UBS Graduation 2011

I finished speaking. We prayed. I left.

Left our Sunday morning worship at Jolly and Suma's home in Samata Nagar for Pune. Left to get on a local train to Kalyan and then to catch the Hyderabad express up the Ghats to the once sleepy town of Pune. Left to attend the Union Biblical Seminary Valedictory service.

Thanks to a sliver of delay I got to the seminary when the service was in full swing.

The speeches were rather insipid - considering the amazing fact of so many remarkable folks having completed a superb 4 years of practical theological education - and the fact that so many of those about to walk across the stage to get their diploma will be shaping out country over the next decade.

I was there - primarily to meet some of the lovely folks who had interned with us at Jeevan Sahara.

My first surpise was to meet Jayprakash Chouhan right at the gate of UBS. Jayprakash and his friend Bendang Chuba were the first two UBS interns at JSK. And here he was - now a pastor in Pune. It was surreal to see Jayprakash with his wife and angelic daughter - and get a big welcoming hug from him as I arrived!

Rev. and Mrs. Jayaprakash Chouhan - and baby - dig into the food afterwards!

Everyone was decked out to the nines - and when I came into open air ampitheatre where the service was in session I soon saw the dapper Nimit Patel decked out in a sharp sports coat and Priscilla P. resplendent in a sari. Right after being seated by one of the many ushers - I found the head-usher himself - our own Paokholun Haokip checking in to say hello to me. Later in the ceremony I recognised the fourth of last year's interns - Naveen Bhambal singing along with the Marathi choir. This foursome are now poised to be final year students (a pesky set of exams lie before them of course).

And then there were the graduates themselves:

It was an amazing thrill to see Binson, John and Ashis - our JSK Interns in 2009 - be called up on stage and get their diplomas and momentos.

I had been trading SMSes with John - roundly disagreeing with most of what the main speaker chose to say (made all the easier since his speech was also printed out and distributed for all of us). This was made all the more surreal since I was flanked by what I understand to be parents of one of the graduates - who could only speak Malayalam and not a word of English - and were engaged in an animated coversation with their grandchild (or was it a child?). A quick scan around me showed a goodly portion of the crowd engaged in activities other than hanging on to every word that was said. The whole affair was rescued by the passionate goodbye speech of the class representative. By God's grace his was the last word - and my prayer is that it will have erased the memory of the preceding speeches!

Then the great moment came when our friends were declared graduates of UBS. No tossing of caps in the air. No bottles of champagne popped. A rather sober affair - but one where the big smiles of the graduates lit up the darkening night.

The happy throng soon clustered around the row of graduates lined around the edge of the area.

I had the privilege of meeting John and Ashis' families - who had travelled far to be with their sons on this special day. Ashis will be joining his church in Kalimpong as an assistant pastor. John looks set to take up the same job at the Tamil Methodist Church in Parel, Mumbai. Binson will be joining his church in Kerala. We have experienced so much with our dear friends - and are proud that they are about to impact so many others now.

Then there was time to get chowing on the spread. I was privileged to eat with Ashis and his family - and an extended faith-family of Nepali speakers who are working in the red-light areas of Pune. In the midst of all of this there was time to catch up with Lun, Nimit and Naveen from this past year's UBS crew. Nimit has been elected Vice-President of the student body for the next year (following the footsteps of JSK intern Arun Dimple). Naveen hopes to help us out at JSK a bit this summer. Lun was his normal coolness spiked with friendliness.

Its great to see our friends growing in confidence and ability.

And its also great to see into the future - a limited amount of it of course... I got to meet the three new UBS Interns for this year - Amol, Ezra and Ngamcha. Based on a quick get-to-know-you time with them, it looks like we at Jeevan Sahara are in for another good year.

It may also be our last one with UBS interns - as learned that this batch is the last one to have a 7-month internship time in their 3rd year of studies. From the next batch (the current first year students) - the new syllabus has a month or so practical experience each year - spread over the whole course of study - rather than the current practice of an in-depth learning time.

Ezra Pamei, moi and Ngamcha Haokip

But the story does not end there. Naveen puttered me through Pune town to the bus-stop. It was past 11 PM. I got into a rattly State Transport bus. We started mercifully soon - but ended up waiting unmercifully long at various bus stations. I was in a daze of sleep - bashing my head against the window latch (an old game that I have not played for ages - basically since I got married).

Somehow we got to Thane at an ungodly hour. An auto-rickshaw-ride home and I was in bed at 4 AM.

At 9 AM we started today's penultimate sessions for the CANA training in HIV care.

And we ended the day hosting the CANA trainees (18 of the 19 showed up) for dinner at our place. Life is certainly full.

It was, however, worth every ounce of tiredness to be with our young heroes at UBS.