Care for her

This was something that came directly from my heart. We did this ad when we were in college (Madras Christian College), as part of a project. A lot of things didn't happen as we planned. We wanted a a wheel chair, but couldn't get one. We wanted some wave effects in the background, but the candles couldn't give enough light and we didn't want to use artificial light.
Hats off to Vyshali, who acted really well. And thanks to all my friends who helped in all possible ways for its completion.

Crappy weekday mornings

05:45 “WAKE UP!!!!”
#@$@$@... Snooze
05:55 “WAKE UP!!!”
Aaaah... Snooze
06:05 “WAKE UP”
Hmmm.. Let me sleep a little longer. Snooze (at least that is what I think I did)
----
----
----
Did I sleep for 10 mins?
06.48
What the @#$%???
Omg!!!
Wherez the brush? Wheres the paste? Chuck the loo. Straight to bath. Hair oil? Shampoo? Now why dint i take the towel when i got in???
What will I wear today?
???
???
This shirt will do. It will go with the black trousers.
Where will I find a handkerchief?? Search in the bag, search on the string, search in the suitcase.. Its nowhere. Or shall i take one from the laundry bag??? Naaaah!
Better go without one!
Wrist watch?? Its there!! Thank God that I kept that id and the access card together with the watch. Its there.
Mp3 player?? Where did i keep it? Cupboard?
Ah there is one Kerchief. Chuck the mp3 player.
Don’t forget the phone. Search under the pillow.
Run!!!
07:16
No time for breakfast. Will have it from Office (Hopefully)
07:20 Pickup point
“Where is the cab? Did they leave without me???”
Guess they are late..
Straight to the newspaper shop.
“Akka.. Oru Hindu, oru Manorama.
Malabar venda Kottayam pothum.
Thanks Akka.”
Back to pickup point
Anojish: “why are you always late?”
(For the first time in his life bugger got up before the cab came!! Dialogue)
One sad smile.. :(
07:25
Honk.. cab7930
Vijay: “Good morning”
Krithika: “----” never mind. She is always talking on the phone!!!

A man from the distant land...

Who would want to take months on end to travel to an unknown place thousands of Kilometres away from one’s hometown? It is not just travelling to the new place full of people of various mixed races with different languages, different cultures, customs religions and values, but also about living there till the end of one’s life never returning to the place from where one set forth.

For some, it may sound as a bizarre idea and for the adventurists out there it might sound interesting. But mind you, I am not talking about a fully planned adventure trip here, where everything is insured and taken care of by someone.

I am talking about those missionaries from around the world who left their loved ones and their secure lives behind to explore the unknown with a diehard spirit. In particular I am talking about a person called Thomas who lived in the first century AD. He was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Thomas would have been an ordinary man with his “limited faith” and all. But Jesus could use this same doubting man to set about on a noble mission. His mission was to spread the Gospel. Don’t read it as any sort of religious conversion or the so-called evangelisation. That may not have been his task. After all he had lived with Jesus, unlike people like Paul. His job was simple - to spread the love that he had seen in Jesus. Love for each other, love for the marginalised, love for the suffering, love for the ecosystem... Jesus had shown them how to convert this love into action where it turns into care and mutual help. His mission may not have been to create a community of greedy people who do nothing but keep asking for more in the comforts and confines of their church buildings.

[St. Thomas Mount, Chennai. Photo: Juby John Eipe]

I believe that life should be as much action oriented as it should be prayer oriented. One should definitely find time to reflect on one’s actions and check whether the objective is the common good of all. One should find time to meditate and source the energy to do one’s duties during the day. One is never going to be part of the Heaven that was promised if all that one does is “keep praising” God in the church. The fellowship in the church should instead translate into actions of love, care and support to not just the members of the church but to the community outside the church.

Coming back to Thomas, he went around the state with his own mission where he spread that love of God until he was murdered while he was praying. There is nothing dramatic in that. I am though not too sure what the reason for killing him was. Like Jesus, he might have shaken the foundations of those hypocritical establishments, systems and groups, who thought he was becoming too dangerous a threat.

[Photo: Juby John Eipe]

This photo here was taken inside the church that was built over this simple man’s tomb. Even though the stained glass is a paradox in the context of any church, it just looks so beautiful. As simple as that!

And by the way, Jesus would have never wanted all those violence in his name, during the crusade, the holocaust, in Ireland and in the God's Own Country where different "Christian" groups fight among themselves. He just taught the message of unconditional love, peace and selfless service.

Becky

becky: i don't like ur blog.you can do sooo much better.
Sent at 10:19 on Wednesday
me: thanks buddy
:)
becky: yeah do something better. the pic is nice tho.
me: I know that
and i like the text with the pic too
thats y its called amateurish
becky: yes... but usually amateurs are pretty good.
lol sorry for soundin harsh.
:)
Sent at 10:23 on Wednesday
me: i dont mind tht
becky: hehhehe good...
me: :)
becky: :)
i used to write a bit too... but i never like wat i write so i don't show them to anyone...
*liked
me: thats good
for others
:) lol
becky: poda
podimon
me: nee podi chakka ponny
becky: ni've started gymming... :)
me: pavam gym
becky: poda monkey
me: athu ninte mattavan
becky: i have to get back to work...BYE!!!
me: bye
tc
thnx 4 ur feed back
becky: :)
bbye donkey
Sent at 10:29 on Wednesday

What you just went through is the chat with one of my friends called Rebecca John a.k.a. Becky. Please excuse some of those swearings and thank God if you didn’t understand some of it :)

Becky is one sweet girl I met three years back in a wild wild place. Well, at first she seemed like one of those ‘pavam’ mallu kutty’s out there. But nay… Becky proved to be smarter than most of the women (from around the world) in that same place and slowly she picked up some of the wild instincts too. Yeah.. She can be really blunt at times.

All said and done, she is one among the “Dodos” – absent minded, quacking away to glory and pretty much a self-admirer. Someone please tell me what she was thinking when she was hit by that bike when she was crossing the Tamabaram - Vellacherry road during the lousy hours of the day.. Never mind, she is like that.
But I’d still consider her as one of the smartest, among all those dumb ones, with loads of talents – be it singing, dancing or penning something wild – she had and still has that spark in her. Nothing but her smartness took her to be part of one of world’s most loved and respected corporates. Good going Becky.. Ride on..

*for those of you who haven’t heard of a dodo, go ahead and “google” it. Becky would like it that way :)

Free to roll

[Photo: Juby John Eipe]











An amateur can never be bothered about people’s perceptions.. He doesn’t have a masterpiece forcing him to put up the benchmark every single time; he doesn’t have a name to live up to; he doesn’t have fans or subscribers; he is just carefree...
Free to roll on like the water drop on the Big leaf!!!

A restart

It has been more than year since I have spent some time to sit and scribble some random thoughts..
The person who has read me the most is I. Read and re-read, my short and "amateurish" writings -there aren't many- get the feel that they are some sort of classics.

Last year, this time I was lecturing nonsense to a bunch of young minds in Chennai (Madras). Of late I heard that they are thanking the invisible yet invincible power of the world that has taken the appropriate measures to make sure that the dosage of nonsense they used to receive has come down to the sea-level.

Come this year, and what the hell am I up to? Stuck in one corner of the world in a refrigerated space looking into POts of numbers and numbers and numbers which ought to represent portals of Human Knowledge- acquired, generated, inspired and sometimes flicked. Yeah that’s what I have been up to of-late. And all the while I have to act as if I am doing something that can trigger a nuclear war on the other side of the Globe. But I’m doing nothing so violent and may be nothing so important. All I am doing is “Arranging some books in the shelves of a Library” (sounds noble enough) and sometimes throwing some books away. Don’t ask me why!!! “I was just told to do so.”