Woof!

Ingenuity can be played out at small scales.

Take 'Woof' for example.

One of Enoch's latest creations - a lego dog no less.


As a dad with a long history of lego-addiction (mainly in the pre-adolescent part of my life - but with clear relapses in recent years) I am thrilled whenever I see something genuinely creative come out of this wonder of a boy.

Wonder - because for all the inputs we as parents put into Enoch there is a vast amount of who he is about whom we know only the very faintest glimmer, the occasional glimpses of who he really is - and who he is becoming.

Besides the actual making of this little toy (using even smaller pieces to make the whole) - Enoch takes his play into another realm with the role plays and acting out he does with the little menagerie he created this time. He is quite able to spend hours alone, letting the little men and their beasts (or vehicles) live out different adventures. That many of them have a certain amount of conflict involved does not surprise me much - as I still remember some of my own creations which often included the war-like.

But the thrill of peeking in a little bit into Enoch's imagination - to see some of what he dreams about and which rouses his inner fire - put in concrete (if miniature) forms - and then acted out - is a wonder.

As a songstrel-king wrote many years ago:

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?^a]">

You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor. Psalm 8:3-5

And so before we go - another shot of 'Woof' - Enoch's lego-dog.

blood drop

This morning I had some blood taken from me.

Sheba and I decided it was time to undergo a small battery of tests to take a quick peek into how our bodies are dealing with middle-age. So we showed up bright and early at the lab of a reputed local hospital for our bloods.

Sheba - who is needle-phobic - was very brave and her ordeal first. Given the number of tests, the lady ended up taking what seemed to me a mammoth syringe of blood out of my dear wife.

Then it was my turn.

The lady taking the blood from me deftly found the little lump of a vein - and in slipped the needle. Totally painless. I don't think I have ever experienced being pricked - without feeling that I was being pricked.

Well - I take that back. Our dear friends the Anopholes and other spp. of mosquito end up pricking me all the time without my knowning it - at the time at least.

Anyway - the syringe was merrily filling up with my dark-coloured blood when I looked at the ladies hands.

They were gloveless.

She withdrew the needle and handed me a cotton swab to put on the site. She then put the needle in the needle-cutter on her desk. And then with her bare hands she took the three vaccu-tubes for the three tests to be done on my blood - and squirted the appropriate amount in each.

I looked down on the desk and saw a drop and a small smudge of my dark blood that had not been before.

I know that I do not have HIV - and so my blood poses no threat to this dear lady. But my word what about the next person in line.

The little spot of blood and the dark smudge next to it tell us something.

25 years after HIV was first detected in India - we still do not have the routine of protecting ourselves. The dear lady with her ungloved hands - and blood dropping routine - at one of the best hospitals in Thane tells us that we have failed to bring about a culture of basic universal precautions in health care in our country.

Patriotism for lunch

This was my lunch today.

Lovingly prepared by Sheba.

It contains a nutritional message wrapped up in our national flag!

Try to make sure that our meals include all the colours of our flag:

Saffron - a dal based curry of some sort - here a delicious sambhar (with mooli!) plays that part - dal contains proteins that have all the 10 essential amino acids

White - rice - lots of carbohydrates for energy (and do we ever need energy to push through the day)

Green - veggies - here essayed by an excellent palak subji prepared just the way I like it by Sheba (come to think of it - almost everything she makes is 'just the way I like it'). Vitamins galore.

Jai Hind!

Oma

If children are a gift from God, then so are parents.

Sheba and I have been blessed with two remarkable sets of parents.

We had the joy of a fortnight with one of them: Oma

Born in 1937. Experienced the ravages of WW2 as a girl younger to what Asha is today. Away from her parents for 3 years between the ages of 6 and 9 as the allied bombers smashed German cities to bits.

Saw the Soviets come in and loot whatever was left of the rubble. Went to school being taught the gods of Marx and Engels and Darwin. Was not allowed to study further than 8th standard because she did not join the "Free German Youth" (the propagandaist Communist youth party - which everyone had to join in order to get ahead in the 'German Democratic Republic').

Oma (Christa Roesli Fischer as she was known then) left East Germany at 18 - and once free of the Marxists (like so many of her generation - which is why the 'wall' went up) - she wanted to travel the world.

Travel she did - England, France, Spain (picking up the languages on the way). And many other countries too.

But not as she expected.

God met her in Spain. Oma rediscovered the faith that had cooled a bit since her teenage decision to follow Jesus. And follow Him she did from then on. Through 2 years in Turkey - and then out to India. There she met Ray Eicher - and hence the next gen of Eichers in India.


This year marks 50 years of Oma's living out Jesus to others. We are just so grateful for what God has done through our remarkable mother (and Asha n Enoch's amazing grannie)!

We had a rich time of celebration during Oma's time with us last month. Cookies and cakes were baked. Meal times were enjoyed with gusto. Songs were sung and special outings were made. Asha's birthday added more pomp and circumstance to the many lovely times that we had together.

Bro Jolly's mother with Oma - two amazing ladies!

Our kids just could not get enough of her. All day long it was "Oma, Oma" from all quarters.

I think back on how much I missed out on having grandparents around in my growing-up years. I only met Oma's father once - and her mother a few times before they died. My dad's parents lived longer - and I was studying in the US while they were still alive so I was able to spend a few Christmasses with them in my college years.

But what a joy to have Oma here with us.


One of the great gifts Oma brought with her is her joy of living. She loves to be alive. To experience beauty. To appreciate things. To delight in people.

Instead of being tired and despondent. Instead of counting her sorrows and fears, Oma presses on with joy. This conscious joy despite a whole new set of issues to deal with - as she said this time: "getting old is not easy - there are so many things uncertain."

Our dear Opa could not join us - due to having to supervise urgent repairs on their house Shanti Kunj in Mussoorie. So Oma did double duty - with the loving not only confined to daylight hours.

But to sleep too!


Guts nachtle, schlaft gut!

Link ART Centre - and Roshni

The Thane ART centre has now registered 10,000 patients with HIV. That is a remarkable number.

6,000 of these patients are on 'live treatment' - which means that they have been started on the Anti-Retroviral Therapy for their HIV. The government provides the medications free (an excellent use of our tax-payers money by the way) and also provides CD4 tests at 6 monthly intervals.

The catch?

There are 3 doctors who service these 6,000 patients. Its little wonder that there are complaints about the service. When we visited to meet the main official, we peeked in and saw one medical officer wearing a mask - and another turned away looking at a wall.

The CD4 machine is also not fully operational. The procurement for vaccu-tainers and needles for the HIV testing has been bungled - so many who need to be tested have not.

This is the government set up. And this too in a fairly forward state, in a fairly advanced city, with a fairly well-funded programme to boot.

This is where we would like to help out.

We are applying to become a 'Link-ART' centre.

Among the 6,000 HIV positive people getting their ART meds from the Thane ART centre - are 120 who we follow up in our home-based care teams. We would like to start with looking after these 120. With medicines from the government.

Its a start.

We have not been giving free ART from JSK (though many would have liked it) because we know that if a person with HIV who has been getting meds from us needs to go to another place - the govt. ART centres will not accept him/her since they were taking it from a 'private' (i.e. not-government) source.

As a policy, we have thus been encouraging our Positive Friends to get their meds from the govt. And most have done so.

Becoming a Link-ART centre means that we are partnering with the Govt. ART programme. Patients who come to us will be given their monthly stock at our clinic. Our doctors will monitor the patients' progress in the monthly visits. Our home-based care team will check their adherence (which the govt. does not do) and provide encouragement and counselling in the home-visits. And if a person decides to move - we will be able to transfer their ART treatment to the nearest govt. ART centre to their new location.

We would expect that about 100 or so of our 120 Positive Friends getting their ART from the Thane ART centre would choose to get their treatment from us if given the option. This would mean an immediate upswing in the number of patients that Drs. Sheba and Marise will be seeing. Currently very few of them come regularly to our clinic - because they are already giving 1 day a month to visit the govt. ART centre.

And then...

I think that currently we have the capacity to see about 500 or so people who are taking ART treatment. It would mean a huge challenge for our home-based care team as they will need to follow up so many more - but I think it is possible. And I believe that we must go forward.

Each life is so precious. And we have the luxury of being able to actually spend time with our HIV Positive Friends - instead of what they currently experience - a brief glance and then being sent off to pick up their meds.

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Case in point:

Sheba met Roshni day before yesterday. Sheba had gone with one of the home-based care teams to meet a Positive Friend in Kalwa - when who should she see but Roshni.

Roshni's mother had died when she was a baby. Her father married again. The new wife couldn't stand Roshni. She was placed in a Catholic orphanage in town.

Somewhere along the line Roshni got HIV. When she was 16 she left the orphanage to try and make a life. Her father brought her to us. We got her into a 2 year programme for women and children affected by HIV (in Roshni's case she was both!).

Then we lost track.

Sheba went into Roshni's room. A tiny slum shack. She is back to staying with an aunt. After the 2 year programme, Roshni went to a Bible school for a year. For some reason she has returned. Things are not well. Lots of arguements. Roshni is tired of it all.

Sheba asked her about her medications.

Roshni stopped taking the ART meds 2 months ago. Her aunt says that she goes each month to the Thane Civil hospital and picks up her bottles. But these last two months she has not taken anything. The bottles remain unopened. Rs. 2400 worth of tax-payer money. But even more than that - a precious 2 months where the virus could have continued to be keep at bay through the meds.

After talking with her - Roshni agreed to come and meet us on Monday. She agreed to start taking her ART meds again.

Why had she come out of her home just as Sheba and the team (who did not know her) were passing by?

Roshni's kitten had got out of the house - and Roshni had emerged from the shack to find the kitten - which is when she saw Sheba.

A God-incidence. One of the many we experience.

From the point of view of the ART centre in town - however - Roshni is a regular patient. She comes on time and takes her meds.

Only she does not. Or at least did not for the last 2 months.

There is so much of who we are that depends on our relationships with each other. Roshni's unhappy situation at home - her insecurity about what will happen next - has been acted out by her refusing to take meds for the last 2 months. Its just so much more than just giving a person a bottle of pills - and expecting them to be taken automatically - even if they are as vital and life-saving a treatment as ART.

We trust that we will be able to start her back again. It will take further follow-up. And prayer. And practical love.

What a privilege to serve.

We have been told that we may be able to start our Link-ART centre by the end of this month. Lets see that it happens...

Lily

Sheba met her this morning.

At the age of 9 this girl has experienced more than most will in a life time.

Her mother was a prostitute. She was living with another woman who was also in the 'trade.' As a baby her mother abandoned little Lilly (not her real name of course) and went to live a man.

The other woman has since stopped being a prostitute. A large fat woman - she brought Lily into our clinic today. This woman is now working to help women like her leave the misery of prostitution.

She still lives in the area though. Her house is used as a church too. She has put her faith in Jesus and is also fostering 2 other kids.

Lily is not fat. She is very thin. She has been falling ill repeatedly. She has come for an HIV test.

Besides the virus - which we suspect has been in her body since she was born - Lily has also experienced other corrosive things. People in the area know that her mother left her. They callously keep reminding her about it.

How much longer will Lily live? Its an open question. We hope to start her on treatment soon.

Her foster-mother is a remarkable lady. There is hope. Lily is a brave girl. But it is hard.

That's why we are here. Meeting little girls like Lily are well worth a Saturday morning.

Concern for our Justice(s)

The most powerful man in India - according to the Indian Express annual power survey - is Justice S.H. Kapadia, the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India.

The reason they give for choosing a man virtually unkown to the man on the street is simple. Justice Kapadia and the Supreme Court is expected to further rock the government in the coming year:

"At a time when so much of Politics is being determined by judicial pronouncements and even observations - related to headline-grabbing court cases, the number one judge and the court he runs have become the country's most influential arbiter... The apex court has never been as hugely crucial in determining policy and politics as in recent times."

As an example of the honorable justice's sway they have this morsel:
Power Punch - He took less than a minute to decide, after hearing lengthy arguments, that the Allahabad High Court's verdict on the Ayodhya Title suit must be pronounced; threats of violence could not be an excuse.

We are grateful that we have a system of law in our beloved country of India. But for years we have been looking to our courts to do things that they should not be - giving our country leadership.

It is for our elected leaders to draw up policies and implement them. Our courts should at most be providing checks and balances. The judiciary should make sure that what is being done is according to the constitution and be a place where the abuses of power can be addressed.

Over the years, however, so much of our elected leadership has not really been doing what we elected them for. At best they have been timidly reacting to situations (esp. since so many corruption scandals are bubbling away) and it has been increasingly activist courts who are implementing many areas which the executive should be doing. I am all for clean cities - but it should be the Delhi government, not the Delhi High Court who makes the policy decision - and implements it - that all public buses should run of CNG.

And so it is especially disturbing to read the justification of a recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the commuting of the death sentence of Dara Singh by the Orissa High Court.

Let me say here something very clearly. I do not want Dara Singh to be hanged. I am against the death penalty in principle.

I will also say that Graham Staines was a personal friend of my parents - though I don't think I ever met him. My parents knew him well - and are especially close to his widow Gladys. His murder in January 1999 was a very sad day for us as a family. Sheba and I have had the deep privilege of meeting Gladys Staines. The whole world knows about her courageous and Jesus-loving stance of forgiving her husband and sons' murderers. Hanging Dara Singh will not bring the three back to earth.

There is, however, deep cause for concern about the rationale given for the recent supreme court decision.

Listen to how the Times of India reported:

While upholding the life sentence awarded to Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh for the 1999 killings, a Bench said on Friday: “In the case on hand, 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.”

The Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan went on to add: “It is undisputed that there is no justification for interfering in someone's belief by way of ‘use of force', provocation, conversion, incitement or upon a flawed premise that one religion is better than the other. It strikes at the very root of the orderly society, which the founding fathers of our Constitution dreamt of.”

This is chilling stuff.

Lets unpack it a bit. If you read what our most august Justices are saying - you hear this:

1. Graham Staines and his sons were sleeping while they died.
Hardly. Eye witnesses talk about them being prevented from escaping from the burning jeep while the mob shouted "Bajrang Bali Zindabad" and "Dara Singh Zindabad"

2. That they were being 'taught a lesson'.
You get the distinct impression that the hon'ble justices are agreeing with what was meted out on the Staines.

3. here is 'no justification' for 'interfering in some one's belief' -
well then... there is every justification for doing the most horrible things to prevent such 'interference.'

4. 'Interfering in someone's belief' can be done through a wonderfully mixed bag of: use of force, incitement, conversion and 'a flawed premise that one religion is better than the other'

Wow.

This strikes to the core of what it means to be an Indian. We may not be comfortable with the faiths of our fellow Indians - but they have the right to believe that they are correct - and even better than my own faith.

Article 25 of our Constitution guarantees all persons freedom of conscience and the right to preach, practice and propagate any religion of their choice.

Lets take an example.

I am not a vegetarian - I support the rights of vegetarians to propagate their beliefs - including those who are vegetarians for religious reasons. I support their right and the exercise of this right to try and convert me to vegetarianism. They have the right to feel superior to me if they want to. That is what freedom of conscience means.

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The saving grace so far is that after the judgement was published - an outcry ensued. Papers published the story immediately. Our 'civil society' swung into action. A joint statement by the editors of leading newspapers across the country demanded that the remarks be 'expunged.'

They were.

The Supreme Court acted sou moto and replaced the remarks with other ones. If you are interested you can read a reaction to this by John Dayal of the AICC.

What troubles me are two things:

1. The initial remarks by our Supreme Court Judges reveal that at the highest level of our judiciary we have a deeply anti-freedom agenda. I believe that these remarks reveal how much of our decisions are made. It is no wonder that various mobs (often the 'rent-a-riot' variety) continue to intimidate groups of people who are praying to Jesus across our country. The police - if they do come - usually detain the victims rather than the perpetrators.

2. The way that remarks can be 'expunged.' Though I am glad that the Supreme Court toned down the comments - what does it say about the processes of how judicial decisions are made and communicated? If tomorrow all the papers are outraged about something - for the wrong reasons - will the court rewrite its reasons? Though the most grevious words have been knocked out - the overall taste of the whole episode is pretty sour.

Plus, the replacement wording hardly does justice...

"In the case on hand, 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."

has been replaced with:

“However, more than 12 years have elapsed since the act was committed, we are of the opinion that the life sentence awarded by the High Court need not be enhanced in view of the factual position discussed in the earlier paragraphs,"

and

We hope Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of religion playing a positive development integrating into a prosperous nation will be realized. "It is undisputed that there is no justification for interfering in someone's belief by way of use of force, provocation, conversion, incitement or upon a flawed premise that one religion is better than the other."

has been replaced with:

"There is no justification for interfering in someone's religious belief by any means."

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But then again - this is hardly new stuff...

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15.15

Cry the beloved country.