now even though many would question who or what is real, the fact remains that we have been shifted to a virtual world. This world is very much like the world we live in save for a few problems of identity and privacy.

So the friends culture which is burning it’s sole with protracted re-runs can make a virtual entry and skate board into the visions of online netizens. But what is it that we come across today? Orkut and facebook along with other social networking sites are facilitating the sending of hundreds of thousands of friend’s requests to each other. I get a minimum of three almost everyday. People I don’t know, people I can’t even see a picture of, people who don’t write a message as to who they are (suggesting I might know them), but still asking me to accept them as their friend. What do I do? Do I go on an accepting spree?, do I say no?, do I make sure I know the person?

In my case I am almost forced into accepting requests because of the nature of the job I am into. But I can’t help but think of others who have to accept requests and then realise that it could be their teacher, or parent, or a stalker wishing to intrude into their lives. It’s good to make friends and have a lot of friends as long as one knows who the friend is!

Get on with it you tokens of austerity

What has come of this land? We were promised the women’s reservation bill, weeding out of corruption and all round development. And all of a sudden we are faced with the austerity drive. I even had to check it up to make sure that I had the meaning correct. The Cambridge online dictionary puts it such, “the condition or policy of living without things that are not necessary and without comfort, with limited money or goods, or a practice, habit or experience that is typical of this.” It is another thing that I am convinced that what is being practiced now by some ministers in the UPA government in India are far from austerity. But even if we were to say that it is, one would have to examine the need for such austerity in India.

What then is the background of this austerity drive? The recession of course! Companies are falling, shares lie flat (although the trend has been reversed to an extent and India has not collapsed like other countries), jobs are being lost and real estate is not seeing a bubble burst but a bubble being sucked in to it’s place.

But why austerity in India? Tokenism would be a nice way to put it. We put offerings to show our love and respect to God, a whole nation screams in excitement when Sachin bends his knees after a boundary, a whole bus load of people go to see off someone at the railway station or airport. So many, that the majority of people are not travelers but revelers. Oh yes the excitement and the passion is definitely there but so is the tokenism. We all want to show something to someone.

I wonder whether the present austerity drive is a part of this show. A token which will not make much of a difference to the lives of millions of people in this country! Rahul Gandhi may be doing it in all honesty (who knows!) but the security risk he thus poses to himself and to others in the process is another matter all together. How is this going to be sustained in a country like India where ordinary passengers do not themselves travel safely?

To say that the recession woke us up to austerity is a spat on the face to the Indians we don’t get to see on television screens and in heated debates. In a country like India which ranks 88th among 159 countries in the corruption index, what is austerity going to do? In a place where dalits are still beaten up and denied their rights does it matter who travels by what? In a culture where women are looked down upon and kept away who cares which one is more austere than the other? So pull up your socks mates and save the tokenism, if that’s what you are up to. If not, keep it going as though it’s a way of life and get creative. There’s a lot to do for the people of this country!

Reading the swine flu the Shakespeare-ian way

Deaths in India usually go unreported unless they are high profile or large in number. In a country of huge numeric proportions one cannot keep up with the loss of life. Which may also be why politicians and religious leaders often say, “Only five or ten died.” Unless the loss is closer to home and of a relative or friend, most of the time the Indian public also follows similar patterns. The swine flu or the H1 N1 virus has got media coverage not because of the numbers but because of the panic it has created in the minds of the people. The panic felt within the media has then been transported on to the audience as well. It is but natural that these instances bring us closer to the life we live and the fragility it reflects.

The Christian churches in Kerala and India have for several centuries advocated having a clean soul and a clean heart. The indoctrination makes us pray for a clean soul and we even go to the extent of asking God to wipe our heart clean. In all this cleaning up we forget the lessons of personal cleanliness that we learnt in school, and the importance of washing our hands.

The swine flu precautions that one gets to read on the internet and in other forums are very clear in what they say, “Wash your hands with soap and water.” And yet we are washing our souls and forgetting the basics! Shakespeare can’t to any stretch of imagination be a favourite of the church. Especially with the gory details of treachery and death that some of his plays bring out! And yet his Macbeth brings an aspect of truth that we cannot deny. Lady Macbeth tries to wash off the blood on her hands which at times in hallucinated engagements is a feeling of guilt of the murders she has initiated. A biblical instance of this is when Pontius Pilate washes his hands off the guilt of handing Jesus over to the mob, who asked for his life.

I remember a student I had who would keep washing his hands very regularly. So much that it ticked off his fellow students and even teachers. This led to the teachers calling for a meeting to discuss his behaviour. At the end of the meeting we decided that we should not read too much into this and let the matter rest. But he has definitely risen from the ashes. Post swine flu he is the only sensible guy around. Atleast he minimizes his risk of contracting or spreading the flu! These are also times when religions have to introspect to understand the importance of our actions. The need of the hour is to be clean, inside and outside.

Sacrificing one’s independence

As Kerala has surely shifted from a period of joint families (kootu kudumbam) to compact families, people are shifting more to an all for one concept. The one for all and all for one thought has undergone a real age change not only in the backwater rich state but also in the country as well. Even the car companies have understood the shift pretty much and it is reflected in the new hatch back models that have entered the market with their fuel efficient engines. The drive in the front seat is futuristic but the back is cramped into an almost “if you must, get in and don’t complain” design. It is like saying “If you want something you better be prepared to sacrifice.”

The law maker politicians have also found it difficult to understand what sacrifice is all about. The Congress in their whites and the Communists in their reds are finding the very word uncomfortable. Isn’t life supposed to be about making deals (money) and enjoying everything? What about the people? The people? “Oh, they will help us to fulfill our ideals”, say the politicos. So the people will sacrifice for the law makers. More electricity cuts, water shortage, accidents, hooligans, murderers! The people have to sacrifice and make do with these sufferings!!

So as an after thought to the independence day, one sees confusion as to what sacrifice really is. Churches talk about sacrifice every Sunday with priests going on and on about the virtues of sacrifice. Something they, like the politicians never practice. In this scenario the word sacrifice undergoes a transformation into what others have to do for the sake of our good. A far cry from what it is supposed to be “what we can do for the betterment of others.”

As an individual then the thought of independence and whose independence comes back strongly. Even though we have the independence to vote we don’t have the same independence to question what is done for five years in our state and country. Why? Because we are supposed to sacrifice! Poor Gandhiji’s picture will be thrust upon us with the much heard dialogue, “The India that Mahatma dreamt of. Let us work towards it.” And how? By sacrificing! If you ask me I feel pretty close to the wives who have jumped into their husband’s funeral pyre because they had to sacrifice. It is the most noble thing to do! Humbug. In the name of sacrifice the common person in this country is made to go through the most un-imaginable things and put through humiliation and hardship. Maybe it’s time for an equal responsibility pact in India. We do 50% of the sacrificing and the leadership has to do the other 50%. Like we listen to our leaders on independence day, let them listen to what we have to say too. Happy sacrificing.

The flu and the online congregation

The concept of God and a higher power becomes more apparent in one’s helplessness and hopelessness. One of the reasons of human beings undertaking their quest for God is when we feel we are not in control anymore and therefore have to make a petition for help to one who is more powerful than us. In India this is not so difficult to understand. Even though money in India can get us many things including getting away from murder in certain instances, we are exposed to dangerous situations which could lead to cutting short our existence on earth. Getting mowed down by a car, being swept away in a flood, sucked into a debt trap, being rained out or rained in and succumbing to the flu. This leads to a leap in faith as this is all we have got in this insecure life that we have to live. This leap in faith is reflected in the church, temple, mosque, gurudwara and other places of worship, where crowds flock together to express their faith in God.

But the swine flu has even broken down the crowd of faith. As people are advised to be careful, the obvious is also to keep away from large groups and crowds. Is it then safe to congregate when the times are bad? We are faced with a threat of dilution by a flu which refuses to die down. Who ever said that countries need weapons of mass destruction? The proximity of people in places of worship and the exposure of priests and worship leaders to a variety of people will also be under the scanner. The flu obviously does not discriminate between leader and follower. These kind of flu’s are going to add to the faith element of people but at the same time there will be doubts on whether they can go to a place of worship to dispel their fears.

But do we isolate ourselves from each other? Can we find other ways to be there for one another and reassure ourselves that we will fight this flu and overcome it, come what may. So if we can’t come together physically, we should look at ways of coming together in the virtual world. The confidence we gain from the virtual world will lead us to come back to the real world when we ready for it. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Chennai/Priests-log-on-to-stay-in-touch-with-congregation/articleshow/4821104.cms) These are times when it does not matter who we are and what we look like. It just matters that we continue our faith affirmations which lead our minds to come to terms with what is happening around us. Till then it’s www.seeuonline.com

Walk when you talk

What an idea sirji? Indeed, what an idea. Walk when you talk. The Idea mobile advertisement is probably getting the attention of a substantial part of television viewers in India because of its positioning with what is a reality in India. In a country which may have close to 57 million diabetics by 2025, walking is definitely one thing which could turn the tide.

Go to any doctor and whatever your ailment you can bet that the doctor will tell you to start walking for at least 20 minutes a day and then increase that to 40-45 minutes. “Start walking. It’s good for you”, is a familiar piece of advice that many can hear in both glossy, vitrified-tiled, air-conditioned hospitals and sweaty, fan aerated and cemented clinics.

So everyone is walking. Be it old men and women, with low priced canvas shoes and sports shoes worth thousands of rupees, and younger women and men competing in waving hands and marching ahead, early in the morning or in the evening, India is walking. Reebok, Adidas, Puma and Action are smiling.

As a priest, I can’t help thinking of whether my congregation members are walking and if they are, shouldn’t I too? Because it is one of the best times to talk to them. Talk one on one and also to a group. The only thing is that I can’t stop. Because I have to walk when I talk!

Idea mobile has hit the nail on it’s head. Just like they did with advertisements which suggested that they were the way to get India’s schools to the villages. Positioning ourselves near a reality, makes us a part of the reality. So far as we can even use the reality to our benefit. Just as we use the reality of God and concepts like poverty and education to our own benefit. ( Idea even has a site for us to enter the time we have spoken on the mobile and then that is converted to the calories we could have lost if we had walked while we talked. See http://www.walkwhenyoutalk.co.in/home.html )

It is thus a reality that Indians are walking and walking more than ever. Idea mobile has thus positioned itself next to this reality and in the process stands to gain out of this reality. Whether the two (a mobile and walking) have anything to do with each other is another matter. Whether the mobile service provider wants to engage the problems related with walking and education also stand unanswered. For the time being, many of us who watch television will be humming…walk n talk, walk n talk, walk n talk…walk when you talk…what an idea?