The net, the playground and the upbringing

Two outstanding moments of the day: Spending the morning with the ever-fresh Fr PT Joseph in preparation for the online conference day after tomorrow. We did work out a few things... interesting and very captivating, I should admit.

However, a few things that came back to me while praying for him during my rosary just a while ago: What ultimately are we communicating? To whom? Isn't this a merely incestuous enterprise?

Then there was this idea I was so fascinated with... Internet as the new playground. Really? Is it going to take me off from the real world and 'assist' in the virtual world? Anyway, got to deepen these thoughts ... maybe after the workshop on Saturday!

The second enlightening moment was when discussing with Teresa and her Parents who are here from Austria to see their daughter. (She has been working as a volunteer at Devadurga for the past nine months). Just before that sometime in the evening, Teresa handed over to me the money for the taxi... Rs 1000. She was a bit sceptical about the rate ... 'would it be 1 - 0 - 0 - 0!' That's how she asked me. I didn't think of it much. But in the light of the little talk that we had at dinner table, that remark of Teresa made sense...much sense!

I realised they are from a poor family. This is the first time in 20 years that her parents are leaving their home! They have a farm of 600 pigs which they look after by themselves - just the two of them! They could come away now because their son is substituting them. No wonder, they liked very petty things about India. Teresa too remarked that she liked India and is keen to spend more time in India. Nine months in India and that too with the children all the time can be maddening (As professed Salesians we go mad, what then of these volunteers) Yet she wants to stay back and be of help at Devadurga.

From what I see, she knows what life means, what it means to work, earn a decent honest living... her spirit of service and sacrifice comes from that experience, that experience of which her Parents are very much an inseparable part!

Thank you Papa and Mummy! I cherish most what you are to me!