Education as a means

I returned from Delhi yesterday having attended a national consultation on zero discrimination in school education.  It was a good exposure for me.

A significant point I thought which needed to be focussed but somehow got carried away by the flow of discussion:

Not just strive for an education which is free of all discrimination, but education itself should be a means of eradicating discrimination. 

Somehow the tendency was to "do it for 'them'" rather than let it be an attitude among all involved, especially children. There was somewhere a feeling that 'we have been denied education, and now we need to have it as our right' ... I somehow felt that was too narrow a goal to strive for, given the extent, the personnel, the resources involved.

Dog days!

I have on my laptop desktop screen the plan for the month of January and February, mostly for personal growth - some courses and reading.  Both the months have come and gone, but nothing of what I intended to carry out has been accomplished.  In fact, life has been more hectic than before in these two months.

Honestly, one cannot think - leave alone, think straight - while being tossed about in a torrent.  All that one is keen to do is to get to the shore, to safety. But if one intends to really reflect, chalk out a course, plan where to and how to, one needs to take a safe distance from the torrent!

The most disheartening fact of the hectic life, at most times, is that there aren't too many big things to do, but plenty of petty things that never get accomplished satisfactorily or totally.  So at the end of the day, I still am left with the list I prepared during the day - all intact, with not one ticked off as completed.  Nothing to say of the other list that was prepared the previous night!  

Tents for what?

A few days ago, during the Holy Mass, the Priest preaching the homily was talking of Peter asking Jesus if he could build tents - the transfiguration scene.  In order to waken one of the boys who was dozing, the Priest asked him, "Why did Peter want to build the tents?" The boy replied, "So that they can come back and sleep."

And only poor Peter is blamed (in the Bible) for not knowing the answer!

Templates are low!

A couple of days ago the Superior of a Congregation received an urgent call at 3 in the morning. "Fr _______ of my community, is very sick and admitted in the hospital.  He has dengue fever and his TEMPLATES are very low!"

The dazed Superior asked, "Templates?"

"Yes Fr, TEMPLATES!"

(The confrere involved is reputed for his massacre of English! No wonder platelets got converted to templates!)

The 20-60 formula

A couple of days ago, a person was sharing his experience about one of his friends.  At the end of that sharing he added, someone driven by a passionate desire to learn something new and different, even though aged 60 will behave like a 20 year old - fresh, energetic and dynamic.  Bereft of any desire to learn something, even a 20 year old will behave as a 60 year old - dehydrated and constipated!

Power play in water!

An example of power politics and promises (quoted by Fr T.D. John):
A politician makes the following promise as part of his manifesto just before the elections, "I'll make sure that every household has a tap!"
After five years just before the elections, the same politician's manifesto includes, "Water in every tap of every household!"

Perseverance and fidelity

While catching up with the blog posts of Fr Ivo, I came across this beautiful one, wherein he differentiates between perseverance and fidelity, between choice and call. He is actually referring to a talk given by someone named Amadeo Cencini... (read the full post here)

...not enough to persevere, not enough to say, I want to die a Salesian; what is important is fidelity. But Cencini added a fresh new note: fidelity, he said, is relational, whereas perseverance is not necessarily so, could very well tend to be something that I decide to do for myself. Fidelity, relational: wonderful. Just like the difference between Choice and Call: the latter is utterly relational, the former is not, and is very much a phenomenon of the individual-centred individualistic culture spawned in the modern West. 

I'd love to rather reflect deeper on the latter distinction that Ivo makes: choice and call.  Never thought of that before.  What he says makes sense but not fully.

Family

While planning for the feast of Don Bosco and the open day Celebrations we had here at Ramanthapur, I was searching for an appropriate quote to insert in the schedule sheet.  That's when I came across the following and found it very relevant and apt, given the context of our children here:

One Direction - History

Nice song from One Direction, titled History...

... tap to wash your plate!

It is more than a month since I last posted anything on the blog.  Now that I've completed most of my immediate tasks, I said to myself it is high time I resume my 'daily bread'...

Here's one I heard from one of the Brothers sometime ago.  And it is attributed to Fr Maliekal - no surprises!

During our conversation about conserving water in the light of the onset of summer and the scarcity of water, Fr Maliekal seems to have told the Brothers in Karunapuram to cut short their chatter at the scullery and not wait for the tap to wash their plates!