Thiruvalla Premier League and the festival of St. George

The battle lines have been drawn and the daggers and spears are out. The BCCI is waiting to see what Lalit Modi will do with its show cause notice. Lalit Modi meanwhile is in a huddle with his lawyers and friends, waiting to make the next move. May 11 and following could restart the IPL debate on national television in India. Those who were friends with Modi have now turned foes and new friends have emerged to save his skin. What is the fuss many may ask? Modi has brought entertainment to India and in the process has got thousands of youngsters to get interested in the game and make a living out of it.

I learnt to play cricket in 1985. My introduction into Thiruvalla, a small town in Central Kerala known for its middle east millions, and cricket was a side by side act of fate. The decision of my parents to come to live in Thiruvalla was largely taken to make sure that their three children would get a sniff of the Mallu morals and grow up to be fine individuals. Whether they were successful in this is a totally different matter! The mind of the ten year old boy wandered and stopped at a near by field where young boys were playing a game that was alien to him. His instinct to crash into the cultural setting there made him learn the game. He realised the boys who were from different communities were playing a game with a coconut branch, wonderfully crafted into a cricket bat, or atleast sort of. The ball too was a make shift one made of a small base of a premature coconut seed, covered with newspaper and tied with a thin rope which one got from the recycled ration shop supplies.

Each and every space was a cricket pitch. The backyard, someone's uncultivated paddy field, or a small stretch of road. We would play till someone came and shooed us off our makeshift pitch. We would start when the natural sunlight came on and stop when it went off. Everything was gleaned off what we could find and there was a style in our lack of training. Each one would put a hand over the other shoulder and care nothing about caste permutations and class divisions. Everyone was welcome to play.

The raw cricketer in me turned into the semi professional cricketer after 1991, showing up for team selection for the Pathanamthitta district team, of which Thiruvalla was a part. What little leg spin bowling I knew was put on test and I was expected to be decent with the bat as well. I was picked for the under 19 and under 23 squads and there started my cricket journeys going to Trivandrum and Alleppy to play the district level cricket tournaments. Lets face it. I was not a brilliant cricketer, but I enjoyed being part of a then poor team which went on to ruffle a few feathers here and there. My short cricket career came to an end with a totally different innings of studying to become a priest.

I was in Thiruvalla recently for the St. George festival. It is a vibrant festival celebrated by church members of mainly the Jacobite and Orthodox churches in Kerala. St. George happens to be the patron saint of many countries. His appeal stretches beyond cultures. The picture of the soldier slaying the dragon is what many of us remember from our childhood days. At the time I thought that St. George was a dragon slayer. Today I realise that he is much more than that. For those who suffer injustice, he is a symbol of a fight against such injustice. This makes people feel that he is their protector and that he intercedes for them in times of trouble.

Thiruvalla has changed. My parents and several others would never let their kids out to play cricket. Today I have come to notice that parents drive their children to cricket grounds to attend expensive cricket training camps. Earlier we never had a cricket kit but would rather make do with what we found. Kids had fun. Today 8 year olds have to carry around huge cricket kits which are bigger than them. The look on their face is the look of an office goer. Not at all enthusiastic. Its as if cricket is a job for them.

With all the goings on of the IPL now, St.George makes a triumphal entry for me. Obviously he is not carrying a cricket bat. (It would be quite a picture though!) But he still has something to say. 'Stand for what you believe in no matter what'. Its even worth dying for! Cricket today has lost its innocence. It has become a career and a job. It has become big money. But times like this should make us think that cricket after all is also just a game. But its a game which can teach us lots. Its something that makes us women and men learn that life in India is stuck in caste equations and unjust structures. But that does not mean that we remain in it. We learn that coming together makes us better than staying away. Earlier cricket made us fight these injustices and run from our homes to be with our friends from all communities. Today we are taken to glorified stadiums but have forgotten the true learning that we should have from this great game.

I am not going to come on a horse with a spear, ready to annihilate the wrong doer of the IPL. I am just saying that the IPL has robbed me of my innocence (what little of it that is left!). So I hope that we can all look up to someone like St. George. Someone who will stand up for what is right. I am not looking for the BCCI to punish some scapegoat. I am rather hoping that they see the essence of cricket and hand it down to future generations.

The IPL and the media have put me in a fix.

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) initiated by the World Association for Christian Communication brought together people all around the world to find out how the media covered various groups of people. In this instance it sought to find how women were covered in the media. The media has its inverted pyramid style way of looking at the world in which the rich, famous, powerful and beautiful are given maximum space. The bizarre, untoward, adventurous and unnatural are then given the next bits of space while the poor, women and children often have to fight to find a fleeting mention. The findings of the GMMP strengthened the argument that less than 20% of stories focus solely on women.

These days the English news channels in India are in frenzy over the IPL. After Tharoor and Sunanda setting the air waves on fire, the Modi fire is becoming too hot to handle. Stories of fund embezzlements, hastily patched up front companies, shady real estate deals and income tax department raids are all coming out by the minute and second. So much that the viewer who misses an hour misses myriad twists in the story. Soon we will be exposed to the private life of Lalit Modi, his extravagant life style and how he build his IPL castle. So much IPL that anything else has almost gone into oblivion. Everyone is found asking, “Did you watch the IPL match?” It sounds like I might be labelled unnatural if I don’t watch the IPL and hope for an IPL team for my state.

The frenzy over the IPL is so much that everyone in one way or the other is involved with it. Some by going to the stadiums, some by watching matches on T.V., few by supporting Tharoor, and others by following the IPL related news. The IPL is stirring the imagination of the media audience. But it also shows that the IPL has changed cricket in India and it has used the media to this effect. It has changed cricket which had ‘use value’ to cricket which now has ‘exchange value’. This is why the IPL is gobbling up all that print space and invading the air waves. The exchange has been made! We the audience have thus been ‘commodified’ and given a price tag. The critique of religion as the opium for the masses has now undergone a change to IPL as the opium for the masses.

It is this that the poor, the helpless women and the powerless children of this country don’t have: ‘exchange value.’ They have use value but that is not enough for the main stream media and for us. We therefore neglect them by not speaking about them, not writing about them and not reading about them. They don’t give us the ‘fix’ we need. That is provided by the cheer leaders, bright lights, colour and entertainment. As a country we are living in a fix. We expect religion, movies and sports to be our opium. Therefore the politicians, religious leaders, earning middle and upper middle class, business community and different media are all responsible for the IPL dirty linen that is now being washed in public. I don’t know whether we will be able to come out of this perpetual fix! Maybe we don’t want to?

IPL: The Indian Phony League

The history of every country is measured by what it has attained as a people in terms of something. This something is different in varying situations. India is no different from others. We have non-violence and ahimsa as a measuring stick to observe what we have attained. Then we have violence and protest to attain equal grounds to play in a level playing field. A third form is the middle path which uses both of the above. Now India is experiencing the fourth wave. This is crude greed for wealth and power through any and all means. This fourth wave is the IPL (Indian Premier League). While we lowly ones sit on the edge of our seats watching minnows beating the giants and excitement in every ball and second, matches are fixed and money is exchanged under the table.

The IPL has claimed its first major casualty in the form of Shashi Tharoor, the by now former minister of state of the Ministry of External Affairs in India. It is reported that the former minister’s alleged friend Ms. Sunanda Pushkar was helped by him to get an equity worth 70 crore rupees in the newly formed Kochi IPL team. Tharoor has maintained all along that he has not done anything wrong and that Ms. Pushkar is a professional who has been given a stake as part of the services she will offer to the Kochi IPL team over a period of ten years.

The media went all out to get pictures and stories of the couple. Ms. Pushkar came out with a statement that the media did not have the right to harass her like this and the stake (sweat money) that she was offered was taking into account the services she had to offer as a professional. But who cared? Sunanda has been placed by the media in the middle of Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor, as if to suggest that the two are fighting over her. One almost got the idea of Ms. Sunanda being portrayed by the media as a pin up cheer leader who was cheering for a high profile minister who was trying his best to get an IPL team for his home state Kerala. Sunanda has been treated with disrespect in a fight between two men who think the IPL is the bench mark in India.

Shashi Tharoor need not bring in the Kerala factor and the importance of what he was trying to do by bringing such a team to Kerala. In his first interview after winning the Trivandrum Lok Sabha seat he said that his priority was to his voters and not being a minister in the government. The people of Kerala do not benefit by getting an IPL team. Their needs are rather cheap drinking water, electricity, jobs and roads, just to name a few. By thinking that the IPL is more important he has betrayed the trust of the people in him. All is not lost yet though as he can use his resignation as a time to get back to what matters. Twiterring is good but only when it is matched with work at the grass roots!

The Indian Premier League is a blow below the belt to the Indian Poverty League. What does it benefit the ordinary people of India when companies can invest in a sport and make money out of it? Why should our children pay exorbitant amounts of money to sit on a seat and watch a game when they should have free public parks and grounds to run without reservations and break free? Why should I support Chennai and curse Bangalore and Calcutta when I love all three? Will cheer girls, music and booze eradicate poverty in my country? I feel sorry for Sunanda because she has got a hard deal from the media. I feel sorry for Shashi because he has got carried away with he, him and himself. I feel sorry for Lalit because he has stamped on himself by stamping on the poor of this country.

Understanding the cry and joy of nature: The power of backward thinking

Yesterday I was a fortunate person with nature filled care
Yesterday I was lulled by the wind and caressed by the rain
Yesterday I dreamt of a life, of happiness, love and joy
Yesterday I had everything…today I have memories of yesterday

Introduction
There can be no development without destruction. This is the truth we are faced with. As we build our joy in the form of buildings and structures, we seldom realise that we trample upon the lives and the joy of others. We construct our happiness by bringing others to tears. Based on our theme, we bring nature to tears as we jump with joy with our additions of steel and cement.

The cry and joy of nature
India has been ravaged and defiled in the quest for money and power. A complete misreading of the voice of Isaiah has taken place. If Isaiah meant his prophecy that ‘the valleys will be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low’ to prepare the way of the Lord, it is questionable whether the hill killing and valley filling now has anything to do with this. Rather the natural is being made unnatural and the right wrong. The lure of high real estate prices and the greed of making quick money have led to digging out our history and building new histories today.

We have to make sense of the cry and joy of nature with this. The oppressed people in different parts of the world are usually wiped out by challenging, attacking and destroying their history and memories. The same happens with nature. We question nature’s existence by challenging its role, attacking its existence and destroying its glorious past. With no memory left, nature itself becomes a reconstructed notion of what is in front of us. Therefore, the unnatural becomes the norm of the natural.

Reversing the trend
But what can we do when we are being sucked into a culture of forced forgetfulness? If nature is crying, it is to keep us happy! Can we pull back? We should be able to as otherwise we will be faced with total destruction. To undertake this we have to scratch out bits and pieces of our history and learn from the knowledge of our ancestors. This calls for a total slowdown and going backwards. It is funny considering the fact that governments of the world have over the past year and a half, tried to infuse the world economy with one stimulus package after the other to fight the self induced recession.

The power of backward thinking
Thinking backwards in our culture is also seen as thinking negatively and so not apt. The world is going fast and so one either keeps pace or drops behind. But our scriptures and religious traditions also talk of a slowing down and of a going backwards. One would say that this is preposterous. In a way anyone who is firmly placed in the present culture of growth, stimulation and progress would find this totally untoward and unacceptable.

Wray Herbert points out an interesting thought of backward thinking. He refers to an experiment which asks some people to walk towards the front and others backwards. Finally they are asked to identify certain colours against their names. The people who walked backwards perform better in the test. This may be because they were able to identify with their past and bring out their primal instincts. We have the over assuming habit of seeing our ancestors as backward and primitive. But these are the very people who lived in harmony with nature and had simple but effective solutions for sustainable living. Their way of life was at an optimum speed and had an approach of caring for the coming generations, unlike our attitude to life.

Learning from primal communities
Our lives often revolve around what we can teach others and seldom around what we can learn from others. What we fail to understand is that nature precedes us and so do certain communities of people like the adivasis and tribals. They are the primal people of this land and it is they who have always lived with nature, taking what it offered and never snatching what was not theirs.

P.V. Rajagopal relives his experience of working with adivasis in India. Once he gave a talk on the nirdoom choola, a smokeless cooking system. A woman present tells him that she already knows about this. He questions her maintaining that this is a new system and it is impossible for her to know about it. She asks him, “How does smoke come?” He replies saying that smoke comes when we cook something over a fire. She tells him, “For us smoke does not come because we never cook anything as such. Everything is had just as it is.” This is the wisdom of primal people. They are the pioneers of environmental justice and sustainable living. And yet we call them illiterates and backward people! What a travesty of events!

Re-inventing traditional concepts of the church for the new generation
We have to look at traditional celebrations, festivals and lents and re-invent them in the line of the concept of the cry and joy of nature. The amount of fire crackers used can be reduced and car and bike rallies can be made into walks by the people. Church buildings can make use of solar, wind and other renewable energy forms and even work towards reducing their carbon foot print. The lenten season can be used as a time to slow down and switch off by which we slow down and also reduce our energy consumption and become more compassionate towards nature. The people and the clergy can concentrate on things like this to prepare themselves during lent instead of just following a few diet restrictions.

Conclusion: Making memories come alive
The picture is crystal clear. We have memories of the joy of nature. But if these remain as memories, they will be replaced by the cry of nature. It is nature’s legitimate right to cry if we continue our aggressive development policies and heartless war against what is natural. Just as the joy is a celebration, the cry will be an instant gloom. We are already seeing signs of it through nature’s way of protest. Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting and rains are washing us away. Maybe it is time to stop looking ahead and start looking back. It is a time to bring back our memories of the good times and learn from communities which we have pushed behind. This is the call of Isaiah. Things have to change. For the better hopefully!

(This blog post was published in Gurukul Jyothi 2010, the college magazine of the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai)

Who gets to switch off?

Today is Earth Hour 2010 and people in India will switch off electricity during 8:30 P.M. - 9:30 P.M. This urge to switch off and even slow down is apt during lent and therefore is something which can be followed to the letter. Slowing down and switching off may sound awkward but is one of the most interesting of things we can follow as part of our lenten routine.

As we journey with Jesus into his time of passion, we are supposed to do so by leaving behind our possessions, money and power. But does it make sense to tell the poor to leave behind what they don’t have anyway? Jesus had a choice of deciding what he would do as he entered Jerusalem. This was because he had the luxury of choosing between the rich and the poor, the unreachable and the reachable and the extra ordinary and the ordinary. So Jesus chooses. He chooses not to make a grand, triumphant entry on a golden chariot, flying through the sky. He chooses rather a people’s approach, and passes through the crowds, accepting their ordinary branch offerings and smiling at their simplistic yet sincere expressions.

The church on the other hand fixes regulations on the poor members while the rich are left in the distant sky, in their own world. But isn’t it that only those who have, can give, only those who have their switches on, can switch off, only those who otherwise eat a lot can eat less? For the poor, this does not matter as they have always lived in darkness, so much that it is normal for them. They have never affected the environment and switched on. Their normal way of living is similar to Jesus’ entry, the grandeur being projected by its simplicity.

The Copenhagen summit in Dec 2009 brought forward some skewed suggestions. The developed countries were seen asking the developing nations to reduce their emissions and carbon foot print and own up to their responsibility. They were asked to switch off. But what about the hundreds of years of perpetual rape of fossil fuels and resources by developed countries? Who takes responsibility for this? As we switch off today we should be aware of those who have switched off everything in their natural existence. They are the ones to whom we should dedicate our switching off tonight. Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

The donkey says no

We are inching closer to celebrating Palm Sunday and any sermon on the day cannot forget the donkey on which Jesus made the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Many preachers prefer to ask the congregation, “Are you willing to be the donkey on which Jesus had to travel?” We are engaged into an emotionally charged environment where we are faced with a choice between donkey and no donkey! If I have to travel whatever class so that I can be with my master, so be it. I will take the donkey!

So as some writers have pointed out I imagine myself as the donkey on which Jesus travelled. I reconstruct the entry. The children, women and men all throwing their clothes and spreading branches on the road. As Jesus enters placed on the donkey the commotion is huge and the people say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” The donkey also feels a sense of the euphoria which has engulfed the scene. Maybe the donkey felt a rise in adrenalin in the midst of all the people and the shouts of joy and praise?

But what would have been the scene the next day when the donkey sans Jesus travels the same route, head held high and expecting the same praise and attention? Obviously people would have forgotten the donkey (It wouldn’t have been noticed anyway). As the donkey made its way one or the other men on the road would have beaten it and made it to go to the side.

I don’t mean any disrespect for the donkey. The donkey is a very hard working animal and teaches us many things. But when we put ourselves in the shoes of the donkey, we need to think of certain things. The symbolism of the donkey is one who serves the Lord and not the Lord himself. We cannot expect to be the Lord just because we served the Lord. It is a folly to leave the Lord and expect people to concentrate on us.

In the past couple of days India has seen the donkey speaking and trying to overshadow Jesus. Mulayam Singh Yadav started it by saying that women who contest Lok Sabha seats and come to parliament will be whistled at. I presume he expected that people in India would take him seriously but do we need to? Statements like that should be given the seriousness they deserve. None at all! The supreme court of India on the other hand gave a land mark judgement on live in relationships in India saying that there was nothing wrong with it. But all those who are carrying God on their shoulders now see themselves as God and take it upon themselves to deny freedom to others. So this judgement has also been questioned by the so called people playing God themselves.

A television series called “Little Britain” has a character called Carol Beer. She is shown working as a receptionist in a hospital and as a travel agent. She is very close to her computer and answers queries of people by tapping the computer and giving them a negative reply and then saying “computer says no.” Things which were taken for granted, things which were sure, things which were looking bright and hopeful are all cut off with three simple words… “Computer says no.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcHxiw9QIfc

As we enter into passion week, we place ourselves as the donkey upon which Jesus has to travel. But as soon as Jesus is out of the scene we try to become what we are not and in his absence take it upon ourselves to tell others what they are supposed to do. We tap into our computers and say, “computer says no”, wiping out the last strands of hope of the common people, from our self constructed peaks of safety and indestructibility!

Please, atleast a few crumbs today

For what seemed to be a cake walk, the drama has just started. Reservation for women in parliament in India has been on the agenda for quite some time now. This time it seemed things would go smoothly considering the fact that the numbers were in the affirmative. But what took place in the Rajya Sabha today is nothing short of an insult to the women of India. Members of two regional parties took to the well of the house, tearing up copies of the women’s reservation bill. They are seeking for a reservation within a reservation.

Matthew 15:21-28 showcases the predicament of the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus for her daughter. Jesus’ disciples urge Jesus to do something because they are tired of the woman’s persistence. Jesus on the other hand says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” and “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw to the dogs.” But the woman then says, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.” Jesus is astounded by the woman’s faith and tells her that she will get what she wants.

The plight of the Canaanite woman is similar to that of women in India. So close and yet so far! They have persisted for years to get what is rightfully theirs and yet they have been denied just that time after time. 33% in this sense is just crumbs as they should get a full 50% reservation. There will be advocates of the argument that let the women fight themselves up the ladder and let there be a reservation within a reservation. What this does is just deny even crumbs to women by showing them a great image of some great thing in the perceivable future!

The faith and persistence of the Canaanite woman is beyond comparison and as it teaches us a great lesson for this lent, it also reminds us of something which should be done. And this is the women’s reservation bill! The discussion on the bill has been adjourned to 9:00 A.M. March 9. Let us pray and lent ourselves for the women who have made us who we are and who have sacrificed everything for us and taught us what faith and persistence is all about.

Will I choose right this lent?

Choice is not just a matter of orientation and learning. It is a step which is profoundly and horribly difficult. Yet many think it is a given, a natural. What people don’t think about is that it matters ‘what to choose’ and not just to choose! This is the choice within the choice. We live in a work culture where we are pushed to the edge to make a choice and yet the choices we are given may not be the choices that are to be made.

The first Sunday inside of lent invites us into the world of Jesus in which being clean outside was as important or more important as being clean inside. Luke 5:12-16 gives the story of the leper who bows down before Jesus begging to be made clean. Jesus in turn is put in the predicament of bowing to societal pressure to clean on the outside. In the pressure situation of making a choice, he makes a choice within the choice. Although he could have well made the leper clean with a word, he chooses instead to stretch out his hand and touch the leper and say, “I do choose. Be made clean.” What is the difference, one may ask? Touch, touch.

Even today society has failed to engage with our scripture. In our rush to attain holiness we observe lent and pray, saying the magical words, but forget to observe the choice of making the magical touch. We abstain and think of what we should not, rather than getting involved and asking what we can? Lent could well be the time to reach out and touch rather than recoil into our shell.

We are a culture obsessed with celebrities. We crowd around film stars and even try to touch them. What is it that we hope for in the process? Are we going to be transformed in any way or is it just curiosity of what someone may feel like? Maybe we have made touch a weapon to touch when and where it is unwarranted and have conveniently forgotten our mandate to reach out and touch. Kerala has made touch an art through ayurveda with people flocking to the state for a divine massage. As Keralites fall head over heals to touch celebrities and guests the state is peppered with those who have even forgotten what it feels like to be touched (in the real sense of the word). God, it is so difficult to choose, and to choose right.

Being beautiful during lent

The picture of what is beautiful is a constructed one. Culture passes us through the rites of purification and injects the botox of beauty into the skins of our recognition. So we tick off one as beautiful and the other as ordinary and even ugly. Our obsession with outward beauty totally erases the importance of inward beauty.

As more and more people in the church find it difficult to observe lent (due to many reasons), new strategies are used by many to lure people into it. One such strategy is that observing lent is healthy and good for the body. This is true but whether this is why lent should be observed is a question which remains to be answered. Isn’t lent supposed to be a voluntary initiation into piety, humility and goodness to the other? Or is it a way to fight obesity and fat?

When we look around, we get the feeling of a slimmer and fitter world. Everything is getting slimmer and to get into the new cars we need to be slimmer as well. To avoid wasting fuel, there seems to be a call to be fighting fit and slim! So much that even airlines are thinking of charging double the amount to passengers who can’t fit into their small seats. The problem here is not just that a particular passenger is fat but also that the airline will have the trimmest seats so that they slim fit people into their scheme of things.

But obesity is a problem in India and in other parts of the world. So much that it causes diseases and makes the lives of people difficult. But what if we could get our children to play in parks (which is also hard to find these days!), instead of shoving popcorn into their hands and making them watch T.V.?, what if they could get a much normal diet in moderation rather than feeding them to the brim and then worrying about how they look?, what if we could make children comfortable with how they are rather than pressurising them to attain a size zero?

This social pressure gets the young and the old to the operation table, injecting stuff onto the skin to look young and staying away from food to attain that elusive perfect size. This being the case it would be wrong to associate lent with attaining a perfect body. Rather it is an effort to cleanse one’s inside, one’s soul (if I may say that).

One should get the priorities right before observing lent. Lent is not a time when we just cut our weight, lent is not a time to slim fit into a business plan, lent is not just a time to look good and healthy outside. Rather lent is a time to accept everyone as they are, lent is a time when we stop judging, lent is an opportunity to feel beautiful inside and make others feel the same way, lent is a time to be natural, normal and moderate.

Will you be my Valentine this lent?

Yesterday in church I preached about preparing for the great lent. But I also preached on Valentine’s day. Obviously one would immediately resent any relation between the two. I would agree that Valentine’s as it is celebrated now does not have much in common with lent. But before we come to an obvious conclusion, let us look at both separately.

The great lent in the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church starts after the Sunday worship, with the wedding at Cana as the gospel reading. The lent actual starts after the evening prayer on the same day. We are initiated into the great lent with thoughts from the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine to save the wedding attended by his mother Mary and his disciples. The act of Jesus suggests love, trust, mystery and satisfaction. The love for his mother and the love for the people makes Jesus intervene, although he himself says it is not yet his time. His mother Mary despite his disinterest maintains a deep and profound trust in him when she tells the helpers at the wedding to do as he says. What happens then is a total mystery, just as worship or qurbana is a mystery. The ordinary water turns into wine. How this happens is beyond us. Finally the chief steward tastes it and declares that it is so good. He goes on to say that usually the best is given at the beginning but in this case the best is saved for the last. The satisfaction is for those who have waited till the end!

Valentine’s day is a celebration in itself and is especially popular with young people. But the myth or even history about Valentine is quite different from what we see now. Sifting among the various stories, one which is believable is one in which the priest Valentine went against the emperor’s edict that young men should not marry because he wanted them to be in his army. The priest goes against this and encourages couples to get married. Truly by this account, it is a call to a life long commitment!

Valentine’s day now has become some kind of a pressure for girls and boys, men and women. The pressure of going out with someone and being a part of a cultural performance. But I wonder whether this is how it is meant to be. The church is helping to make people understand that love is a more permanent feature and not just some one off thing once a year. This is also why we can connect Valentine’s day and the great lent.

Of course this is not an attempt to impose something on to the younger generation. What they want to do is obviously their own decision. The church or priests like me cannot judge them based on this. But what we can do is to offer our interpretation of Valentine’s day. And at the end of it all, it won’t just be a one sided version of love and love between young couples only, but a more comprehensive definition of love and how this concept can help us. We can use the concept of Valentine’s day to understand, profess and spread love to not just young couples, but to all kinds of people, groups and dispensations. The love which is compassionate, involves trust, is a mystery and gives satisfaction for those who wait patiently.

Is my church a public monument?

Where does one learn the unforgettable lesson of sharing one’s resources with others? In one’s house…no. My first lessons of sharing what I have with others were learnt from my church. The countless sermons from esteemed and learned priests, the worship, the bits and pieces of advice I got from elderly people. Having been exposed to what good the church can offer, I realised that this is only one part of the church. As I grew up I realised that the church is as exclusive as it is inclusive. Small wonder that every church has its own people from a preferred setting coming together every week. Anyone outside this setting is not usually welcome wholeheartedly, although we say that everyone is welcome.

Different denominations follow different norms of profiling society and setting into a pattern wherein rich, poor, dalit, syrian, nadar, women and men comprise of the body check that people are forced to undergo before entering the holy sphere of the church. More than the number of people inside the church, I would say the church should actually be concerned about the number of people outside the church!

In Kerala the trend is to showcase our money and power by building huge churches which cost crores of rupees and are built over centuries of unclaimed history and life of the poor of the land. On the one hand, I cannot possibly out rightly condemn this because the church is the collective expression of a group of people. But on the other hand, many of these huge churches are not used to their optimum level and therefore only become the collective expression of a few rather than all. My own denomination has also gone through the experience of having churches closed down because of the rift between two groups within the Orthodox line of thought in India. Both groups lay claim to the churches and therefore the court finally has no other option but to close down the churches completely.

The concept of sharing that I have developed in my mind takes a beating time and again because I see and experience the reverse of that happening in front of my eyes. Is it totally irrelevant to discuss the idea of sharing church spaces among all denominations? This gives significant importance to the church as a place of all and brings people together instead of separating them. Kerala faces a similar pattern with regard to houses. Everyone wants to build a separate house surrounded by a boundary wall to protect it. We build our own private spaces and this has an adverse impact on the environment as well, as waterways and low lying areas are filled with the mud from mountainous regions and sand is smuggled from rivers to contribute to the ever increasing scale of construction in the state.

In effect the church also contributes to the destruction of our state and after constructing beaming towers we will all get together to discuss the degradation of the environment and our state. I don’t know if I can inspire my congregation to understand what real sharing and openness is? It is a practice to take young groups of students to public monuments where all kind of people get together. There we don’t ask people about their religion, caste or other preferences. We have a sense of pride that the monument belongs to all and that all of us have to take care of it. Can’t churches become public monuments? A place for all to congregate, relax and reflect?

Am I an Indian?

India has crossed sixty years of being declared a republic and it is an achievement which is laudable. Higher foreign exchange reserves, a relaxed economic policy which encourages foreign direct investment, several rockets deposited into space, an indigenous fighter plane, BPO’s (Business process outsourcing), mobile phone density, broadband and more infrastructure. The list can be broadened depending on one’s interests.

The development of our republic has also meant that we have meddled with the political spheres of our neighbouring countries. These have been active involvements like the Indian Peace Keeping Force going to Sri Lanka in the 1980’s and more subtle under the table interferences with other countries around us. With each year leading into our sixty we have come far away from what got us our independence: non-violence. Today we are judging ourselves with the potency of our violent nature and our arm twisting tactics.

All of us get goose bumps when we sing the Indian national anthem standing in attention under the tricolour flag with all respect and patriotism. But after the anthem the burden of our actions also catch up pretty soon. Half of our population is impoverished and hungry but we choose to increase our defence expenditure citing perceived threats in our immediate and distant background. Violence is coming out in various forms in our villages and cities, and women, children and the poor find themselves at the mercy of others. Yet we have taken a decision to guard our borders rather than guard against our own narrow mindedness!

I can be challenged on the front that India will soon be a super power and we need to flex our muscles and show the world just that. But does being a leader of the sub continent mean bombing and destroying the most or trying to save as many lives as possible? Do we deserve to celebrate the formation of our republic when we have come far, far away from the values with which it was formed? Will I be deemed a traitor if I question my own country? I guess we are reaching there although we already did have a short term experiment of it during the emergency in 1975.

Skimming through the list of chief guests http://www.icbse.org/2010/01/list-of-chief-guests-to-india-from-1990.html for the republic day function over the years, one country is evidently missing- Pakistan. Even though they are our direct neighbour and we share many things in common, they are kept at a distance when it comes to matters that count in our country. A small token of this was the IPL snub http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ipl-snub-pinches-pak-cricketers-hard/383490/ that the Pakistani cricketers got. Picture this: How would we feel if we had a neighbour who is doing reasonably well, who ignores us, snubs us, humiliates us, thinks we are dumb, and threatens us with their guns and missiles? Every inch of our self respect would make us fight this neighbour. I guess this is what is happening with Pakistan and India. Our actions have led to conflict in the region rather than peace being brokered.

The Jang group and Times of India initiative ‘Aman ki asha’ (destination peace) http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/amankiasharticleshow/msid-5454035,prtpage-1.cms is an initiative which is trying to express the voices from Pakistan and India. These voices agree with each other on the existing tensions but see the scope for better relations as well.

The initiative should be from the Indian side. If we consider ourselves bigger, we should do what leaders are supposed to do. We have to allow Pakistan to express herself rather than trying to crush any such move. We should stop dictating and start respecting our neighbour and develop trust. This republic day, many will ask- are you an Indian? If I can come to terms with my neighbours and allow them to live just as I hope to, I can then say with a sincere heart- yes I am.

I refuse to speak

Maharashtra has done it again. After the Shiv Sena and MNS arm twisting of the state, the Congress government has joined the queue quoting a motor vehicle law which it seems was always in existence. Cab drivers henceforth will only get a license to ply their vehicles if they know to speak Marathi, the local language. The Congress has done some back peddling after some fire spitting by the English language media. But this issue is far from over.

It’s not only a question of Maharashtra. Other states in India also bring up this issue whenever it suits them. Speaking in defence of the recent order, it is no problem when a government says that there is one language which exists and this is the primary language of the land. It can also be said that nothing stops a government in taking steps of encouraging the use of a particular language. Steps which do not use force or compulsion.

On the other hand can anyone be forced to speak anything at all? As it is the constitutional right of all to speak, so is it the right of everyone in India not to speak. This is the right to refuse. As all the speakers debate on which language to use, we should spare a thought for those who cannot speak at all. These are those who cannot speak because of a physical disability or those who cannot speak because they are never given an opportunity or space to speak. And here we are talking about which language to speak!

Can we give a state specific language for those who cannot express themselves in words. What language is sign language? Who are those who cannot speak? If we go along with the present scheme of things, they would qualify as the stateless people. Should they then also be denied jobs because they can’t speak? Every single human expression and non-expression qualifies as a language. This cannot be taken over by any government or law. It is the natural expression of any human being.

New year and the power of no

We are still very much in the fervour and flavour of the new year 2010 and it makes pure sense to gung-ho with the things which need to be discussed however weird they may seem to the naked eye. In 2010 technology in all its variants will be blamed again for causing disruption in the lives of people and ruining families. Lives will be lived online and though it wont lead to empty streets, people will complain about the lack of time and the feeble existence of life. We wont have time to meet each other and even keep in touch with our inner selves.

We love a punching bag, don’t we? And in this case it is new media technology. We will know what our friends and family on facebook, orkut and twitter are doing but we wont know what people in our house are doing! True to an extent but who is to blame? I wonder whether in 2010 we will be punching into thin air because the punching bag wont be there to take our punches?

As a priest, it is important to come to terms with life in all its fullness, technology included. Can I preach from the pulpit that my congregation is aloof from me because of something I cant control? Or should I look to myself to see what is happening today? A priest/bishop in Kerala (and I have come to understand that this happens in all denominations) is under severe time pressure. We have to perform according to the needs and expectations of people. We have to attend umpteen programs in a single day and it doesn’t matter whether we actually even know what we are doing by the time we are half through. The physical and mental exhaustion is put aside and we perform the great Indian rope trick, of course in the absence of a rope. After the offline world we have to enter the online world and perform again.

Several priests and bishops I have talked to agree to a common thing. There is nothing they can do about it. Its out of our hands! But maybe that is again only one part of the problem. The other is the fear and inability to say no. Even if we end up being late for programs and hold up weddings, we wont just say no. The only time a no would surface is when I am saying this. No, many would protest. We cant say no!

Ian Fleming came out with his novel Dr. No in 1958 and later it was made into the first James Bond movie in 1962, starring Sean Connery. The villain Dr. No could have got his name because he rejects something and he is to be rejected by the audience as well. No is more of a rejection of yes and therefore something negative and not positive.

This routine continues even now. Obviously priests/bishops and anyone for that matter would not like to be associated with a character like Dr. No and with the no negativism. The problem then lies not in inventions and new forms of communication but in the inherent human behaviour to appear nice and good. But appearing nice/good need not lead to doing something nice/good eventually. 2010 will also bear the weight of the expectations of people mutually on saying yes, with those who will be bold enough to say no being ostracized and decorated with the not too well meaning 'Dr. No'. Poor Dr. No!

Knowing who you are.

The beginning of a year also poses the difficult question of what to start writing on. For obvious reasons, the beginning of the year post will be scrutinized. Many will start with resolutions and promises and what they see are the challenges for the new year. For me, the new year is as much important as the years that have passed by. The years which have presented me with rich experiences through various people and channels. Thus the new year and the years gone by present me with the challenge of knowing “who I am.”

I can blurt out a volley of resolutions, some of which I might do, some which I will repeat the next year and others which will always be inscribed in the hall of fame of resolutions. I hate resolutions anyway, so I won’t go the common path but will take a deviation down a dusty path which is not even on my map. Call it a rush of adrenalin, insanity, a sense of adventure. But maybe I don’t want to take the neat looking road of certainty but would want to toy with a bit of uncertainty.

Knowing who we are and what we want to do are supposed to go hand in hand. But there are several of us who end up doing (working) what we don’t like. Circumstances and the need of the hour are responsible for this as several of us do not have the luxury of doing what we like to do. We do try hard to convince ourselves that we have figured out things for ourselves and we know what is good. But the new year is also a time when we could be hit by a bolt of realisation that maybe we haven’t hit the bulls eye, atleast not yet.

I wanted to be a pilot (like most kids) when I was young. My neighbour friends even called me for games where we would play being in an aeroplane and played roles to fit the scene. As soon as I had to see a doctor, my thoughts shifted to being one myself. That didn’t last long as I dreamt of being a taxi driver, a mechanic, an IAS officer, a police man, a teacher, a mime artist, an actor and what not. Every week or month was a different phase of life, when the dream and need for achievement would be re examined and re fixed. This avatar could not be placed in one bracket.

Coming through all this I still don’t know who I am. I know what people call me. I am an achen or priest in Kerala and am expected to fulfil some roles which someone has fixed. After all the role plays of young I am again put into a role play which I am expected to perform. Any deviance from the original plot is not always seen as a stroke of genius, but misbehaviour and disobedience. But I guess the job that I have is also a mix of all the role plays I did when I was young. It’s a mixture of euphoria, excitement and disappointment in varying degrees.

This new year there are no resolutions. This new year 2010 is about learning who I am, over and over again. It’s a time of stepping into the shoes of various people, in various roles and understanding what the role is about. It’s the time when I will have to say ‘cut’ if I am not doing justice to my role. It’s a year to listen and learn from other people so that I find myself out from the billions of others around me. Happy 2010.