Positive Overtones

  The James Bond film 'No Time to Die' was finally released after much delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I did get a chance to watch the movie and was quite taken up by it. Being the swansong of Daniel Craig's James Bond, the movie would have definitely made some fans teary-eyed. But, what appealed to me is the level of emotions that came up at the climax. I could really feel one with James Bond towards the end when he cannot go back to be with his loved ones (in spite of him saving the day again!). After being poisoned by Safin, Bond cannot come close to his those whom he loved lest he kills them with a virus embedded in him. The whole plot itself feels very relatable and comes at a time when the world itself battles a deadly virus. The pandemic has indeed taught us how important is the need for physical company in our life. The border restrictions, isolation, and social distancing have put many at a distance seeing them as potential threats. I quite feel one with these ...

  "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth." (Luke 3:5) At the heart of every big celebration is an intense time of planning, organizing, and preparing. From the major sports events, like the ISL, to small family gatherings, like at Thanksgiving, preparation time is indeed the longest and most grueling time in the whole event. The rate of success of the event is almost entirely dependent on the time spent in preparatoin. Advent is the season when we prepare our souls to welcome Christ. The readings at every Advent season constantly emphasize the pressing need to be prepared for the Lord's coming. I'm not really against the Christmas preparations done at home where we decorate and clean up the house. Rather, my concern is our spiritual preparation. To be honest, there are times when I have failed to do this myself but I do believe that if we set this as our priority, our Christ...

 It has been a little over a year since I began writing postcards and getting into the postcrossing community. Nonetheless, the experience I have had is truly remarkable. To send a message of assurance, positivity, and love all enveloped in a tiny paper the size of a diary is just fascinating. Amidst a world where violence, debauchery, and greed is propagated, it is always reassuring to know that there are also people out there who work on spreading positive vibes. This is just a lot like the ripple effect that many people speak of since every postcard or letter sent is another addition of positive vibes being spread into the universe. This age-old practice of communication is still kept alive by many people around the world. It is an opportunity to voice out and move counter-culture to a world full of atrocities. For me, it is this age-old practice that can spark a change to bring light into a world that is accustomed to the darkness  

  The Bollywood film ‘Dilwale Dulhaniye Le Jayega’ is known for its iconic scene of the hero on the train waiting for the bride to jump on to the train with him. The scene has been recreated many times to show one’s love for the other. One of the more recent imitations of this scene was in Rohit Shetty’s ‘Chennai Express’ though it was done in a more comic manner. This iconic romantic scene very well depicts God’s relation with us. God is the protagonist on the train waits for us to turn and run to Him. However, most often our run towards God is marred by obstacles and distractions that keep us occupied. But, God’s focus and gaze on us is fixed. His hands remain outstretched to hold us and pull us close to him. It is we who need to maintain our focus on him. In truth, our whole life is a run towards God. Whether we reach him or no is all dependent on how we live our lives. The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the Christmas festivity. It is a time to clear out our o...

  Gopal was villager in Pimpalnagar who loved gardening. He grew a variety of plants there so much so that he could easily begin a nursery if he felt like it. People in Pimpalnagar called him ‘The Green Dwarf’ for his short stature and ability to grow almost anything. On one of his birthdays, Gopal’s friend gifted him a sapling. IT would seem like an odd birthday gift for others but not for Gopal He was so thrilled and excited on receiving this gift that the very next day, he was at his garden preparing a plot for this new addition. The problem was that he did not know what tree would emerge from this. The sapling was thin and sturdy and looked more like an ordinary stick. Nevertheless, he made all the necessary preparations for it and planted it. As time went by, the sapling showed no signs of growth. Despite all of Gopal’s efforts, it seemed resistant to change. But, Gopal did not lose hope. He continued to nurture it with care, waiting for it to grow. His neighbours began advi...

  Cheesecakes have always been a delight to my taste buds. But, until recently, I never realized the deep meaning it points to. It isn’t about its taste although I prefer the classic strawberry cheesecake over all other variants of cheesecake. It is the cake’s s tructure that really helped me understand a deeper reality. In Christian theology, we have something known as the mysteries of faith. These mysteries have be en revealed by God to us and we believe it by faith since our human reason is not so perfect so as to comprehend it. Nevertheless, we try to explain these mysteries by way of analogies. One of the most challenging mysteries to analogise (don’t bother searching through a Dictionary, because I have just coined it… it means to explain by analogy) is the mystery of the Trinity. There have been many attempts made towards explaining this mystery, the most popular one being St. Patrick’s clover leaf. A more contemporary attempt that I have come across has used th...

When we learn arithmetic and mathematics, the first type of calculation we learn is addition. One plus one makes two; two plus one makes three; three plus one makes four, and so on. It is only when we advance in grades that we learn the so-called ‘complex’ arithmetic calculations like multiplication and division. Now, it is quite ironic that God in his infiniteness and majesty is actually a God of multiplication. David Bentley Hart speaks of God as absolute simplicity. If it is so, then how can we conclude that God is the ‘God of multiplication’? For that, I reflected on key events in scripture that help bring out the ‘multiplication factor’ present in God.   We take the first event that is noted in the book of Genesis. After God had created night and day, the sun and the moon, the stars in the night, the sea and its creatures, land and the animals, He created man and formed him in His own image. Later, as he was looking for a suitable partner for man, he created a woman out of...