Eucharist 6000 Miles Away

2020 will go down in the history as a defining year for mankind. After a gap of hundred years, human beings are forced to stay totally indoors with the fear of being annihilated by a microorganism, the likes of which the world has rarely seen from the time of inception. A similar incident was cited in 1920s in the form of Spanish Flu.

The day when I turned 39, I started working from home. Five months later, as I write this, sitting in Dubai, the practice still continues with the exception that I’ve started going to office once a week since the last couple of weeks.  

Covid-19 or Corona virus has redefined literally everything in our lives. Starting from grocery shopping to getting a car registration renewed is all done online. E-learning, from being an exceptional form of learning has become a norm for offices and more importantly schools. Business folks who vehemently insisted on the absolute necessity for face-to-face meetings happily conduct sessions online. The world has locked down itself within the perimeter of an electronic screen.

Spiritual wellbeing was equally impacted. Along with everything else, Churches and other places of worship were all shut down. Being a part of the Holy Mass and receiving Eucharist was no longer possible. The Holy Week also was not spared as it came in between the lockdown period. Churches across the world made arrangements for live streaming of Holy events so that people could be a part of it. We started following the routine of taking part in the Holy Mass on TV, something that was never practiced in our lives before. Even with all these, something was still missing.

While we tried to be a part of the Holy Mass on TV from various churches, we truly felt a gap in experiencing Christ. That’s when it happened. One day we chanced upon the Daily TV Mass from the historic Loretto Abbey Chapel in Toronto, Canada. Father Michael J Coutts celebrated the Holy Mass that day. It was magical! He took us to experience the divine feeling of being one with God in that short period of time we were in front of the TV. We didn’t even realize that we were not in a Church. Through his beautiful homily and the prayers that directly touched our hearts along with the lovely songs from the Church choir team, we truly celebrated the Holy Mass as though we were doing it right in the presence of Christ our Lord himself!

It is indeed a blessing to share the experience of having someone holding your hands while standing at an Altar more than 6000 Miles away and still elevate you to be one with the Spirit of the Lord. This we believe is indeed a God sent gift and we all look forward to the days when we could join Fr Michael and share the happiness of Eucharist with the Miles no longer separating us!

We also have a dream that one day when this crazy pandemic ends we would love to visit the chapel and share the bliss we experienced with Fr Michael himself and even celebrate a Holy Mass along with him engulfed in the holiness omnipresent in that historic chapel.

The other side of the coin

We were on our first ever family trip to Europe! Though travelling along with a two year old and a six year old poses its own challenges, we decided to take the plunge. After a few days at Amsterdam and a short stop later at Cologne, we found ourselves on a train to Stuttgart in Germany. The journey was to be an average of three hours. We ensured to book seats for a section in the compartment designated for families especially with the little ones with us.

Kids as usual were super excited about every aspect of a vacation! They loved train rides especially and could feel their excitement in every new sight that came their way. Soon after the train left Cologne a pretty young lady came and sat near our area in the compartment. She had a book in her hand and a headset on one of her ears. As soon as she settled down, we could see her trying to catch-up with the reading. After a while I felt that she was not able to concentrate on the book, with the chatter of the kids. I could see her getting disturbed and I told our little ones to remain quiet.

The calm lasted a few moments as the excitement didn’t let them be seated for long. They were back in action shortly. So was the annoyance of the young lady. She tried to communicate through her glances and we tried without much luck to translate the message to the kids as well. The drama went on for a while.

As the train crossed half the distance we had to cover, the lady closed the book and looked at me. I could see rage burning in those eyes. She blurted out all her irritation on me and asked me to make the kids shut up.

Being a tourist in their country, I tried my best to remain composed and reminded her that she chose to sit at a designated family area and there is a limit to which you could keep the mouths shut of little children. I guess the message was delivered well. Shortly after that she moved to another area where she could bury her heads deeper into the world of imagination with her book.

We thought for ourselves that a trip that was to be full of beautiful memories might have been destined to end up with a bitter experience like this. While we were still trying to pacify ourselves, the train rolled on to the platform of Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, the primary railway station in the city of Stuttgart. As I was taking out our luggage from the other end of the cabin I could see a middle-aged man approaching my wife and telling her something.

My wife and kids all got down from the train along with our stuff. I could see a glow on her face which did a wonderful job of removing the cloud of gloom that hung above her after the unpleasant incident on the train.

The man earlier told her, “Mam, I’m sorry for everything that happened between you and the young lady. Let her say anything she wanted, please don’t bother. You are blessed with two beautiful angels and I enjoyed every little sound made by your kids. They were music for my ears. The world cannot be deprived of such sheer joy. God bless your family!”

The rest of our trip was one where we could only find positivity all around us! 

Game of Gods

I could see the father and son in the game room staring at the black and white squares on the chess board. No other game gifted these two the kind of adrenaline rush this one created. What can be more exciting than deciding the destiny of people you see around everyday?!

I took a closer look at the pieces on the board. They all looked like someone or the other I know. King had dad's face and queen resembled mom. Knights, bishops, rooks, pawns... They all were either family or friends.

Something baffled me though. The game is in an auto-play mode. The pieces move at their own command. There are defined rules, though at times a few are broken. That’s when I see the father getting involved. He'll mercilessly knock down the piece that didn’t follow the rule. The son though pleads every time to give them a second chance which he manages to get.

This continued for a while. All of a sudden something bothered the father. Soon enough he turned red with anger. Even before the son could do anything the father shook the entire chess board!

I saw the queen falling down along with the knights and rooks. But the son managed to retain them on the board. The bishop was not that fortunate. Though the son reached out he helplessly watched him fall through the crack of the fingers and hit the floor head first.

Somewhere far away, mom, the queen, got admitted in a hospital. A couple of cousins, the knights and rooks, had to go to clinics feeling sick.

Tomorrow is the funeral of a friend, the bishop, who met with a freak car accident!

The game continues...

The Last Birthday

It was an awesome evening! The whole gang was there at his place to celebrate his birthday. His mom made a sumptuous dinner for him and his friends as she knew this birthday was really special for him. Turning 33 was perhaps the most important milestone in his life.

Dinner was quite heavy and they all were relaxing under the dark blue sky showered with numerous stars. It was as though the whole celestial beings turned up for his birthday. He was in an animated conversation with someone up there in the skies and didn’t notice his best buddy John coming over. ‘Many more happy returns of the day brother’, wished John. They shared a very special bond. Both of them knew what it was like to be brothers though from different mothers.

He looked up and their eyes met. But he didn’t thank John for his loving wish since he already knew that this day will never return. His eyes searched for his mom and saw her clearing the dishes and will soon begin to prepare the bed. Her eyes were moist with tears fighting their way out. Was it the tears of happiness of a well celebrated birthday or tears of realization that everything good needs to end one day? Did she know how close the end really was?

‘What’s wrong?’ John asked. This man was everything for him. Friend, philosopher, brother, mentor and what not. He couldn’t stand the sight of a dear one writhing in so much of mental agony especially on a day when he must be really happy!

He heard the question and looked at John. Two people whom he kept close to heart were the only ones who seem to be concerned about him today. He got up from his place and took John straight to his mom. He placed John’s hand in his mom’s palm and said to his mother, ‘Mom behold your son’! He then looked at John and said, ‘Behold your mother’!

He knew he’ll say these exact words four months later to both of them looking high up to him lying on a crucifix on top of Golgotha!

From Hail to Holy

Imagine yourself as a young girl from a small family in your neighbourhood who recently got engaged. All of a sudden, one day you are elevated to the highest pedestal a human can ever reach. This is the story of a young girl named Mary who was transformed from a least known mortal to the one who is empowered with the ability to salvage souls of lesser mortals!

The prayer Hail Mary starts with a salutation to a humble soul where the Archangel congratulates Mary for being the chosen one. The angel then appreciates her for the good life she led till then, knowing all the while that she was pre-destined by the Father to be the mother of His Son in Holy Spirit. A transformation is initiated next with the statement ‘Lord is with you’. It is quite natural for anyone, especially an unmarried woman who got recently engaged, to get a shock of her life to hear the kind of message that followed. Hence it was quite important to prepare her for the news by telling her that you are not alone. You are one with Lord now, literally and figuratively!

Millions of women were born before her. Many lived around her, far and near. Many more will be born after her. But she is the blessed one and that is what set her apart. Next came the biggest revelation in the history of mankind. A virgin who had never known a man gets told that she is carrying. From that moment onwards she realized that she is no longer just another girl. She is a mother! A mom who was lucky to carry God Himself in her womb and know the name of her baby exactly at the time the tiny life started growing in her.

The transformation is now complete. The young girl who was once hailed for her good life is now the holiest among the holy ones!

The title ‘Mother of God’ does not need any further detailing. The startled youngster in her previous life is now bestowed with tremendous powers to pray for those beings among whom she once shared her living moments. She, the one who was born without sin, is given the right to pray for all of us, who were born into and lives in a life surrounded with sins. This power of hers if we invoke daily, works wonders as it is a shield that protects us from the sins that are omnipresent. It is all the more important that we invoke this power of hers everyday as it provides the much needed support to our soul at the exact moment it departs from our body, the time of which is probably the greatest mystery for humans!

Mary is called by the Supreme Power to be the mother of Jesus. But her greater calling is being the mother of the whole universe where she is entrusted with a task of our redemption for generations that went by and many more that are yet to come.

This wonderful invocation perhaps is the shortest prayer that bridges BC with AD. The prayer transcends the boundary before Jesus was born and after he was crucified and died. Hence the bridge between these history dividing events.

Let us walk the path from hail to holy along with our mother.

God bless!

God’s Nightmare!

The noise of the crowd was so deafening that it even startled him in his mother’s womb where he was getting ready for an afternoon nap. He had sensed something wrong from the day he started taking shape in her. He could feel his mom quite tensed from day one, but couldn’t figure out why. He listened to the noise, everyone in the crowd was jeering at her. His mom was made to sit in the middle of a ground where convicts were brought in for punishment. A pile of rocks awaited their chance to rewrite her destiny.

A beautiful young woman she was and from a simple family in the neighbourhood. Belonging to a society where marital norms were strictly followed, getting pregnant before being married was considered an unpardonable offense, the price of which you pay with your life. The verdict for this was known to all. Stoned to death!

He forgot about his siesta and straightened up in the womb. He wanted to reach out and kiss his mother on her forehead and pacify her. While the punishment was imminent, a sweet smile crossed his face. He was seeing a scene from future. There was another woman this time, who incidentally shared the name with his mom, awaiting a similar sentence. He saw himself stooped down and writing in the dust with his finger while a crowd demanded an answer from him. He stood up and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” The accusers hearing this, slipped away one by one until only he and the woman were left.

Today, the scene was different. No one heard him. The crowd was getting violent with every minute passing. People started to pick the stones to hurl at the woman who brought shame to the community. Another minute went by and the first stone shot through the air aimed right at the young woman’s head. He could feel her mother all shaken up and resigned to her destiny. He felt himself being cringed inside the womb, where a baby is supposed to be safe from all danger.

The stone almost hit her right at the forehead. That’s when it happened! A man with powerful arms, typical of a carpenter, blocked her from the deadly stones with a cloak that carried the image of Gabriel, the archangel. He looked up from the womb and was so happy to see the loving face of the man who was chosen to save him not just once, but twice, while he was among the mortals. He screamed with happiness, “Dad”!

He woke up from his nightmare to see the smiling face of Joseph and Mary sitting right next to his bed. He reached out and hugged his dad and mom just the way he hugged them earlier in the evening at the Church where they thought they missed him!

Deputy of God!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Mar 2018

It was a few minutes past midnight on a cold and dark winter during January 2018. My two year old daughter woke up screaming ‘Amma’! She scrambled out of the bed and dashed towards the living room through the darkness, totally ignoring my attempts to pacify her. I switched on the light and it took a couple of minutes before she realized that we were still in the middle of the night. Fortunately I could calm her down and soon she was back on the bed sleeping peacefully through rest of the night.

This was just a beginning! One of the many incidents that made me realize that we’ve a very special person in our family, whose absence is too significant to be filled by anyone else. A few hours before the incident, I had dropped my sweetheart at the airport. She had to leave to India, alone, for an unavoidable trip for 3 days. With full confidence and days off from office planned, I took charge of our little ones, 6 year and 2 year old assuring her that everything will be alright. Little did I know what I was signing up for!

Our son had earlier showed signs of a developing cough and cold. It was as though the cold and cough were scared of the mother that soon after her flight took off, it broke all barriers. He was coughing and sneezing badly. I had initially planned to send him to school the next day, but with this, I decided otherwise. I couldn’t have imagined what I’ll end up with this decision.

I’ve two little monsters on the loose in a recently moved in house void of a very important person and there I was, like a man on a boat sailing on a seemingly peaceful river in an unexplored jungle with a blind turning ahead, beyond which awaits a steep waterfall to take me all the way to the rocky bottom into a mysterious abyss!

Next three days were filled with lots of incidents, some of which were thankfully managed and others where I felt like being driven to my wit’s end. I always thought and was even proud of myself that I am one of those husbands who helped their wives at home, the ones especially without a maid, so as to bring in an element of balance in the family. I was totally mistaken.

There have been multiple times during these three days when I stopped for a moment and wondered how in this world did my wife manage to do all these in a day?! All of a sudden I found myself attaining an enlightenment on the world of a ‘maid-less housewife with kids’ and the battles they’ve to fight on a daily basis while their spouses think that the petty issues they face in offices are nothing short of a World War.

I am now blessed with a completely renewed respect for such super humans who qualify for a title nothing short of ‘Deputy of God’. The amount of challenges they have to juggle around with are simply endless. This is something which others in the family will never get to know unless experienced first-hand.

It is quite natural for a lot of us to take our dear ones for granted. We’re not tuned to look at the daunting tasks each of our family members go through every day, especially the ones who choose to stay at home and look after the kids. This does not mean that the work done by the traditional bread-winners are less important. From the incident portrayed above, I would even strongly recommend every bread-winner in a family to go through such an experience which I’m quite sure will help you turn out to be better human beings and even result in a more loving family.

After what seemed like ages, finally the day came when the life of our family returned. We picked her up from the airport and as soon as we were all together back home, we gifted her with a beautiful picture frame where the letters read: “World’s Best Mom”!

Dedicating this to all loving mothers across our families and all those fathers who take an effort to appreciate these unsung heroes!

God bless. 

In loving memory…. Really?

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Feb 2018

In the last one month I have seen three deaths in my family almost one after the other. All three were uncles and aunts with whom I grew up and spent my childhood. When the news of their death was known, the first thing that came rushing to my mind was some of the good old memories I shared with them. Obviously the number of incidents I remembered with love, varied from person to person.

I would like to call the aunt who passed away, ‘the bond’ of the family. She was the one who worked as the glue between various families on my mother’s side. She was so good with her hospitality that most of us cousins never had a second thought of which house to visit when we get a vacation. A whole lot of fantastic memories associated with my childhood is in and around that house. My aunt was not just a wonderful host but also made sure that her kids, my elder cousins, also extended a warm welcome to each one of us every time!

One of the uncles who joined the good God, taught me some of the basics about humanity. He reinforced the thoughts in me about the importance of treating all people equal. I also learned the ‘joy of giving’ from him, through his various actions. He was a silent teacher where his actions spoke louder than his words.

The people I mentioned above are only a few among many who left us with nothing but a bunch of memories. There are others whom we don’t even recall for good or bad. What’s more important for each one of us will be this question, “Will you be a loving memory after you are long gone?”

We all know we are here in this world for a short period of time. During this time some of us are lucky enough to be born in good families and create ourselves good ones too. What will be interesting is to do an introspection and check if we’re really creating good memories about ourselves. The best way to do this is to check how we lived our life till date and see if anyone will find anything good about it if we became part of history today.

Think about everything that we do for our dear ones. Ask ourselves, is this enough? Is there a room for improvement? Many of us fail to understand the realities that surround us just because we’re not a party to it. As long as we don’t have a first-hand experience of the difficulties faced by our dear ones, our empathies don’t hold much value. It is quite a challenge to overcome some of the practices or habits we have cultivated over a period of time. This includes and is not limited to various behavioural patterns such as addictions, lethargy and indifference to name a few. All these in one way or other increase the suffering of our dear ones either at present or soon in future.

Addictions in all cases destroy both you and your family either directly or indirectly. You’ll be depriving your sweethearts their right to live. Addictions such as smoking and drinking directly kills you and thereby lets your family suffer. Others such as social media or gadgets’ addiction denies them the quality time you should be spending with them thereby shaking the very base of your relationship as a family. All these thoughts are applicable for each one of us throughout our lives and is not just a one off case at some point during our short stay here in this world.

So what’s required for creating good memories of yourself? Motivate yourself to lead a better life. No one has ever said it is easy to overcome addictions or lethargy. It requires a strong will. Accept the fact if you need help and take it before it is too late and do what is required to sustain the change. It will hardly help yourself or your family while you are connected by a bunch of wires in an ICU. Promise yourself to be a better human being and promise again not to cheat yourself and in turn your dear ones.

It requires a lot of courage and strength to create and sustain good memories about yourself. May the good God help you with showers of blessings to find that one motivating factor that will help you push forward to achieve a better life for you and your family!

God bless!

Two minutes of silence!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - June 2017

A while ago in one of the articles, I’d mentioned about an advice my boss gave me about life after marriage. When I shared my apprehensions about getting married, he said, “Jerry, getting married is nothing! The moment you become a dad or mom; that is what I’ll call a game changer! Rest everything is pretty simple!”

His advice definitely took shape when we became parents for the first time. It didn’t stop there. We hardly knew what we were signing up for when we became parents again! If having a child was a game changer, having two kids is a whole different game altogether!

The two little brats, a five year old boy and a little girl who is yet to turn two, make our home buzzing with activities that seem to be going on for almost 24/7. There is something or other happening around us all the time. The house is filled with the noises of their fights, their cries, their toys and what not. It is a war zone daily out there and many of the days, my wife and I have reached our heights of patience and it is indeed a wonder that our sanity still clings to its dear life!

While things were going on like this, one weekend I was about to have my breakfast. It was corn flakes that day and our little girl came running to me for her share. As usual I gave her a spoonful of the cereal. I usually mix my cereal with some healthy nuts and dry fruits to make it richer. After a few more spoons she stopped asking me for more. Instead she suddenly appeared to be tired and showed signs of being sleepy. It looked so strange since she just woke up only a few minutes back from a very sound sleep. Little did we know that a spine-chilling drama was about to unfold!

She soon started yawning and we continued to wonder what’s wrong. A few more minutes went by before we realized that there could be a portion of nuts or so stuck in her throat. We tried our basic understanding of how to deal with such situation, but with no results. The baby started showing signs of weariness.

Soon enough her eyes started rolling up which definitely is a sign of danger. We tried our best, to check if she can spit out anything at all that may be stuck in her throat. Finally we decided that keeping her at home will make things worse and quickly got ready to drive her down to the nearby hospital. That very moment she started coughing very badly and it was soon followed by her throwing up what she had including half a piece of a walnut!

Immediately after this, our little girl was back in action. All her tiredness and sleepiness seem to have disappeared into thin air. The yawning and rolling of eyes gave way to non-stop activities and lighting speed tactics. Having said that, the two minutes when she was almost near the bridge that connects this world with the other, was a defining moment for us. It was indeed an eye-opener.

We realized that our house was unusually quite during those two minutes. The usual hustle and bustle was suddenly missing. There were no longer cries of happiness, instead was only cursed with an eerie silence! The running behind the kids was replaced with a frantic run for saving a precious life. We longed for her to do something mischievous so that we can see her naughty smile when scolded, instead we only saw a pair of eyes that was soon losing its brightness. We saw doom coming!

What happened next was something we strongly believe as the intervention from a super-natural being. The cough she started having was God send which resulted in her throwing up the piece of walnut that was stuck deep down in her throat. We were so fortunate to have our little one back to her normal life soon!

It was a lesson learned, a very painful one indeed. The incident taught us not to wait for the silence from our dear ones to realize how important they are. What we many a times perceive as noise is in fact the sweetest of music from them, provided we learn to train ourselves to listen to it. 

May the good God bless us with the providence to realize such music in life and appreciate every note of it! 

The Nail!

For a three year old kid, his dad’s workshop has always been a place of fantasy. His dad is well-known locally for the wooden sculptures he has created and many of them decorate the living rooms of the rich in that small town. The carpentry shop having quite a few sharp tools, his mom was always concerned about his safety. She used to keep a watch on him lest he’ll end up doing something mischievous.

That was just another day and in between the playing sessions at the workshop, the mom saw her son opening a can of long nails that was to be used for a specific wood work. She screamed at the kid not to touch those sharp nails, but by the time she reached him he already managed to get a tiny cut and a small stream of blood started flowing out!

She was all scared to see the blood oozing out and immediately tried some first aid to stop the blood flow. The next natural thing followed when she asked the kid, “Haven’t I told you son not to play with these sharp nails? See how you have hurt yourself now!”

The mom looked at him again and there it was! He had that unique look on his face which has been disturbing her for a while now. Every time he has that look it was as if he is seeing the future and she was right!

He was seeing thirty years ahead when a similar long nail will pierce through his palm and will be on a cross with his mom standing right below not able to help him in anyway! 

The Other Side of Faith

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Aug 2016

During a recent retreat I attended, one of the brothers shared an experience. One evening his 2 year old son developed a fever. They tried to give some medicines but the fever was not subsiding. He tried to call up one of his doctor friends, usually always available on call, but that day he never answered the phone. He then tried contacting a nearby hospital and for some strange reason even after multiple attempts the hospital staff also didn’t answer.

He got really worried about the situation and that’s when he suddenly felt someone talking to him from within. He very clearly heard a question being asked to him. “You’ve tried giving medicines, called the doctor twice and called the hospital multiple times. How many times did you call Me?” That’s when the brother realized that despite being a man of faith, God became the last resort for him in the event of an emergency instead of being the first one to have called for help. He apologized and the rest is history!

How many of you could really relate to this story? It is an interesting observation that I saw him making that day about many of us. Most of us, especially facing adverse situations in life, often tend to resolve the problem ourselves initially in many ways. At last when everything else fails, we turn to our good God for help. Our faith most often becomes the last thing to be taken out and applied in our lives. Ideally it should’ve been the very first weapon we should’ve wielded to fight against the negative forces that cast its shadows in our lives.

Faith plays a crucial role in every form of life, married or otherwise. The complexities increase in your life especially when you share your life with someone and later when you are blessed with children as well. This makes it all the more important to be aware of the fact that it is not just enough to practice your faith, but to live it. Going to a church on a weekly basis or remembering God during bad times are merely practicing your faith. It isn’t that easy to bring in the concept of living the faith in our lives though that’s what we are required to attempt.

One of the easiest things to do in life is to take people or things for granted. Look around and observe how many blessings that we’ve in our lives that we never bothered to be grateful for. Right from our childhood; think about all the good things that happened in your life. Starting from loving parents and siblings; getting good education, landing up in a good job, being blessed with a wonderful partner and kids, leading a healthy life and many more positive aspects in your life. How many of them are we really thankful to God for. We take many of them for granted as if we were supposed to get it!

There are many good things that happened to you in the past and there are many happening now and many more are bound to happen in future. They are all there, not because you worked for it, but because you are blessed to receive it. This blessing requires you to be constantly thankful and the only way to do that is to live in faith. It is quite easy to be complacent and ignore the source of these blessings. It is easier to question your faith especially when you go through bad times. But that’s when you need to remind yourself about the other side of your faith. It is the side where you go across your current boundary of faith and experience the love of your Creator.

Your bad times are similar to those days when you have a fight with your partner. The day when you hug each other and look in the eyes of your sweetheart and say a sorry, you feel the rush of happiness back in your life. The feeling is similar when you get back to your Creator and try to be one with Him in your faith. You won’t even realize how quickly bad times give way for good ones!

May you be blessed to experience the other side of faith and live in the love and peace of our good God! 

Family on the Rock!

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Apr 2016

I was having a casual chat with a friend of mine a decade back while I was still a bachelor. He listened to me for a while and made quite a meaningful observation then. His statement was, “Wait till you get married, you’ll know how life will present a set of different challenges for you”. 

A couple of years later I was with my boss who recently became a dad and life came up as a topic of discussion then as well. I was at the verge of my bachelorhood and shared with him the above statement made by my friend earlier. My boss sighed and he made a very pensive statement. “Jerry, getting married is nothing! The moment you become a dad or mom; that is what I’ll call a game changer! Rest everything is pretty simple!” 

Fast forward six years and soon after I announced the arrival of our second child, promptly came a response from another friend of mine. “This will be the true test of your marriage!” And sure it was, since both my sweetheart and I felt that we’re going through a completely new set of challenge which we’d never faced before! 

Three instances, three different situations and one big lesson about life came out of them! It does not really matter what your situation really is. What matters the most is having a strong foundation built on a rock so that any number of mounting challenges can be faced together with the glue called family. This is a realization that needs to be developed during our earlier days of married life. 

For a couple, every new challenge they face in their married life is a test they undertake together. With each new challenge you face you are bound to experience tightening of a grip from an invisible hand on your life. The tighter the grip, the bigger the challenge! You won’t even realize that you’ll start feeling so uneasy for even those silly things at which you’d laughed earlier together as a loving couple. Such is the power of these unforeseen challenges! There is only one way to overcome these. Build your families on a rock, the very rock on which St Peter was given the command by God Himself to build the Church! 

Trust me; it isn’t easy to think that you’ll resolve the issues when they strike you. Many of us prepare ourselves with certain amount of financial backing to be used in the event of a monetary crisis. Very similarly we need to have an emotional backing when there are crisis times that come right out of the blue. All of a sudden you may be faced with a completely new challenge! It can be a totally new experience in your married life, something about your kids or your health or anything whatsoever. What’s important for you is to be prepared for such an eventuality if and when it decides to surprise you. 

Here is a question that you may want to ask yourself right from the time you step into the world of families and keep repeating the question once a while. Is my family built on a rock so that it can withstand even the mightiest of the tremor that it will experience in future? 

If you think your foundation is set on shaky pebbles, ensure that you and your partner accept this fact and quickly get into the action of cementing a strong foundation for your family. Among the multiple ingredients you could add to make a strong foundation, prayer stands out to be the finest of the lot. Ensure that you have a healthy mix of love and prayer to have a very strong base on which you build your relationship one day after the other. 

May the good God bless you withstand all the challenges you may face in future together as a family on the rock solid foundation you create on your love for each other and prayer, which is a communication with God Himself! 

All the best!

Angels in Disguise

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Feb 2016

Right from our childhood we’ve been hearing about different stories of angels. Among the different type of angels, ‘guardian angels’ was one of the most commonly referred kinds. The belief is that each one of us have got a unique angel assigned to us as long as we are here on Earth to protect us all the time.

Have you ever believed in angels? Have you ever experienced the care and love of your guardian angel? The fact of the matter is you’ll possibly never see an angel coming to you in a lovely wardrobe with large fluttering wings and a magic wand that can protect you from all troubles. But if you really observe you’ll still be able to experience the love and care of your guardian angel in one form or other. This is what is ingrained in the prayers after the vows in the Christian weddings which goes like, “God bless you with lot of genuine friends in your life especially during when you need them”. Here are some of the beautiful moments in my life when I experienced the love of my guardian angel.

A few years back I had my very first ever travel outside India and that too all the way to the other side of the world, Atlanta. I was feeling totally home sick and was really lost with everything around being totally new and strange. Those were the days of Orkut where I posted a picture of a nearby Pakistani restaurant named Lahore Grill. I gave a comment stating how much I missed food from home. Within a few minutes I got a reply from a school friend of mine whom I’ve not met for ages who happened to be in the same city. The next day he was at my place! For the next three months while I was there in Atlanta he made sure that I never felt home sick.

 

Some years later I got married and after a while we decided to move to Dubai. It was the first week in the new country with no one for company and a hard timeline of two weeks to find my own accommodation. I was reminded of Atlanta days with the exception of food since Dubai had more options for Indian food than maybe even what India could offer! I was running around with hardly any guidance on how to find a good accommodation. Facebook was popular by then and I posted a comment about being in Dubai. Lo and behold there comes a call from a college mate whom I’ve not been in touch since college days! He came over and from that moment I didn’t even have to worry about even the smallest of needs of settling down in Dubai.

Almost half a decade in Dubai and with two kids, life was going on pretty well with God’s grace. One fine day our elder one being four years decided to explore the sofa a little more and started jumping up and down on two big pillows kept on top. One of the jumps went wrong and he ended up hitting the hand rest of the sofa with face first. Needless to say he was bleeding profusely with a nasty cut on one of his gums. I rushed him to a hospital from where got redirected to a pediatric dentist who will do nothing less than stitching up the gums. He suggested meeting a plastic surgeon who went a step ahead and said he wanted my little one to be admitted, given anesthesia and undergo a surgery. I was sitting next to the emergency room completely feeling helpless. While my wife and I were discussing what could be the best way forward, we got reminded of a fantastic dentist back home in Kerala. A quick phone call to him and a few exchanges of pictures over WhatsApp, a simple solution was proposed by him. No stitches, anesthesia or surgery was required!

Believe or not, your guardian angel is always in the lookout for you. See for yourself the ways your angel works in your life through the people around you, some of them you may not even remotely imagine will influence your life!

May the good God help you experience the love and care of your guardian angel through such selfless people in your life and more importantly, may you be the face of guardian angels for many! 

A Deal in Heaven

He was pleasantly surprised to see a large contingent of angels waiting to receive him at the gate. The group was led by a Seraph himself and greeted him with a very warm smile. A question came to his mind and he promptly asked the Seraph, “Is this how you normally welcome the new ones?”

The Seraph replied, “Oh not at all! You are very special to have made to the Level Five of Heaven directly and hence this remarkable welcome. Only a few I knew have achieved this before you. Congratulations!”

He felt good and asked again, “You said Level Five. How many more are there?”

“Look up yourself” was the reply from Seraph.

He looked up and saw five more levels right above, with the top most being the one where the Almighty resides. Many more questions came to his mind. But it was almost time to welcome him in and the Seraph reassured him that they’ll have a chat later the day.

After the joining formalities were completed, he was asked to take some rest. The journey from being mortal to immortal wasn’t quite easy. He had a good sleep and woke up to see the compassionate face of the Seraph who greeted him at the entrance.

“Hope you are feeling good?” Seraph enquired.

He replied in affirmative and was quite curious to see a notepad in Seraph’s hand. He enquired what it was and the Seraph replied in a hushed tone, “You are about to enter into one of the most important deals here in Heaven. You asked me earlier about the levels of Heaven and I could sense many more questions that you’ve in your mind. Are you ready for the deal?”

He felt a bit nervous; nevertheless being in high spirits he said, “Bring them on!”

The Seraph started, “This is the Book of Remembrance. As I said earlier you are one of the very few lucky ones to have directly reached Level Five of Heaven. Most of them start with Level Zero and earn their way up based on this Book. Each time someone back home remembers you in their prayers you get one point. You can accumulate these points and when a specific limit is reached you can use them to gain entry to the next level. Sounds simple, isn’t it? But of course conditions apply like what you people say back there in Earth.

Remember that just like you, there are zillions of others here in Heaven who wants to reach the next level. You need at least a million points to even qualify for the next level and with each level the required points go up making it quite a challenge! There are further criteria which I’ll explain later of what will really make you stand out among the qualified few. What’s important is that prayers from your near and dear ones need to keep flowing continuously for you to go up.

Don’t get disheartened. I’m not done yet. Each time you get a point based on a prayer, the person who prayed for you opens an account as well. Each of the points you earn will translate to half a point for them in their account. Once those points reach a limit you could redeem them to grant one of their wishes. So the deal is really between you and them! Isn’t Bartholomew a genius?! He is the one who came up with this score card system.”

He took the notepad from the Seraph. Walked to the window of his room and looked down to Earth. He could see his loved ones mourning their loss. He wanted to scream at the top of his voice, “Stop crying you morons! Start praying for me so that I can get the elevator to the next level and even grant your wishes!”

The Seraph smiled… 

When God answers…

Raphael was seated at the chair kept for him at the dining table next to God Himself. It was breakfast time though that was not what he was there for. He had a small notepad with him in which he is expected to quickly note down what gets dictated from the Almighty.

The first set of requests taken was from Alice. God started granting one by one. In between He asked Mother Mary to pass on the bottle of jam. While applying the jam on to a slice of bread, He continued to grant a few other wishes as well for Alice. But a couple of them fell through when He was reaching out for the jam bottle. Alice had asked for these during her usual prayer time, but she took a quick break in between to check if there was enough jam left for the next day morning breakfast.

Paul's requests turned out to be next. This was a big one with requests for promotions, job change and what not. God was almost half way through His breakfast by then. He started granting Paul's wishes one after the other. It came to the promotion bit and that's when Gabriel walked in with a message that needed His attention. By the time He was done with the interrupting message, Paul's request for promotion was lost somewhere. Interestingly Paul while asking God for these had got a call in between which he answered before continuing with rest of the prayers.

Donna, Peter, Sylvia and Robert; each one of them had their own set of requests that got delivered to the Almighty. Most of them got answered. A few got misplaced in between. Those were the exact ones that were requested to God while each one of them was busy doing something else in between the prayers.

Focus, when you talk to Him. He listens, always.  

Security Encounter!

A few months back I was at a shopping center with my wife and my three year old son. While she was looking around a store, my son and I went for a quick stroll. We walked through the reception area of the building where a coin-operated massage chair was placed. There was a payment kiosk for a bunch of service providers next to the massage chair. While I was getting a massage done for myself, my little one started exploring the kiosk.

After a few moments I saw the security guard at the reception walking towards my son. I was sort of 'trapped' on the massage chair and was watching the scene with caution! He came next to my boy and started looking at him with a lot of interest. I could see his gleaming eyes and a tiny smile on his face. My son, oblivious of a stranger looking at him continued to check out the various buttons on the kiosk.

After a few moments, I was released from the clutches of the massage chair and I promptly got up. The security guy looked at me and smiled. I was still not sure what his intention was and so I returned the smile though with an element of suspicion. He looked at my son again and asked me, "Sir, how old is your little one?"

I replied, "He turned three last December".

He then asked me a few more questions about my son. He wanted to know about his schooling, playtime activities and a few other things. I answered him, though was not feeling very comfortable with these questions being asked. I felt an intrusion to our privacy.

I was almost ready to take my son away from the scene since I was getting worked up with these queries. That's when the man spoke again. The next statement he said disarmed me totally.

"Sir, I'm from Pakistan and it has been two years since I went back home. I left home on my son's first birthday. When I saw your little one I was wondering how mine will be looking like now."

I was speechless and soon my eyes got welled up. I took my son out and this time it wasn't because I was uncomfortable with the security guard, but because I didn't want him to see me in tears.

Tears of a Father

"Why do you tie my hands?" The son smiled at his dad's question. His dad exactly knew why he was doing this. Nevertheless it is quite characteristic of him to demand an answer. He replied, "Dad, I really need to do this. You are pretty infamous for your temper. Can't even imagine your reaction when you get see how they'll treat me. Not that you don't know already".

Father and son, both looked at each other. There was a deep sense of empathy in those pairs of eyes. Dad spoke again. The voice was filled with pain this time. "Son, do you really want to do this? How do I let you go through this agony knowing what's in store for you?" The question was greeted with the same disarming smile again. The reply he received was quite simple, "I asked for this dad. This is the only way to save them; their last chance!"

Memories flashed back to a day when they both met at the corridors of their home. There were a few others around as well. His dad seemed to be quite disturbed. The brows were creased. That wasn't a good sign at all. The last time anyone saw that was when he was deciding the destiny of Sodom and Gomorrah. The son got worried sensing his dad's mood. He asked his dad what's running in his mind and if there is anything which he could do to help.  

Dad said, "I've been giving these people enough warnings. I once flooded them all. Thought Noah's sons will learn from it, but their memory was short lived. Sodom and Gomorrah was next. Seems like no fire or brimstone will ever change anything. I'd sent some of my best men to these wretched set of people giving them enough time to repent. Nothing seems to have worked. I think I'm running out of options. If I could provide them, I can take back them as well, once and for all!"

Those words sent a shrill down the spine of those who were listening. The son was quick to speak, "Dad, isn't that quite harsh a decision? Why don't you give me an opportunity to set this straight this time? Probably they'll listen to a different voice. I've some new thoughts as well." He saw a smirk breaking on his dad's face. Words escaped his mouth, "Son, you don't even know these lot. They're worse than some of the lesser developed animals! You've no clue what you'll have to face there."

"That's a challenge worth taking!" Son replied.

Everyone looked eagerly at the father awaiting a response from him. He seemed to have lost himself in a deep thought. No one could even remotely conceive the intensity of the pain he was going through at the moment. He was fighting a train of thoughts. "I knew this is how it was written. I wrote this myself not knowing why I did it this way. My loving son, he has come of age. He is destined to take this up knowing the perils that await him ahead. How do I not let him take it? He knows this and so do I. The only way out is to go ahead as written."

The father finally spoke, "So be it!"

The time has now come. The garden of Gethsemane was filled with echoes of wailing. The trusted ones have turned traitors. Unfair trials, flesh piercing lashes, a crown of thorn and every possible torture followed which is humanly impossible to comprehend. The son was finally crucified on a heavy cross which he carried more than half an kilometer to the destined place known as 'place of skull', Golgotha!

He knew this was the only way of redemption for the desolate souls. The pain, the torture, the suffering, the blood and finally his life! He was reclaiming an entire humanity with these. But he knew very well that his dad was watching the whole ordeal, all the while with his hands tied. He knew his father's fury and hence there was one final thing to do before he breathed his last. He looked up and their eyes met again. He pleaded to his dad, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing".

He saw his dad's face for one last time. Those eyes were filled.

Tears of helplessness rolled down the cheeks of the Supreme Being!