A chapter concludes...

This evening Fr Noel left for his holidays...! The conclusion of one era in the Province of Hyderabad. Fr Balaraju is all set to take charge. Though the official handing over ceremony was on Feb. 5, the excitement and the guests were still around, for the real functioning to begin. Today was a Sunday. Hopefully, Fr Balaraju will occupy the Provincial's office tomorrow.

A Chapter ends, another begins, life continues! Interestingly, very many are curious to know my 'fate'!! They keep asking me if I'm continuing or not in office as Secretary.

Whatever it be, THANKS to Fr Noel for his trust in me in appointing me as the Secretary. And thanks to that appointment, I got a chance to delve deeper in the digital world, by way of web coordinator and other related matters. God bless him!

Falling in love with a language

I received a long mail this morning from one of my former students who is now studying Chinese! Here is here experience in the initial stages of this herculean task:

these days i am more busy because i have lot of home works to do. you know i began to learn the characters and so i have to practice more so they give more practice sheets. i am trying to finish it but still not finishing. when i finish one full page and look back and see some flowers.. yes seems to be flowers in the garden. i learned to write my name. it was very difficult. but then the sounds shows good meaning... every week i have exams.. speech practice..each word has got six sound up, down, middle, law, falling, and rising. you know first days when we began to say the speech our whole body was moving according to the sounds..it was really interesting. no one laughs because all are in the same boat..if the tones are not correct the meaning changes only teacher understands and so not much laugh during everything will be when the teacher explains.. for example instead of God if we are not attentive the word can sound as pig... oh horrible..right?

From my little experience of learning a new language, I've learnt that whatever be the initial difficulty, there comes a point when we really fall in love with the language. We suddenly develop a strong attachment to the language... all the more at a very deeper level once we start talking to the native people in their own language. My stay in Shillong and learning Khasi has been a great experience which I still cherish.

Children, again

As I run about seeing to the various things for the evenings' celebrations, I can see the two children who have been with us since yesterday, do all sorts of things ... just having a good time by themselves. At one point two of them were carrying around the smallest one in a flimsy piece of cloth like a hunted animal!!

Then I came across this blog about a mother and her four kids a while ago... truly hilarious and amazing! Kids will be kids!!

Growing beyond the known

Here's a saying that I'd very much agree with:

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. (Ronald E. Osborn)

... and I'm having a blast of time 'growing', especially these days! Of course, there is also the other higher and more demanding step I've to take... growing out of my 'comfort zones'.

Calm amidst the storm!

The past two days have been the most free days for me in months!! And I gratefully made best use of the time: I did the long pending book reviews (and sent them across). Furthermore I started exploring and doing quite a bit for the website of the Province, for that of the Salesian Psychologists' Associations' site and also for the Salesian Vocation Promotion network. The best part of the thrill of completing these long pending tasks is that all is being done when everyone around is running all over place in preparation for the installation of the new Provincial. Another interesting fact is that since I'm the Secretary, everyone assumes (and believes!) that I'm the most busy man around... and I let them!! All said and done, it's great to feel relaxed and seeing long pending tasks fly off the table!

Children

The excitement in the house is running high, with the new Provincial set to take charge tomorrow and the one laying down office, doing the packing. Adding greater masala to the whole scenario is the steady arrival and presence of guests, mostly relatives and well-wishers of the two. (Confreres, of course, would not think of arriving before 5 pm tomorrow - Frs PE and Selveraj are the only two exceptions) . The best are the children who come to the Provincial house for the first time... They are like calves let free the first time in an open field, just when they have starting walking about... they run, romp and jump all over the place with total freedom of mind and body! As I type these few lines, I can see two of them outside my office in the lawn ... carefree spirits and totally at home!

Shutting others out=imprisoning ourselves

The whole drama being enacted by the Shiv Sena about Mumbai belonging to the Marathi manoos is going overboard! The only thing I don't understand is how come people take pride in parading their stupidity, that too so 'bravely'? The more dividing lines we draw, the greater we imprison ourselves. The Shiv Sena fails to realise that the walls they build to keep non-Marathas out of Mumbai are the very walls that will imprison them and shut them out of the rest of the world!

Salesian community blues!

It was heartrending to hear the woes of the contractor of one of the newly built houses. Luckily he was a shrewd guy and knew how to handle things. Anyone else less capable or gossip monger would have had a ball of a time with all that was happening around the inauguration of the house!! This is one thing that I learnt right from my childhood days at home... never wash dirty linen in public. Whatever be the case, never ever let matters of the house go beyond the four walls of the house. I still wonder, where does all the good will, lessons learnt since the aspirantate and the vows we profess all along, disappear just when I have some difference of opinion with my confrere?

Labour and food

I took a walk to the construction site this evening and was struck by the hard work of the labourers there. Men and women, carrying heavy loads of sand, pebbles and cement. When I looked at their children gladly rolling in the sand or having a meal or trying to sleep, it struck me: what a fate, those who are now building the school will never get to even enter the same school once it is complete, leave alone get their children admitted into the school. Fr TV Thomas too made the same observation this afternoon at table. Karl Marx had a point when he made his theory of exploitation.

However the most touching incident of this evening was when a mother gave some food to her small son: just some rice put in a small bowl and then some curry which surely must have been cooked early morning. I couldn't but contrast that scene with the table that was set for yesterday's feast meal in the afternoon. Here was a small child happily eating just rice and curry and we had to have a large table with so much of variety that we hardly tasted half of what was set before us to appease our hunger - the same mortal hunger!

Deceased Salesians and Fr VT John

Today we remembered and prayed for the deceased Salesians, especially from our Province... Frs VT John, Benji and Br Gabriel. Of course, there is also Br James T and Fr KC Jacob. I had the good fortune of living with the first three and I have great admiration for them all. They had their defects but somehow, Fr VT and Fr Benji stood out among the rest - each for their unique virtues and style.

Fr Balaraju during his goodnight shared a beautiful thought from the life of Fr VT John. It is said that on his ordination day he added two special resolutions to his project of life: To make Mass the centre of his life and to love it and make it loved by others. That's a very beautiful resolution. Looking back and from experience I can tell that he did live that resolution till the last. I was fortune to have attended his last Mass - along with Prathap (just the three of us) in the sacristy of the Philosophate in Karunapuram. The next day he was sick. He passed away the day after that.