Christmastime!

You can watch this video by clicking here.

We started our Christmas time with this home concert which was put up spontaneously within two weeks and was great fun for all of us who participated. In our family, Christmas is a time of singing together and there is joy in it. This year I couldn't be part of the Festival Choristers which have their annual presentation in the first week of December, as I was going to be away from Hyderabad, so I thought that before I left, I could have this home concert instead of the big event of singing at the Ravindra Bharati.
Christmas time is one of family gatherings and it was great to be in Chandigarh with family and especially with my eldest sister whom I hadn't seen in five or six years. We had an enjoyable time, inspite of the cold weather and all the highs and lows that happen sometimes! After decades I sang at our old church carol service, along with my eldest sister who had the reputation of being the singer in the family, and meeting old family friends and acquaintances that brought back childhood memories! On Christmas Eve, we got together as a family and had a good round of carol singing!
The highlight of this trip was going to the Indira Colony, a slum at one end of Chandigarh, where we were able to distribute blankets and food packets to women and children and thereafter having fellowship with a dear pastor and his family and some other friends at the Shekinah Children's Home in Manimajra where we sponsor girl children from needy and underprivileged families, in their education and upkeep. It gives us great satisfaction to follow what Christ has said in Matthew 25:40.
You can watch the video below by clicking here.

Laughter!

Who doesn't get a smile on your face when you hear laughter! When you see a baby gurgle with laughter, it just brightens your day.....grandmoms and granddads can vouch for that! What causes humans to laugh? The study of laughter is called gelotology and is the psychological and physiological effect on the human body in response to certain stimuli such as hearing a joke, being tickled or something else. Laughter is not the same as humour.

I read that a baby laughs as much as 300 times a day whereas an average adult laughs about twenty times a day! Infants as old as 17 days make vocal sounds of laughter which shows that babies can laugh even before they speak. The older you become, the less you laugh....how sad! As gelotologist Robert Provine puts it: "Laughter is a mechanism everyone has; laughter is part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way.”

This video link is worth viewing for its laughter content: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32OC97aNqc and you will enjoy it.

Laughter has benefits too. It reduces the level of stress hormones; increases the level of health enhancing hormones; increases the number of anti-body producing cells which means a stronger immune system; it provides a physical and emotional release by exercising the diaphragm, shoulder muscles and the heart; it helps us to change our perspective to circumstances around about us; it connects us to people and elevates the mood of others around us and improves the quality of social interaction. Laughter enables you to have fun!

The book of Proverbs in the Bible written thousands of years ago by the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, puts it like this: "A merry heart makes for a cheerful countenance...." (Pr.15:13) and "A merry heart does good like a medicine...." (Pr.10:22). Isaac was Abraham's son born when Abraham was a hundred years old and his wife Sarah was ninety, passed the age of childbearing. When Isaac was born God asked for the child to be called 'Isaac' which means laughter. First, they laughed in unbelief when God told them that they would have a son, and then that laughter turned to joy when the promise of God was fulfilled. Answered prayer brings joy and laughter! A relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ, makes our heart merry and joyous and enables us to live life abundantly!

Power Words

I discovered that being negative and having a critical outlook can bring things to a halt! I found that when I spoke positively, things happened in a much better way. When I was constantly criticizing my domestic help, she worked in a very sour way and halfheartedly too! Soon after I caught myself in this bad attitude, I started encouraging her and viola! What a change! She took corrections in a much better way and did things with a smile!
I read about this experiment which was quite astonishing. A Japanese, Masaru Emoto, not a research scientist, but an original thinker, did extensive research on water. He took water from various sources around the world and froze the water then photographed them with a dark field microscope with photographic capability. He found that the crystals from clean water sources were formed but from polluted water were too sick to form any crystals at all. He discovered that words, thoughts and intents and music have an affect on water. Water crystals to which there was thanks, love and appreciation, formed into beautifully formed crystals whereas water crystals for which negative thoughts were intended were like the crystals of the polluted water, not formed. Take a look:

"Thank you"


"Love & Appreciation"


"You make me sick, I will kill you"

The Bible says in Matthew 12:34 that '...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.' Clearly, our words, thoughts and intents are a matter of the heart. What is in our hearts is the point. If our heart has malice, criticism, failure, negativity, judgmental attitude, then that is what will come out of the mouth. Whereas if the heart has acceptance, love, grace, confidence, a positive attitude, then that is what the mouth speaks. It is worth considering what is in our hearts for we want power words to come out of our mouth!

Jerusalem - the Foundation of Peace

Jerusalem means the foundation of peace and it is as old as anyone can remember! The first recorded mention of the city is in the heiratic texts of ancient Egypt in 19th century BC mentioned as Rusalimum as an enemy of the Egyptian state. The next mention was in the 14th century BC Amarna texts as Urusalim in the Akkadian cuneiform script of ancient Mesopotamia on clay tablets. According to Jewish tradition Jerusalem was founded by Noah's son Shem and Shem's grandson Eber, who were Abraham's ancestors. The Holy Bible first mentions Jerusalem as the city of Salem ruled by King Melchizedek in Genesis 14:8 who blessed Abraham, the father of faith for the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Salem's root word S-L-M is Shalom (Peace in Hebrew) and Salaam (Peace in Arabic).
The Egyptians' power declined by the 12th century BC. Soon after the Egyptians decline, the Jebusites ruled in Jerusalem and by 1000 BC when David became king of Israel, he conquered Jerusalem and established it as his nation's capital city. When his son Solomon built the first Jewish Temple, Jerusalem became the most important city for the Jews. Inspite of Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed, this was the city where Jesus the Christ, descendant of David, was crucified, the reason why the Son of God became a human being and suffered death. From then on Jerusalem has been the most important city for Jews and Christians. Jerusalem as a city went through the hands of the Romans, the Byzantines, the early Muslim, the Crusader, the Mameluk, the Ottoman Turkish and the British, in turbulent times. By 1948 through the UN mandate, Jerusalem became the capital city of Israel once again. At this point, the Muslims decided that Israel and the Jews cannot coexist and were motivated to obliterate it. Israel as a small country surrounded by a vast array of Muslim countries has managed to hold its own and has indeed prospered well. Unfortunately, the Muslims have not taken well to that and claim Jerusalem as their holy city even though they pray facing Mecca and Medina is their second holiest city. Whereas the Jews have always maintained that Jerusalem is their holiest city and all Jews worldwide pray facing Jerusalem.
One of the memories of my trip to Israel in 2006 was (while staying in Bethlehem which is part of Palestine, the Muslim part), of young boys playing with guns when they should have been in school studying, whilst being looked upon by doting parents taking pride in their gun-toting boys. Another memory is of being shown areas where Muslims who have chosen to live in Israel and are part of Israel's army and work force and they live peaceably. The difference between the Muslim areas of barrenness and the Israeli areas of greenery and productivity was amazing. Both people started in a land which was desolate, but the Jews have made the desert bloom whereas the Palestine area is still a wilderness.
As a believer in Christ, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem and believe that there will be peace in the New Jerusalem - the Foundation of Peace.

Bandhs & Bunds

Bandh, originally a Hindi word meaning 'closed', is a form of protest used by political activists in some countries like India and Nepal. During a Bandh, a political party or a community declares a general strike. We in Hyderabad/Secunderabad are being plagued by Telengana Bandhs now for a couple of years.
Telengana region is an area of 1,14,840 sq.km. with a population of 35,286,757 which is 4`.6% of the Andhra state population. It has borders with the state of Maharashtra in the north and north west, Karnataka on the west, Chattisgarh on the north east, Orissa and Coastal Andhra on the east, the region of Rayalseema in the south. It has ten districts which are Adilabad, Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mehboobnagar, Medak, Nalgaonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal. The three rivers, Musi, Godavari and Krishna flow in this region from west to east.
The famous Kakatiya rulers reigned for over two hundred years under whom the Telugus came under one rule and during which time the Golconda Fort was constructed. Telengana came under the Mughal rule in the 14th century and by the 18th century when the Mughal empire was disintegrating, this area came under the Asaf Jahi or the Nizam's rule. In the British empire, the Nizam entered into a subsidiary alliance with the British, not directly under their rule and this did not include coastal Andhra or Rayalseema which was under the Madras Presidency British rule. There were peasants' revolts in 1946 and 1951 to rebel against bonded labour and the feudal lords and this was quelled by Osman Ali Khan Asif Jah VII. The State Reorganization Commission of the newly independent Government of India in 1953 thought to merge the Telengana and the Andhra regions and in 1956 with an agreement of power sharing between the Telengana and Andhra leaders the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed.

By 1969 Telengana people were not satisfied with the power sharing agreement implementation and they started an agitation through the Osmania University students and this spread quickly causing loss to the state in many ways. It came to an end in 1972 when the Telengana Praja Samithi merged with the Congress party. In the 1990s the BJP promised a Telengana state if they came to power. In 2001 the Telengana Rashtra Samithi TRS was formed by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao KCR with the intention of a separate Telengana state with Hyderabad as its capital. In 2004 the Congress promised a Telengana state and the TRS joined the Congress in a coalition government. In 2006 KCR withdrew support to the Congress for failure to provide a Telengana state. In November 2009 KCR started a fast unto death and was arrested by the AP government. There was chaos and mayhem, violence and bandhs in Hyderabad and by December 9, the central government promised a separate Telengana state so KCR called off his fast as the Srikrishna Commission was formed to look into the formation of the Telengana state by December 2010.

In early January 2011 the Srikrishna Commitee recommended that the state remained united as one and that the under developed parts of Telengana region be given funds to develop the area. Since then there have been a series of bandhs and much debate over this contentious issue. People of Hyderabad are fast becoming used to bandhs as a way of life.

A bund is a water body or an artificial man-made lake made to hold water from tributaries and rivulets for irrigation purposes. In Hyderabad the Tank Bund was built from the tributary of the Musi river, in 1562 during the Qutb Shah king - Ibrahim Quli Qutb. It was constructed by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali and the king called it Hussain Sagar to honour Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali who helped the king recover from illness. It is popularly known as Tank Bund and links Hyderabad to Secunderabad. The Tank Bund has been the promenade for the twin cities for decades. It has several scenic spots around the bund with the Necklace road on the opposite side. There are parks and clubs all around the bund. Right in the middle of it used to be a rock which was popularly called the 'rock of Gibralter'! In 1988 the Buddha statue was made from a single white granite rock. While transporting it into the Tank Bund, the statue slipped into the lake, killing a worker. For almost two years the statue lay on the bottom of Hussain Sagar until with Danish technology it was retrieved and erected in the middle where the rock of Gibralter used to be, at much cost to the state exchequer. Now it is an international tourist attraction.

Comfort

It just amazes me how some people can overcome their challenges with grace. In the many forwards one gets on email, some of them can really challenge your mindset. I thought to put together some of these video clips which encourage us to be overcomers. One story is about Tony Melendez who was born without arms and then learned to play the guitar, here is the video clip:

Such people don't allow circumstances to discourage them, the attitude itself is what bounces them off the grim pit of despair!

Then there is this passionate performance called 'Hand in Hand' by Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei, both physically challenged, but oh...what passion, what energy, and how poignant!

This video clip is about a licensed pilot without hands, a professional and with such ease and expertise is able to fly the aircraft.

This last one of the series is a dancing couple again, but the young man has only one leg...what a graceful dancer....a joy to watch!

Recently, my domestic help's five year old boy was riding behind an older boy's bicycle and decided to jump off without having asked to stop first. His big toe got caught in the bike spikes and was quite mangled. He bled so much and it took about two hours to get medical attention for him at the government hospital. They tried to help by putting a small metal rod on the toe but warned that it was so crushed and since there may not be blood supply and severe nerve damage, they could expect the toe to turn gangrenous and may have to amputate it. The hapless parents of the boy tried many hospitals to try and save the toe but a week later it was amputated. We've been trying to comfort the family that it is not the end and now with new prosthetic breakthroughs, the solution could be much better than they can think of right now. On thinking of such things, I found through my video archives of forwarded emails, these encouraging video clips and will show them to Manju (my domestic help) and hope she will become optimistic. When I read the Gospels, I find that the Lord Jesus gave comfort to so many people and many times told them to be of good comfort and I pray that through me the comfort of Christ can reach others in this uncomfortable world we live in!

Canons Galore

As Lord Tennyson put it....'Canon to the right of them, Canon to the left of them', in his celebrated Charge of the Light Brigade.....there are Canons to the right and left of my ancestry, both my paternal and maternal grandfathers were Canons with the Anglican Church! I had written some time ago in 'A Precious Legacy' about my paternal grandfather Canon Dr. A.P. Das and this time I want to remember my maternal grandfather Canon A.B. Chandu Lall and his wife, my grandmother Sushila Chandu Lall. They lived in exciting times in India.

Anandswaroop Benjamin Chandu Lall was born in 1885 to Emily & Lala Chandu Lall. Emily's father was a British chaplain to the army - Rev. Ralph Abel - of Jewish descent who had become a chaplain in the Church of England. Emily was Chandu Lall's second wife and bore him thirteen children of whom Anandswaroop Benjamin was the eleventh. Although Lala Chandu Lall was very Indian in his lifestyle and outlook, his children were much influenced by the British. 1885 was also the year when the Indian National Congress was formed and nationalism was gaining momentum in British India. Lala Chandu Lall's sons studied at the Baring School in Batala and the daughters studied at the Kinnaird High School in Lahore. My grandfather went on to study his B.Sc. from Forman Christian College in Lahore and after that taught for some time at the Baring School in Batala and thereafter he joined the Church of England and went on to England for his theological education.


Through the Church Missionary Society he was sent as the assistant to Rev. Redman, in charge of the Punjab Hill Mission based in Simla. His task was to strengthen the local Indian Christians apart from the British who worshipped at the Christ Church as Simla was the Viceregal summer capital.

Assisting Rev. Redman, he helped the St. Thomas Church and school be started around 1912, meant for the local Christians to worship. It was here that he became nationalist minded especially after his encounter with Sundar Singh whom Rev. Redman and he baptized. Sundar Singh Indianized his faith in Christ and became known as Sadhu Sundar Singh, the apostle in north India who took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Tibet and the higher Himalayan ranges. After Rev. Redman left, Canon Chandulal kept up the work and travelled the length and breadth of the Punjab Hill Mission of the area allotted to him and even travelled to other parts of India. He was a friend of C.F. Andrews, Principal Rudra of St. Stephens' College and of the Cambridge Mission in Delhi. He travelled to Calcutta, with his message of giving the Gospel to the Indian people in the way that they would receive it and understand it. He was involved with the Ashram Movement in Pune, Maharashtra where he also went. These were crucial times for India, the capital had shifted in 1912 to Delhi from Calcutta and Simla too had gained prominence; there was the tragic Jallianwalla Bagh massacre of 1919 and soon after that the Non-cooperation Movement was launched and thereafter the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930. Nationalism was the cry of the hour and my grandfather identified with it completely.

In the Project Cantebury archives of the Church of England there are articles which mention: "But it was Canon Chandu Lal on our first mission who really encouraged us to think seriously on the matter. He met us in a khaki cassock (the obvious dress for the dusty plains of the Punjab). He wore a saffron cape when attending the Offices. He celebrated Holy Communion on an out-of-door altar, with rose bushes planted at the corners, and we looked out over the waving corn as the sun rose behind it. He copied his Sikh neighbours in bringing in his congregations from the villages to a central point on a Festival, singing bhajans as they came. Ours had a cross at its head wrapped in purple paper." War & Peace by Ralph Peacey MA Principal.
"There was Canon Chandu Lal, who gave me my first love for the Indian Church when we were in Simla and Paul, our catechist. There was Sadhu Sundar Singh, whom we met on Canon Chandu Lal's verandah and who spoke of the great number of sadhus who were only waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves as the Christians that they were."

It was around 1928 or so that Canon Chandu Lal met the young Sushila Mukherji who was at that time at the Lady Reading Hospital in Simla and he was visiting the sick for prayer. Their friendship blossomed to a romance and they were married in the parish church of Stoke Neckington in London on March 16, 1929.

 They had a happy married life and had three children, Shuniela Rubra (b1930), Jangbahadur Anandswaroop (b1932) and Asanand Allahyar (b1934). At around 1934 the Chandu Lals left Simla and were transferred to Narowal under the Lahore Diocese of west Punjab. Both my grandparents were happy identifying with the simple village people of that area. Tragedy struck when Canon Chandu Lal died in a tonga accident in Narowal leaving behind his young widow of 31 years and three children and his mother in law Shoshi Mukherji.

In the October 1937 edition of the Ashram Review, one Umrao Singh Giani gave this telling eulogy in memory of Canon Chandu Lal...'People loved him. Poor village Christians were proud of him. they were reminded of the Man from Nazareth on seeing him. A Sikh friend of mine who had been to the States and England, came to visit me in Narowal while I was living with Fr. Ben. On the eve of his departure he came into my room and said, "I have been to the Christian countries and I have lived with Christians in their homes. I am well acquainted with the bible, yet I could not believe that one could follow Christ and live up to the Sermon on the Mount. Hence I could not be converted inspite of the efforts of some Christian friends of mine. but during this brief stay of mine I have seen Christ living in this man, and he has brought home to me that the Christ is the Living God. Not that he had been preaching Him to me. I want to become a Christian." He was converted, not because he was taught Christianity but because he caught it from Fr. Ben.'

Sushila then qualified the Community Health Care course specifically in the area of mother and child care. She worked with the CMS in Narowal and when the partition of India took place, she was uprooted from her home in Narowal and came almost pennyless to Tarn Taran in eastern Punjab to start life afresh. She gave the best of education to her children, her sons went to the Bishop Cotton School in Simla and her daughter to Kinnaird High School in Lahore and then to the Isabella Thoburne College. Jangbahadur got a scholarship to the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore and retired as the Chief Psychiatrist at Kingston Hospital in Ontario, Canada. Asanand followed his father's footsteps and joined the Church and became the Bishop of Amritsar with the Church of North India and also was the Moderator for the CNI. Shuniela married Eric Das of Tarn Taran who was with the Indian Forest Service and was herself a teacher with St. Edwards School, Simla and then with St. John's School, Chandigarh.

Sushila Chandu Lal left the CMS and she joined the newly formed government of Himachal Pradesh and was with the World Health Organzation project of healthcare in Simla and the inner parts of Himachal Pradesh. On retirement she bought land in the outer Seraj area of Kulu, near Anni and planted apple trees. Her mother was with her who died in 1960 and Sushila herself was having health issues. She was operated for breast cancer but by 1965 it had spread to the lungs and she died in Ambala where her younger son Asanand was the priest of the St. Paul's Cathedral.

Sushila Chandu Lal was a courageous person who lived in amazing times in the history of India. Her life is a testimony of how God prepares His people to lead extraordinary lives when they put their trust in Him.

You can watch the video below by clicking here.

Moral Relativism

Liberal humanists believe in "moral relativism" where there is no "right" or "wrong" - all viewpoints are acceptable, and there is no absolute truth. It has three positions:
1) Descriptive relativism describes the way things are, without suggesting a way they ought to be. It seeks only to point out that people frequently disagree over what is the most 'moral' course of action;
2) The meta-ethical position is the truth or falsity of moral judgments as not being objective. Justifications for moral judgments are not universal, but are instead relative to the traditions, convictions, or practices of an individual or a group of people. The meta-ethical relativist might say "It's moral to me, because I believe it is";
3) Finally, normative relativism is the prescriptive or normative position that states that because there is no universal moral standard by which to judge others, we ought to tolerate the behavior of others - even when it runs counter to our personal or cultural moral standards. Most philosophers find that this position is incoherent, or at least that it is unclear how such a position can lead to 'ought to' statements.
Humanism is a belief in human based morality and liberal humanism according to Catherine Belsley states that the human being is the free, unconstrained author of meaning and action, the origin of history. Unified, knowing, and autonomous, the human being seeks a political system which guarantees freedom of choice. Western liberal democracy, it claims, is freely chosen, and thus evidently the unconstrained expression of human nature.

Moral values are not absolute in today's social fabric and liberal humanism encourages "unconstrained expression of human nature". Today's civilised society believes that one's personal moral character does not reflect on his public civil service. The news media reports otherwise.
The ex-California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a 13 year old son, a result of an affair he had with his housekeeper. He would also use state troopers to drive women to hotels he was staying in, clearly abusing his power to hide his personal moral corruption.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, director of the International Monetary Fund has been charged for sexually attacking a chamber maid in a New York hotel. For Kahn this is the last of many allegations regarding his dubious sexual behavior. When questioned regarding his conduct in the past, he simply stated that his personal life is his own business.
85 year old N.D. Tiwari, in 2009 resigned as Governor of Andhra Pradesh state in India for sexual misconduct while in office and has been asked by the Supreme Court to undergo a DNA test as a 31 year old man claims to be his biological son. He continues to claim that he has been framed, inspite of the fact that his misdemeanour is one of the most popular video clip on You Tube!
Immoral behavior took its toll on these men and did much damage to the societies they were supposed to be serving, while in office. A society whose leaders are not required to demonstrate moral character is a society gone astray. When leadership does not instill values from the top down, society at large loses its moral bearings.
The word of God clearly tells us that you cannot twist the truth, or the moral laws set by God (Isaiah 5:20). Some behavior is acceptable in His eyes, and some is not. Evil is evil, and good is good.
We, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, are called to bring clarity to the ambiguity of moral relativism. We have a mission to declare moral absolutes in the midst of a society that does not believe in right and wrong. Let the Church arise to point the way to the Light of Jesus Christ for the removal of the deep darkness that is in our society today.

Falaknuma Palace

On our 30th wedding anniversary, my husband and I were in different cities and we decided to celebrate it the following Saturday by having dinner at the very exclusive Taj Falaknuma Palace Hotel at the other end of town. As I was going through some old picture albums, I noticed that ten years ago at about our 20th wedding anniversary we had made a trip to the Falaknuma Palace which was not open to the public but had just been taken over by the Taj Hotel group to be converted to a palace hotel. We had taken some pictures at that time.

Finally, we didn't make it to the Taj Falaknuma Palace Hotel, because on that day, the hotel staff rang us up and said that there was a curfew in the Old City because an MLA Akbaruddin had been shot and was critical and they anticipated riots. There went our dinner celebration! I thought such things can only happen in the Old City which is a law unto itself! The MLA was walking and there came a mob with swords and shot him and stabbed him.....some land dispute. The MLA survived and there were no riots, thankfully.

Just a little further up from Charminar, past the Shah Ali Banda area, the road reaches the Falaknuma Palace. The sixth Nizam's prime minister and relative, Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra had constructed this palace, translated as 'mirror in the sky' in the shape of a scorpion. It was the last word in luxury and grandeur and the Nawab invited the Nizam to visit it. The Nizam, inspite of being the richest man in the world (the Times Magazine had him on its cover seventy years ago for this reason), was bemused by this array of splendour and coveted it. The Nawab then presented the Falaknuma Palace to the Nizam. The Nizam never stayed here but this palace hosted royalty from all over the world. In 2000 the Falaknuma Palace was leased to the Taj Hotel group for a period of 30 years to begin with, and its restoration has been supervised by Princess Esra, the Turkish first ex-wife of the current Nizam who lives in Turkey. After ten years the Falaknuma Palace was opened as the Taj Falaknuma in November 2010. What is worth noting are the frescoes on the ceiling of the state reception room; the two ton manually operated organ said to be the only one of its kind in the world in the ballroom; the large and rare collection of books, paintings, statues, furniture and manuscripts; the jade collection; the famous 100 seating dining table with rosewood carved chairs and green leather upholstery with tableware of gold and crystal; the walnut carved roof of the library modelled on the one at the Windsor Castle; the Venetian chandelier collection including the 138 arm Osler chandelier.

As a postscript, we did visit the Taj Falaknuma and felt the grandeur of the place, the ambience and the food bringing back the Nizam culture alive and here are some pictures we took.

Trending the Oscars

Every year millions of people wait for the Oscars to announce their winners. It is interesting to see the trend of the best picture awards, over the last decade.

In 2001, A Beautiful Mind won the best picture. It's about the American Nobel Prize winner in Economics – John Forbes Nash Jr. and his paranoid schizophrenia. Directed by Ron Howard this film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book (1998) of the same name. It highlights the events of the life of Nash as he goes from being a young student at Princeton University to receiving the Nobel Prize for Economics in his old age. The incidences that occur in between are of more importance as they reveal Nash’s downward spiral into experiencing strange delusions and hallucinations causing havoc in the lives of his near and dear who have to put him into psychiatric care. The movie also brings out the friendships and romance he experiences on his journey as the brilliant but psychologically disturbed mathematician. The crucial theme of this movie is that despite his debilitating and often ridiculed condition, Nash’s original ideas and theories catapult him into fame as the Nobel Prize winner. A beautiful mind, a superior intellect or fame are not ways to achieve peace of mind. Having a childlike faith in the living God and His Word, is the only way to have peace - John 14:27

Chicago won the Oscar in 2002. This film is based on a stage musical of the same name directed by Rob Marshall. It is set in the 1920s and is a story of about two women murderers sentenced to jail, who fight for freedom through the pathway of singing, dancing and ultimate fame. The film sees them through a series of competitive struggles and fighting that endear them into the public sympathy so that they can finally be set free from the prison that holds them. The story highlights the theme that fame and success moves the world to the extent that they are willing to forgive the morally corrupt from their willful acts of wickedness. As the two ladies struggle for freedom through fame they enlist the aid of the corrupted prison warden, the charismatic lawyer and the obedient husband to fight their way into the hearts and minds of their fellowmen and the viewer alike. This film is based on the flexible morality of the new America where talent and charisma wins over justice and fairness. Although this is a film and may not be based on a factual story, yet it calls evil good and good evil and persuades people to believe that. It is a self-destructive society which has no standards of right or wrong and everyone does that which is right in their own eyes.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – is an epic fantasy film which won the Oscar in 2003. Directed by Peter Jackson, it is the concluding movie in the trilogy of films entitled ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and is based on J.R.R Tolkien’s second and third volume of books by the same name. The movie centers on the destruction of the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom of Mordor by hobbits Frodo Baggins and SamwiseGamgee and their travel companion - Gollum. The film also tells the stories of Aragon, Gandalf the wizard and Theoden the king of Rohan in their defeat of the evil wizard Sauron. Although Aragon enlists other armies to defeat Sauron they realize that they cannot win unless the Ring is annihilated. The nail-biting finish is effectively crafted with the pressure of destroying the Ring at the Mount of Doom and the traitorous Gollum who wants nothing more than to take the Ring for himself. Victory is assured in the end once epic battles have been fought and enemies defeated. The viewer is treated to movie watching at an epic scale and it brings out the theme of defeating the evil within oneself as well as without to obtain true liberty and glory. Although this film is a fantasy epic, the idea that human beings can defeat the evil within oneself is unattainable. The only way to defeat evil within or without is through faith in the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ - this is not fantasy but the truth of the Good News!

In 2004, Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood won the Oscar. This is a film about a hardened boxing trainer and his female protege who wants to become a professional boxer. Eastwood and Hilary Swank play the main characters while the movie is narrated by Eastwood's friend and employee - Morgan Freeman. The story begins with Swank seeking the apprenticeship of Eastwood as she believes that she can really make it big in the fighting arena. However Eastwood believes that no girl can fight like a man and he declines her offer. Swank continues to seek his help and Eastwood relents being impressed by her persistent nature. During the training, Eastwood's relationship with his daughter is revealed as being estranged while his relationship with Swank is blossoming. The story takes an ugly turn when tragedy strikes and Swank’s neck is broken at the championship match. Eastwood then tries to blame his friend for taking up the unlikely fighter that he did but finds that he can only blame himself. His guilt and love for his protege brings him to stay true to her side during her dark hour, while her family are only interested in her money. The final theme of the movie is raised when Swank asks to be put to death saying that she has got what she wanted in life. The movie ends by Eastwood delivering a lethal injection to Swank’s character but before that he reveals the meaning of the nickname ‘Mo Chuisle’ given by him to her which is ‘my darling, and my blood’ in Irish. The end reveals another secret that the movie was a narration of a letter from Eastwood to his daughter sent in the hope of mending his character in her eyes and their relationship. The atonement that Eastwood hopes to achieve in his film has an emotional tug to it. What he hopes the viewer will receive is that it is never too late to heal a broken relationship and that it is possible to redeem oneself in the eyes of one’s own flesh even if it means ‘mercifully’ taking the life of another. This sports saga eulogizes the determination and guts in the sports arena, yet it also lauds euthanasia....human beings never initiated life and neither can we put an end to it. Jesus Christ said that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, and He is the Resurrection and the Life. He is also the Healer and He heals today, even quadriplegics, just as He did two thousand years ago - He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The 2005 Oscar was won by Crash - a 2004 American/German drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions Los Angeles, California. Several characters' stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles; An African/American LAPD detective estranged from his mother, his criminal younger brother and gang associate, the white attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist cop who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the said cop, a Persian immigrant father who is wary of others and a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter. The movie brings to light the unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening situations that are a product of the ever increasing multi-cultural and multi-racial world that we live in. The question the movie poses is how does one live in a culturally, ethnically and racially diverse world without facing negative emotions and attitudes against those who do not resemble or live like us. The answer is in the message of the movie – ‘Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other’ as well as in a memorable quote ‘we crash into each other just so we can feel something’. The theme suggested by the movie is that we all have some good qualities and bad qualities and they are in shades of grey so that sometimes we are nasty to one another and sometimes we are able to help them in a crisis. The message of the movie is only half the truth, which is to be able to help others in a crisis, the other half of being nasty to each other is what is getting us all into trouble and it is becoming worse everyday! The redeeming factor in people relations is really to sow in love, that is, being kind to one another without expecting anything in return and not necessarily expressing it in a crisis only situation.

The 2006 Oscar offering was The Departed, an American crime film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hongkong film Internal Affairs. It was directed by Martin Scorsese, written by William Monahan and takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, where Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello played by Jack Nicholson plants Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as an informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover cop William "Billy" Costigan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, to infiltrate Costello's gangsters and discover their weaknesses in order that they can be brought to justice. When both sides realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before their own identity is made known. The film is a fast-paced thriller which has some hair-raising performances by the main cast and highlights the themes that when one is facing a gun, it does not matter whose side you are on - the good or the bad. This once again blurs the lines between moral choices as power, loyalty and will become the motivating factor for each of the troubled characters. As one can see, the trend at the Oscars is the films' message where the moral choices are in shades of grey. Choosing life and that too abundant life is always the better option to the choice of death.

The film that won in 2007 was No Country for Old Men, an American crime thriller again, directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. No Country for Old Men tells the story of an ordinary man to whom chance delivers a fortune belonging to somebody else and the ensuing cat and mouse chase for the drug money, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of the 1980s West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance and portrays horrific violence as the good and bad guys are killed one by one in seemingly destined circumstances by the psychopathic killer. Just when you wonder if the bad guy has won, he is also done away with, and one is left with an eerie feeling evil has not been purged from this world. The Bible puts it like this in John 3:18-20: “He who believes in Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. Galatians 1:4 says - who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

The amazing Oscar win of 2008 was Slumdog Millionaire, a British romantic drama directed by Danny Boyle, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Surprisingly Slumdog Millionaire is not the first Oscar winning movie about an Indian, that rare feat has been taken by the film Gandhi (1982). While Gandhi was about the revered leader of Indian freedom fighters Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Slumdog Millionaire takes an ordinary slum dwelling boy and puts him in extraordinary situations. The main character ‘Slumdog’ Jamal Malik is portrayed as a contestant on the Television show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. This movie combines a unique story telling style making use of flashbacks as Jamal Malik answers all the right questions thrown at him by digging into his unique past and searching through a wealth of difficult yet character building life experiences. All the odds are against Jamal, the arrogant game show host, the disbelieving police officer, the maniacal gangster, and the over bearing brother, yet Jamal is poised to win the 20 million rupee question and find his childhood sweetheart all while answering the game show questions. Though the story is unrealistic it portrays India in a negative light in what some call ‘poverty porn’ but others hail as revealing the real picture of India’s slum dwellers. The movie has generated quite a bit of controversy in this sense, however, just like it came out of the blue the hype surrounding the film died down soon after its release and is now a name on the list of Oscar winning pictures that brought India into the limelight of the current generation. The theme the movie highlights is that the will and destiny of a person enables him to overcome the greatest of life’s challenges and portrays the underdog's success against all odds. Such fantasy inducing themes are always winners at the box office as the Indian film industry will concede and glorify 'chance' and 'luck', giving the impression that if you get your chance at hitting the jackpot, you're a winner all the way. These kind of themes inspire people to believe that once you have money you have success, infact money becomes an idol, hardens and turns the heart away from knowing the true God. As king Solomon says in Proverbs 30:8-9 - Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.

The Hurt Locker is a 2008 Oscar winning American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq war. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq for four months and came up with the screenplay of this movie based on his experience during that time. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty. The name of this film is the locker where pain and hurt is stored. The Hurt Locker opens with a quotation from War is a Force that gives us Meaning, a best-selling 2002 book by the New York Times war correspondent and journalist Chris Hedges: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." All the words fade except for the last four. Sergeant First Class William James, a battle-tested veteran, arrives as a new team leader in Bravo company of a US EOD unit during the early stages of the post-invasion period in Iraq in 2004 replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who is killed by a radio-controlled 155 mm improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. The rest of his team consists of Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, who guard him as he works in his bombsuit disarming IEDs. James' maverick methods and attitude lead Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless, and tensions mount. When they are assigned to destroy some of the explosives in a remote desert area, James returns to the detonation site to pick up his gloves. Sanborn openly contemplates killing James by "accidentally" triggering the explosion, making Eldridge very uncomfortable, but does nothing. After a series of bomb disarming adventures, James decides on his own to hunt for insurgents responsible for a petrol tanker detonation, whom he guesses are in the immediate area. Sanborn protests, but when James heads out, he and Eldridge reluctant follow. After they split up, Eldridge is captured by the insurgents and is rescued by James and Sanborn, but they accidently shoot him in the leg. James and Sanborn's unit is called to another mission, where an innocent Iraqi civilian has had a bomb vest strapped to his chest. James attempts to cut off the bolts to remove the vest, but there are too many, forcing him to abandon the mission, and the civilian is blown up. Sanborn becomes emotional and confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure, and wants to return home and have a son. James returns home to his wife and child, however the boredom of routine civilian life agitates him. One night, James tells his infant son that there is only one thing that he knows he loves. At the close of the film, he is seen starting another tour of duty serving with the Delta company of an EOD unit as they are just starting their 365 day rotation. This film gives consequence to the power of control and the lust for violence and adventure. 1 John 2:16-17 says - For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The latest best picture at the Oscar was The King's Speech. It is a 2010 British historical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler. Colin Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stammer, is introduced to Lionel Logue, an unorthodox Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother Edward VIII abdicates, the new King relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of World War II. The story is about King George VI’s speech impediment and how he successfully overcame it with the help of the unorthodox though effective speech therapist. A final title card explains that, during the many speeches King George VI gave during World War II, Logue was always present. It also explained that Logue and the King remained friends, and that, "King George VI made Lionel Logue a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1944. This high honour from a grateful King made Lionel part of the only order of chivalry that specifically rewards acts of personal service to the Monarch." This film was an encouraging theme as it showed that even royalty has human failings and can overcome them and that they are not more equal than others. People can be lonely and need friends even if they appear to be surrounded by other people. The friendship between the king and the commoner was well displayed in this well made film. As Proverbs 22:11 puts it: The king is the friend of all who are sincere and speak with kindness.

Films are a powerful medium in influencing people's opinions and morality. As the trend shows, the lines between right and wrong, are becoming blurred. People base their opinions on the movies they watch, if it happened in the movie, it's okay; rather than on the Word of God. To keep a balance and the proper perspective of life around us, we have to look at everything through what God says in His Word. Nowhere will you find the teaching to love your enemies as you do in Jesus' Words. If we can do that, this world would be a great place to be in and the movies we watch would be full of fun and laughter! We're made for laughter and love and not hate and violence.

Birth Anniversaries

This year I received priceless birthday presents and will treasure them. In our home birthday celebrations were not so important somehow, but for me the whole country celebrates the Republic day so there is an atmosphere of celebration every year on my birthday whether I celebrate it or not!

I thought about when birthday celebrations started, and on googling found that children’s birthday celebrations started in Germany, called Kinderfeste. In Europe’s history thousands of years ago, a person feared their upcoming birthday. It was seen as a fearful experience because people believed bad spirits could harm you on this day. Birthday celebrations were devised as a way to keep those spirits away by surrounding yourself with friends and loved ones who often brought small tokens and food to share. People would use noisemakers to scare off any evil spirits that may be lurking around the house. It was in the middle ages that birthdays began to take on a more celebratory state and the tone turned more positive. But they were not yet commonplace amongst peasants. In fact, birthdays were only celebrated by royalty or the very wealthy.

However, birthday celebrations are as old as the first book of the Bible in Genesis 40:20. The Pharaoh in Joseph's time had a birthday celebration. The mention however is negative because the Pharaoh put into prison his baker and his cup bearer on his birthday and the feasting went on for several days. Even Job, the oldest book in the Bible, talks about the day of his birth but not in a positive way in chapter 3 and verse 3. The third mention of birthdays in the Bible is again not positive, in Matthew 14:6, Herod the tetrarch celebrated his birthday and had to behead John the Baptist to keep his oath.

Today, birthday celebrations are when friends and loved ones gather to bring good wishes and gifts at the birthday party of the person whose birth anniversary it is. Every country and culture has their own way of celebrating birthdays. It is a special day for the person and good will is the best way of celebrating it. Gifts and presents add to the celebration. I for one was very pleased with my very high-tech 21st century birthday gifts seen below!

Newness of Life

Comes the new year and we have great expectations from it! Some are thankful the previous year is over....annus horribilis! Some wonder how time went so fast.........others wonder how to make time pass! It whizzed past for me with all its ups and downs, a year of change in many ways. I'm thankful for twenty eleven and wonder what marvellous things are in store for me...like opening a birthday present! I have this expectancy that something good is going to happen to me and I wonder what it is!

In India, we had one scam after another and there was an eroding of long standing institutions which has bred widespread cynicism like the Orissa High Court judgment statement of the killing of Graham Staines and his two sons, twelve years ago.

"In a judgment drawing curtains on court proceedings in the sensational incident of January 1999, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan upheld the Orissa High Court judgment imposing life sentence on Singh alias Rabindra Kumar Pal and Mahendra Hembram. The trial court had awareded death penalty to Singh. The Bench said the Orissa HC was justified in awarding life term to Singh and Hembran as the crime was committed in the passion to teach Staines a lesson for his alleged attempts to convert tribals. Though Graham Staines and his two minor sons were burnt to death while they were sleeping inside a station wagon at Manoharpur, the intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely, converting poor tribals to Christianity. All these aspects have been correctly appreciated by the high court and modified the sentence of death into life imprisonment with which we concur, the Bench said."

That was awful....brutally murdering, to teach a lesson? Some days later the Supreme Court retracted that part of the statement but concurred with the Orissa High Court in general: "As there were weakness and infirmities of the prosecution case insofar as acquitted accused who were all poor tribals, in the absence of definite assertion from the prosecution side, about their specific role and involvement, the Supreme Court held that it was not safe to convict them. Supreme Court concluded with the hope that Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of religion playing a positive role in bringing India’s numerous religion and communities into an integrated prosperous nation be realised by way of equal respect for all religions. It also observed that there is no justification for interfering in someone's religious belief by any means. The Supreme Court also held that there was no material to prove conspiracy charge against any of the accused. Thus criminal appeals filed by Rabindra Kumar Pal @ Dara Singh and Mahendra Hembram and criminal appeals filed by CBI were dismissed." The 'poor tribals' can kill others or participate in a mob frenzy to kill mercilessly but because they are 'poor tribals ' they can be converted to another religion? That is odd and makes one wonder at our judicial system.

The Indian judicial system, the Indian education system, the infrastructure of road and railways, medical institutions have been based much on the British administration of India. The very parliamentary democracy which is followed in India is British! Although the British ruled in India for over a hundred years and looted much but they also gave credence to the geographical entity of India. The people of India by and large continued to follow their religions, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Buddhists, the tribals and animists continued to practice their faiths without being converted to the Christian faith. As far as Britian and other western nations were concerned, they had missionary activities all across India, which in any case had been happening even in St. Thomas' time two thousand years ago!

The fear that the government of India has of conversions is laughable. No human being can convert another and that is the last thing that Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian faith would want to have - followers who have been coerced to follow Him - it would make His Blood sacrifice on the Cross quite meaningless! Jesus Christ conquered death when He rose from the dead and only He has the power to forgive sins. When a human being realizes the need to be forgiven and calls upon the Name of Jesus, by faith the person is forgiven and cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. It is His grace - a gift - and freely given. The spirit inside the forgiven person comes alive to God and desires to follow Him through the Way, the Truth and the Life, which is Jesus Christ. There is no other way to heaven and life with God except through Jesus Christ. This is the newness of life which we human beings long for and we willingly follow Him even facing death and persecutions and imprisonments if called to do so. This is not conversion, this is transformation and the beginning of a new life in Christ.

That is why Christians work for the upliftment of the poor, tribals or otherwise, sacrificing their comfortable lifestyles, the ability to earn lots more money in their own areas/countries, to leave for some distant place where they may not find even basic amenities and they serve the poor of that place and help them to work out a better lifestyle where the government may have failed to do so. Now the political system in India has become so corrupt that they would like the poor of that area to remain depressed and poor and bound in a caste system and forced to vote for the political party which gives false promises and quick money......it is the politics of vote banks and not of service to the poor unfortunately.

The joy that Christ gives has no comparison! The peace that comes into our hearts can never be understood. The world longs for peace and it can never receive it because it is deceived by the systems of this world. The peace that Christ gives is forever and it is within. Thank God for the newness of life, thank God for the second chance that He gives. It is our free will to take it or leave it!