Contemplations and Ruminations

The recent death of the four nuns belonging to the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity in Yemen, is hard to take in. They became nuns for a reason, they wanted to dedicate their lives to serving God by caring for the infirm and weak in society. They weren’t a threat to anybody, they were just caring for the aged in a war torn region. The people who shot them dead must have been really scared of what they stood for: love. Why else would they have shot harmless nuns and kidnapped a priest? They couldn’t understand this brand of love they depicted, and in typical barbarian fashion they decided to deal with it by eliminating whatever made them question their vile beliefs rooted in selfishness, vengeance and a self-gratification ideology. Fr. Tom Uzhunnali, the Salesian priest supposedly kidnapped by the IS, was serving the spiritual needs of the sisters and so far there hasn’t been any news about his whereabouts. Official reports suspect that he has been kidnapped and one can only ...

So where do I start.... January was fun, been so buried under books, didn't really find time to jot down stuff here. January started off on a fun note; after a midnight mass under flashing lights that were really giving me a headache, yeah, my church in the village is really big on tacky lighting... it's almost like a contest here. The more tackier and multicoloured the lighting the more it depicts your devotion I guess, and every religious establishment takes this rule dead seriously. I'm not kidding, I even went and told the guy in charge to please switch off the flashing lights during the service and he had the audacity to tell me to go inside the church and sit with the humongous crowd. Anyway, I went back to my place and whispered to my brother in law about the lack of etiquette in church festivals, and my sister glared at us and asked whether we had any ourselves...  The church with the flashing lights and multicoloured stars... After the midnight mass, we ca...

So December has been really hectic so far, well the actual craziness started with my sister's birthday on November 30th, when the city (Madras) started experiencing torrential rains. We were cooped up inside enjoying the downpour (little did we know that more was in store), taking pictures and getting drenched in the terrace and making merry like kids... the rain always does that, brings out the kid in you. So anyway, the rains continued through the next couple of days and then mayhem took over, the city started fragmenting into islands. It was chaos everywhere, but the stories that kept pouring in about ordinary people pitching in to help the flood affected people shed some sort of light on the whole ordeal. We tried to help by volunteering in church and driving around searching for bread and water to deliver to relief camps. We lost power for a couple of days, and that was another experience hanging out in candlelight; talking, musing and wondering if others were safe (we had...

We reached Paris around 8 pm, it was quite cold and we went shivering to an Indian restaurant nearby. A few of us didn't want Indian food so we went to a pizzeria  Had some wine (Chianti) and pizza. This is the four seasons pizza that I ate. It was nice sitting here with the group and discussing stuff, I remember the song 'Take me to church' by Hozier started playing and then we started discussing that. Didn't expect to make friends on this trip, even now we stay in touch, so glad I met them. Another fun and tiring day came to an end, got back to our hotel and drifted off to dreamland. The next day, had some really good breakfast of croissants and peaches with nutella,  and then set out to explore Paris, which has enamored writers for ages. This was where we stayed, Hotel Ibis Paris Porte d'Orleans, pretty neat place.  A bridge on the way Visited the Miraculous Medal church first where mass was celebrated and then proceeded to Notre Dame C...

So after a nice breakfast in Burgos we started on our way to Lourdes.  Fields of gold in France  Driving through France was fun, the scenery is amazing like this field of bundled up hay.  Rugged mountains The castle of Lourdes in the center. Our quaint room in Lourdes As soon as we reached the room we had to walk to the Lourdes shrine for mass. We had mass in this chapel directly above the grotto. River Gave, near the shrine The massive shrine  The site of the apparitions The source of the water that Bernadette apparently dug up from the ground By 5 pm the Eucharistic procession started, and nuns were walking with this blue ribbons contraption. The Eucharistic procession The procession ended in this massive underground church   It started raining heavily by the time the procession got over and it was nice walking in the rains near this roaring river to a restaurant for Indian food at a Sri Lankan rest...

The past few months have been terribly crazy, so many things have been happening (mostly in my head), that there aren't enough words to make sense of it all. It all felt like the ground beneath me was cracking open, the familiar ground that I knew growing up was now shifting and rearranging itself. The catalyst that set it all in motion and the beacons that shone upon a path, have been of immeasurable help and I don't know what I'd do without them.  Anyway, I wanted to finish this travel post of 2015, before the year got over... so let's get on with that. So in the last post, we had just finished our candlelight procession in Fatima, Portugal. The next day we had a guide who took us around the premises, explaining the apparitions and the story of the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francesco and Jacinta. The main church was under renovation and we couldn't enter it, but to its side is the grave of Francesco, the shepherd boy, depicted with a lamb on his la...