Painting a "Wall of Life"

We live in a pretty ugly city.  And so any bit of beauty is always a joy - especially when created by loving hands.

Welcome to the 'Wall of Life' which has come up over the past month on the wall of the Lok Hospital building outside the Jeevan Sahara Kendra!

Till last month - the wall next to the footpath outside the hospital was the normal city wall - some faded colour on it - and the standard grafitti from a political party calling people to attend a meeting.

Thanks to our dear friends Ilaisa and Shubhra, we have been able to literally paint a very different picture.

Ilaisa hails from the S. Pacific island country of Tonga - and came to India with a desire to serve God - and met his wonderful wife Shubhra here. 

Ilaisa is an artist - and when this couple approached us saying that they felt God asking them to volunteer with us we immediately thought of tapping into their artistic sides.

So the 'Wall of Life' came to be.

Ilaisa and Shubhra came up with the basic idea of mural of a train running the length of this 4 ft by 67 ft wall.  Pulled by a cheery engine, each 'wagon' would have a life-affirming message on it.  Our staff chipped in with suggestions and Ilaisa and Shubhra came up with the design.

Who would do the actual painting?  We had just the people.   Over the past half year, our JSK staff have been working with young people, helping them understand the changes taking place in them and the value of making good choices in life through a 15 session adolescent club experience.   We originally targetted the 'graduation' for these clubs on the 19th as our 'painting day' - but then decided to do it on the 27th of February which was also a public holiday.


What a thrill to see the young people at it!

After we got the wall painted and ready for the new art, Ilaisa spent a number of days sketching out the basic designs and getting the lettering ready.   The couple then sourced the paints and brushes for the big day - and so we had 33 brushes ready for the 22 eager painters who joined us to make this artwork.

It was magical to see the joy on the faces as the young guns got going.  Concentration was writ large on their faces as they worked to get the paint on the wall.  Each one focussed on their colour and their bit of work - and then as soon as it was over - running over to be given a new task.

Over the course of the day, we had a number of requests by others to join in too - but could not add too many kids as we had limited numbers of brushes - and a terrific task of mixing paints and getting everyone involved - all at the same time.

Needless to say, the young people loved it.  We had to literally pry them away from the painting at lunch time.  And before we knew it, there were already kids back out at the wall, painting away.




We live in a place where there are so few real opportunities for young people to do something positive.

It was important that each young one was given an opportunity to paint.  Shubhra and Ilaisa coached them well - telling them not to worry if some paint ran down - we would always be able to touch up later.

Part of the joy that the kids had was that what they were doing will be seen by many - and that they played a part to make something beautiful - and meaningful too!


Take the panel above, for instance.  So many kids are still aborted when their HIV positive mothers find out that they are pregnant. The default message by many medical practitioners both in private and govt. service is: "If HIV positive and pregnant, then you should terminate the pregnancy."  This despite the good news that with the correct treatment, it is very possible to give birth to an HIV negative child.  Over the past decade we have helped over 20 women who have HIV during their pregnancies and child-birth - and by God's grace not a single child has been born with the HIV infection to these dear women.

There is hope - but the message still needs to get out!


The "Wall of Life" is one way of seeing people access help at the right time.   We have our phone number featured prominently - so that people can call for HIV testing and advice.  

At the end of the day, we are dealing with a disease which still bears the sting of stigma, even though almost 3 decades have passed since the first cases were reported in India.  We have made huge strides in the treatment of HIV and care for people living with the disease - but they cannot be helped if they do not come for care!

How much longer will it take for people with HIV to be loved and accepted?

The "Wall of Life" is a small step in that direction.  We are so proud of our young people for making this beautiful mural - and trust that the messages of hope that it shares in such a colourful manner will go far towards making a real difference.

Do come by and take a look yourself one of these days!

The Chess Player

A young man we will call Mani was admitted at our JSK Center Last month.  19 years old.  19 long years of HIV.  Infected at birth.  During his short life till then he had seen his parents die of HIV.  And his sister.

Mani was the last in his family.  All he had left was his grandfather.

Our colleagues from MSF asked us to admit him.  We did.  Sheba and our nurses worked hard.

Mani had Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis.  He was being treated by MSF but stopped taking his medications.  Then he got very sick.

We admitted him and started him on his medications again.  Mani was very sick - requiring oxygen and numerous medical interventions.  Sheba and the did ICU level work with Mani.  Sodium levels down?  Stabilise.  Potassium out of whack?  Put under control.   All the while trying as best as possible to love anc care for this young man.

Mani did not eat much.  His body was wasted.  Thin.  He said he would die soon.   His grandfather sat with him in the room - wearing a mask to try and keep Mani's MDR TB from infecting him too.

One evening a volunteer couple sat and talked with Mani.  "What would you like to eat?"

"I won't," said Mani, "unless you get me a game to play."

"So what game would you like to play?"

"Chess."

A board was brought from a near-by home.

And from then on Mani and his grandfather were at it.  Almost every waking hour had them playing chess.




We worked hard with Mani.  Trying to get at the core of who he is.  But most of our efforts were rebuffed.  Mani had had hard knocks.  His coping mechanism was to be a rock, an island.  A place where no-one could touch him.  He was clearly afraid of death - but did not want to talk about it.

After a week, Mani did not improve as we hoped.  In consultation with our colleagues from MSF, Mani was shifted to another hospital for ICU care.

Last week we heard that Mani has died.

Our chess player is in eternity.

How much did his time with us help him?

We don't know.  There was very little to see on one hand.   Mani came sick.  He left sick.  He was cared for with a lot of love (and much courage for all who put themselves in the way of possible infection by him with MDRTB).  We did not see much response from Mani - he did not thank our nurses when he left.  But we could see the tears in his grand-father's eyes.

How do you measure impact into lives like Mani's?

Kudos to our staff who keep loving.  Prayers for our staff to keep on loving.  We wish we had met Mani earlier - at a different point in his life.  But in the end we are glad to have cared for him - even if it was for just a short time.  Even if it was just right at the end.

Trully, its better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

"Perfect love casts out fear." 

Score! Enoch's B-day Cake 2014

As the birthdays draw near each year, the question of the cake starts to pop up more frequently.

What shape will we make this year? 

For Enoch it was easy.  The cake was to be a Football Game.  Being the FIFA World Cup year - and having Enoch read the papers each morning to find out about what happened in the English Permier League or in the FA cup, the cake almost chose itself.

Basic shape as simple as a rectangle.  Icing green for the grass.  Kind of cake?  Simple really -  Chocolate for the soil.  Garnishings - lots of Lego folk!

So we started on the night before with a basic chocolate cake.  I use the Landour Cookbook as my baking bible and so here is the recipe from page 238.

Chocolate Cake (by Alfie Campbell)  recipe for  a 13" x 9 " pan  (I double this)

Ingredients:
Sugar  1.5 cups
Oil      1/3 cup (they say 6 tbsp of shortening)
Eggs   2
Maida 2 cups less 2 tbsp (I am not fussed about this)
Cocoa  6 tbsp (a little bit more doesn't harm)
Soda   1.5 tsp
Salt     3/4 tsp
Cold water  1.5 cups
Vanilla essence 1.5 tsp   

Like I said - I doubled this recipe and then added about 1.5 cups of raisins as well after it was all mixed.

How do I mix?  Well I mix the wet ingredients first, then sifted the dry ones together and folded them in using an electric egg beater / mixer 

The cold water is fun.  When I don't have enough in the fridge (many a bottle doesn't get refilled in the Eicher household) I use ice to get it cold.  The final 'dough' is really liquidy.  You wonder if anything solid will emerge at all.   But each time you bake this recipe - out comes a beautiful moist chocolate cake!

The cookbook tells to bake at 350 degrees farenheit - I put our trusty rusty oven (11 years old now) at about 170 centrigrade and keep turning it around every 20 minutes as one side bakes faster than the other.

After letting it cool - I make the icing:

Ground sugar (normal sugar ground in the mixie and then sifted)  1.5 cups
Butter   1 tbsp
some hot milk to help make it smooth and spreadable.

I usually make at least 4 batches of this 'basic white icing' - sometimes up to 6 or 7 batches.  Then I divide it up into small bowls and use food colouring to give it different colours.  I use small plastic bags to do the lettering - putting the icing in and stapling the other two sides and then cutting a small opening to squeeze out the lettering.

So for the Football Game cake, the basic shape is pretty easy (I found that my simple rectangle was not big enough - so I cut up the other cake into an annex and iced the whole thing green like so:

The next step is easy - to make the basic outline of the football field and the basic lettering.

Some concentration later this is what we had.  The family, in the meantime, was watching Tare Zameen Par in the living room - so I could hear the songs and dialogues while I bent over Enoch's cake in the kitchen.

I find putting the cake on a silver foil helps - in this case I used a serving tray as the base - and then put this on a large plastic bin cover for the stadium.


In the previous day I had worked with Enoch to make the stands and to find as many Lego mini-figures as possible.   We chose the two teams - vaguely modeling them after Chelsea Football Club (Enoch's current favourite) in blue and Arsenal in the Red and black.

I must say that since Enoch spends most of his time with the Legos on the floor - we did a two step washing and cleaning process.  All the mini-figures got washed and dried first.  And then those who were going to 'take to the field' got a second go around - so that we had clean little feet walking over our icing!

Enoch made up a set of goal posts based on the size that I had put the white outlines of.  We moved the stands into place and lo and behold - a whole game sprung to life!

As we zoom into the stadium we cannot help noticing that the audience is eclectic to say the least.  There seem to be folks who have come from far away for this match.

Maybe even from galaxies, far far away. 

Clearly the thrill of attending such an important match - to celebrate after all the 11th Birthday of a very special young lad called Enoch means that you can use your warp drive and jolly well truck it across the known space-time continuum to be there 'in the flesh' as it were.



One section of the fans - known for their rudeness to visiting teams - has to be fenced off for the safety of the players (both home and visiting sides alike!).  That the fence looks like large candles must be part of the whimsy of the current security chief - perhaps a way to soften the blow of being separated from their beloved football team even though they have loyally come to the stadium!

But let's leave the fans and move on to the pitch!

As the late afternoon sun streams across the ground - what a game we have at hand!

The blues are in total control of this passage of play.  The veteran Chelsea striker Samuel Eto is moving foward decisively with the ball with a crowd of red shirts targeting him.

An out and out striker - Eto loves running with the ball and taking a crack at the goal.

But then again there is not just one player on each team - being Enoch's birthday there should be 11!  Given the size of the cake - we have 10 players in the field plus the referee in the corner (and the two goalies of course).

Eto's team mates are also making a run for it!  We  are here - pass square one of them shouts - in French so that the Cameroonian striker can hear them over the roar of the crowd.

For some reason the players don't want to run to the edges of the field - where the large letters are on the ground - preferring to do their footballing in the centre.

All of this is of course happening in a few heart-stopping seconds of frantic play.  The full time whistle in painfully close to being blown and both teams are giving their everything to get a result from this game.

Our camera operators show us how well Eto's team-mates have managed to get themselves into free space as the master dribbler seems to have drawn all attention from the red-shirts to himself! 

What will it be?  Will Eto hear his team-mates and pass the ball over to them like he used to in his FC Barcelona days of tiki-taka-fever?

Or will he stay true to his died-in-the-blood lone-wolf poacher instincts as a striker - and just muscle forward to take a pot-shot at the goal.

As the camera zooms in we see the world from Samuel Eto's eyes - yes there are others behind him and to his side - but he has the ball and there are only 3 defenders in front of him and then there is the huge goal opening up like a mouth that must be fed.

Time is ticking down and the man in green could blow that whistle at any time now - so this means that  it's going to be Samuel Eto vs the World.  A shot is already being coiled up as he shimmies his way towards glory...

 

What finally happened in the game will probably remain unknown forever.   Just at this moment - where everything seemed frozen in time - and a myriad possiblities flowing out of the next decisive seconds of play - at that moment everything suddenly changed.

The security fence was on fire.  Those candle like posts really lit up - and the whole stadium was bathed in the eerie glow of the 11 burning columns.  And then there seemed to be giants around - singing loudly in the darkness - and finally a large whooshing sound as a giant in a green jersey blew out the fire at the end of the song.

Would Eto have managed to swing that ball through the fence of defenders ahead of him? 

We will never know - since his magical moving forward was stopped right there...  frozen in time and space.

And what's more, the giant in green then took out a huge knife and actually cut open a big portion of the turf!  And before we knew it, the game had to be abandoned as the hallowed ground of the stadium - the pitch on which many a game of sweat and blood and tears had been shed - was carted off and cut up into cubes and transported into the wild blue yonder!

And so the football game ends.  The pitch cubed and wolfed down by a bunch of lads at Enoch's birthday party (we bought a few 'eggless' muffins for the hard-core vegetarians out there - only one showed up in the end).  Another year of cake-art-fun is over!

Butterflies on the Roof of the World

Last night Sheba told me to take a day off.  I did.  And what a beautiful day it was.
After a sleep-in till 9, a leisurely breakfast with Sheba, Amma and Appa I had a few errands to run (our Nano has developed a rather nasty rattle so off it went to the service station).  But then off I went into the wild blue yonder.

We are so blessed to be right next to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park - a total treasure of a place.  Just after noon I was walking up the trail to the ridge of the Pokhran Hills that straddle our part of Thane.

It was hot and dry, but I had layers of sunscreen and a hat and a water-bottle.  And I was rewarded with the fire-cracker flowers of the Silk Cotton tree  (Bombax ceiba) greeting me at every turn as I put distance between me and the city. 

Once on the top I was back in Narnia.  Not a single person around.  I wandered along the ridge, past the point we normally stop at, and further up.  The silence was complete.

On one side I could look out over the hazy clumps of skyscrapers that land-hungry Mumbai has caused Thane to break out in.  On the other side only hills and forest and the odd small rain-fed field that some of the park-dwelling adivasi inhabitants cultivate in the monsoons.

More red flowers beckoned - this time the 'flame of the forest'  (Butea monosperma).

 I was looking for my own private cathedral.  Walking further up the ridge in the quiet of the hot noon, it was shade that I was after.  I found a new spur going due west and decided that it was time to leave the beaten track. 

Off into the woods I wandered until I found a shady spot, cleared the rocks, set out my blanket and got ready for an afternoon of rest.   This is what I had to look up too as I lay down:

 And this is the delightful book that I had to take me to another place and time as the sun travelled from its apex down toward distant seas in the west.

Sheba had told me not to do any deep thinking.  I complied gratefully to her loving advice.  Hence a book that Dad gave me for Christmas - seen here with my excellent lunch of 2 Mussoorie-Prakash-Store-Peanut-Butter-and-Stawberry-Jam Sandwiches and Barfi from Enoch's 11th birthday.  One of the sandwiches had already happily made its way into my innards and the leaf had fallen from my shade-tree when this shot was taken:

 Butterflies on the Roof of the World tells the story of Peter Smetacek - whose father came from Silesia (a largely German-speaking part of what is now the Czech Republic) as a refugee fleeing the Nazi occupation just as WWII broke out.  Finding himself in Calcutta he started a new life here and ended up living in Bhimtal in the Nainital district - close to where I had done my field research for my forestry studies in 1993.

Smetacek senior was wild about butterflies, and moths.  And his son Peter took up this wonderful avocation from when he was 2.5 years old.  The book is a delight, taking you through a magical childhood and winging you across the country (especially in the Western Himalayas) in search of these amazing insects.

Dad had met Peter last year at the Mussoorie Writers Festival that Woodstock School hosted.  Along with Dad's Kodai school mate Romulus Whittaker (the 'snake man') and other distinguished out-doors-men-and-women, Peter had read out from his book which mapped out his passion for butterflies.

Dad had collected butterflies in his Kodai school days and donated his collection to Eastern Michigan University.  He gave his prized butterfly books to his alma mater - Taylor University.  Years later, when I was a student at Taylor I actually found 2 of them as they were being discarded from the library!  I retrieved these beauties and brought them back to Dad.  He in turn decided last year to give them to Peter when he met Peter and heard about the Butterfly Research Centre that Peter runs.

So Peter gave Dad two autographed copies of his memoir.  One of which I devoured this afternoon.  The other of which Dad is just coming to the final chapters of in Mussoorie. 

I came down the mountain after having travelled into new worlds.  The flapping flitting creatures are their in my minds eye.  Peter's motor-cycle adventures across the Himalaya are also there with me.  I spent an afternoon in total silence other than the birds around me. 

As I left my jungle hide-away I came across this gift next to the path:

 And then it was good-bye to the trees and the sky.

And hello to the joy of the city.

I have come back refreshed - blessed by a wonderful wife who has gone out of her way to feed my soul.  I take precious bits of the glory of creation along with me, images flickering in my mind.  A quietness and joy in my heart.  And am very thankful.

A day at JSK

10.15 PM 

Time to look back on today.

Alarm went off at 5 AM.  I put off the mobile and thought I got up.

Found myself in bed at 6.10 AM.

Gotta get the kids out.  Up Asha, Enoch!  Minimal breakfast.  Pack up the tiffin boxes.  Sheba ironed the uniforms.  Out the door at 6.40. 

Walk to school in the still dark morning.  Big yellow busses disgorging students outside the school.  Asha and Enoch cross the road and are dissolved is a stream of uniforms.

Stretch. Limber up.  Short jog starts.  Up the hill, over down past Glaxo, back past JSK.  Short jog but plenty of sweat.  There is a lot more of me than there used to be.

Shower.  Breakfast.  Bible.  Prayer.

Short talk with Sheba and then out the door.

At JSK at 8.

Daniel will be taking his Theology Extension exam today.  I check the email for the questions.  They are not there.  Start calling up Rev. John.  No answer.  Daniel comes in and gets ready.  More calling.  Not picking up.  Finally at 8.50 get through.  The question sheet is emailed.  Received. Printed.  Given to Daniel.  I can hear the first strains of the singing for the staff devotions. 

Out the door and over to start the day with the staff team.  Dr. Marise shares beautifully.  God's power and promises (2 Peter 1.3-4).  And what promises we have!

Introduce Shubhra and Elisha to the team.  They are here to volunteer, to explore what can be done.  I take them through the centre to explain what we do.  Sparkling clean.  Shiny.  The reception and testing and counselling room being painted.  We stand in a ward, sun-light shining through the windows. Beautiful beds around us.  Sadly - they are empty.  We don't have nurses.

Later, as I am talking with Elisha and Shubra I get a call from Dr. George Thomas.  Two nurses are looking for a job.  They are in Thane.  Can they come over?  Sure!  I text the address of our centre.  It is getting close to 11 AM and Sheba is on her way over. 

Elisha, Shubra and I walk out to look at the wall in front of the centre which faces the road.  One of the projects for them is to help coordinate our adolescent groups to make a set of murals on it.  If we don't paint it, it will be plastered with all manner of advertisements and slogans.  To say nothing of various men urinating on it.

We walked over to our place - where over the Republic Day weekend an NGO has decorated the entire outside perimeter wall with colourful murals designed by school children.  Powerful stuff and very motivating to have our wall in a similar way.

A quick hop in our Papaya (a.k.a. the Eicher Orange Nano) over to Bethany Hospital to see the beautiful photography/verse decorations.  Another possible project for Elisha and Shubra is to develop paintings and encouraging verse / illustrations for JSK.   At Bethany we run into Martin Abraham's parents and the man who had actually designed the Bethany decorations - Sam Thomas from Dehra Dun.

As we come back we see two ladies outside.  Are these the nurses?  They are.  By the time we parked they were gone.  They had met Sheba already.  Sheba offered them an immediate job.  They said they would talk to their parents and get back tomorrow.  Usually this means 'no.'  She asked them what their goals were - both said that they wanted to study more.  They have not even got their official nursing liscence yet.  Straight from Kerala.  We are desperate for nurses.  Still only running on the strength of one - our dear Agnes - with voluntary help four days a week by Lydia.

Back in the JSK centre, I give Shubra and Elisha a task of shifting books while I work on our prayer calendar for February.  Daniel keeps writing away.  The waiting hall has a number of patients.  I don't recognise most of them.  Some have come for HIV testing.  Others to meet Sheba.

Daniel finished his exam at 12.05.  We talk briefly.  He has one more tomorrow.  Then the next day he is hoping to see a prospective life partner.  Times are flowing fast!

We bring Elisha and Shubra back and pow-wow about how the young people can finish off their 15 session adolescent group with a bang - a 'graduation' and mural-painting day.  Tentatively we block off 19th Feb.  Shivaji's birthday. Public holiday.  Enoch's birthday too!

Before I know it - it's 1 PM - time to pick up Asha and Enoch from school.  The Papaya is still parked outside and I am late so I swing in and drive the five-stones-throw distance.  Enoch and Asha tumble in.  We reach home and tuck into the rice and dahi, with channa subji and aloo.   It's a reading lunch - we are well into Great Expectations and are transported along with Pip to the discovery of London - Victorian, grimy London as seen through the eyes of a country-boy.  The dishes washed we continue the chapter in bed.  I drop off for 10 minutes and finish off before I am out the door again at 2.30 with Sheba's lunch packed up.

I thought Sheba would be going for a medical CME but she tells me that a pest-control person will come to our home at 4 PM.  I get back to writing the prayer calendar when pastor Abhay Sharma and Bipin from Manna house come by.  Another tour of the centre and looking at shiny beds without patients. 

Pastor Abhay is working among Nepali speakers - with a special fellowship for women from Nepal who are coming out of prostitution called 'Everest Fellowship.'  They are also caring for those who are sick and have been looking after women with HIV.  Two died this year already.  Over Republic day a prominent local politician visited their home and was deeply impressed.  He has promised to help expand the work.  What a privilege to share some of our experience with these amazing folks who are right there on the front-lines.   We are starting another batch of trainings for local people in HIV care and hope that 3-4 from the Everest fellowship will be there.  We pray and I introduce them to Giri to discuss holding an HIV counselling and testing camp in their area in March.

In the mean time someone has been admitted.  A young man.  Let's call him Omprakash. 19 years old.  Long-term TB case.  Now shown to be suffering from Multi-drug resistant TB.  Our colleagues from Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) sent him to us since he has had a severe diarrhea.  I glance in and see that he is skin and bones.  His parents died in his childhood.  His grandfather is with him to look after him.  

Phone rings.  Enoch telling that the pest control man is outside the door.  Sheba is caring for Omprakash and so I head over home.  The walk takes all of 3 minutes.   The man starts spraying.  We cover the hamster cages.  Sheba arrives half an hour later and I am free to return to the office.

I keep working on the prayer calendar.  The clock ticks away.  A few emails go out.  It's 6 PM before I know it.  Agnes fills me in on Omprakash.  I want to talk to him, but he is sleeping.  The masks are on the nursing station.  A portable fan at the door sends the air into the room.  MDRTB is not fun.  But am I ever glad we have courage to care for this young man.

Walk back and a cup of coffee.  Prepare for the evening Bible study.  Sheba supervises Enoch's home-work.  He is supposed to show his English work-sheets to his teacher tomorrow.  Nowhere to be found.  He borrows from a girl in the building and industriously does the catch-up under Sheba's watchful eye.  I remember a boy who was like that a mere 34 years ago... Thank God we change!

Sheba and I leave the kids at 7.20 and are back into the Papaya.  A short trip over to Shanti's house.  The Tuesday evening puja is going on in the foyer as we come in and go to the lift.  Up to Shanti's flat and the small group there is waiting.  We plunge into 2 Peter 1.3-4.  God's great power and his wonderful promises for us.  Our group has 2 ladies with HIV and a young man whose mother had died of the disease.  An elderly couple who have not been with us for 2 months come in as well.  The daughter of one of the ladies completes the group.  It's all put very very simply.  And yet at the end of the day, that's the miracle of scripture - the unfathomable God has made Himself somehow understandable... tangible to our hearts.

On the drive back Sheba fills me in on Omprakash.  She also tells me of a couple whose home we pass on the way out.  They are both HIV positive and came to meet Sheba yesterday.  They have wanted a child for a long time but are unable to conceive.  Both are positive and he has been taking his medicines privately and now wants to start his ART meds from JSK.  He did not come with any papers.  He was supposed to come back today, but did not show up.  How to help?

But today a woman came who had been admitted late last year in a terrible state.  She was on TB treatment for a long time, but the treating hospitals had failed to do a simple x-ray which would have show a large pleural effusion.  We drained it at JSK and started her back on normal drugs while waiting for the culture sensitivity from the fluid sample.  And we prayed.  Today this lady is so very much better.  Amazing to see some of the fruit of love and prayers.

Its almost 9 PM when we return.  I drop Sheba off as she wants to see how Omprakash is doing.   We heat up the chappatis and sabji and start on supper.  I show the kids the new Sheldon Bangera video.  It's fun to see people we know and places we know too.  The Vinalaya grounds.  The YWAM centre in Lonavala.  Enoch is still working his homework.  Asha has memorised the first paragraph of Nehru's 'midnight hour... tryst with destiny' speech.  Sheba comes in and we finish off the day.

Tomorrow is very soon!

Construction

Nine years ago we were blessed to be able to buy an appartment.   "Buy" in the sense that we took a loan from a bank and have been paying it back for the last decade - and have at least another decade to go in payments.

Our home on the 7th floor of building No. A-9 of the "Happy Valley Homes Building No. 9 to 13 Cooperative Housing Society" was a great blessing to us in many ways.  Airy.  Relatively quiet.  With a view of the hills (until 2 big buildings were built there of course).  And located right next to our then Jeevan Sahara Kendra clinic. The set of events which ended up with our moving in in Feb 2005 was nothing short of miraculous on a number of counts.

Enoch was only 2 when we moved and the first night he stood up in the middle of the night and pointed in the direction of the front door and plaintively said 'home!'

After 6 happy years at our 'Happy Valley' flat - we moved to a rented place a stone's throw away from our Jeevan Sahara Kendra centre at the old Lok Hospital building.

What should we do with the 'Happy Valley' flat?  We wanted to rent it to people who really needed it - and who would use it for God's glory.  Rahul and Anu Thomas fit the bill.  This young couple were working with a local church - and often had young people over. Our pattern of having meetings in the home continued.  We were thrilled by these lovely recently-marrieds.

When they had to leave, we were so happy that the flat blessed another new couple - the very freshly married Anshuman and Alankrita Singh who are serving at field staff of the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India.   In December Alankrita gave birth to a beautiful daughter - Anandita.  Alankrita and Anshuman both went to his native place in West Bengal for this.

Two weeks ago we were in the flat when we saw that the paint was peeling and the floor tiles were bulging in different places.  The idea came into our head about doing renovations to the flat while Anshumnan and Alankrita are with their daughter in Bengal.   Some prayer, then checking our finances, then calling our contractor Ashok.  The more prayer.  Taking a small loan.  And we finally took the gut decision to 'go for it.'

Before we knew it, Ashok and his mighty men were already hard at work.

The tiles were soon broken up, and large new tiles are being laid the floors.   Next up was scraping off all the paint from the walls , and applying a plaster layer - and then primer on the walls - and finally a make-over using off-white paint.

Here are Ashok (middle) with two of his men.  They have now worked steadily and currently only the bathroom / toilet floor remains.   We are hoping that it that the flat will all ready before Anshuman and Alankrita and baby Anandita arrive in early February. 

We are pretty sure that it will look so much more spiffy than this - but we know that this kitchen has been such a blessing to so many over the years - and hope and pray in its new 'clothes' that it will continue to bless in and through do so with Alankrita and Anshuman - and our new little friend  Anandita come back to Mumbai / Thane! 

On the loss of hope in young people

A year ago we met an inspirational couple.   Ashish and Namita Shourie are helping run a school in a town in Madhya Pradesh which Ashish's parents founded a good three decades ago - and where his amazing parents continue to serve.

Listening to Ashish and Namita tell about what they are doing there was a thrill - and a challenge. How wonderful to see their dedication to what their parents have poured themselves into.  We know that as they impact the lives of the young people who attend their school, they are shaping destinies of families and whole communities.

But then, somewhere along in our conversation, a shadow crept in.

Ashish told us that over and over again, he has seen some young people losing hope.

When they are kids, they are full of beans.  The world is their oyster.  You tell them that they can be a doctor or a prime minister or an astronaut... and they believe you.

But when they arrive at the early part of their adolescence, many dreams die.

Ashish told me that it hurts to see some of those who used to be so alive withdraw into a shell.

"They look around them and see what their family situation really is like" is what I remember Ashish saying.  "We try to reach out to them, but they become listless and withdrawn.  They have seen reality, and are accepting what they feel is their fate, their lot in life."

Some of them have homes where when they realise the harshness of the business of getting by in life, they stop hoping and dreaming.   Others face inner demons of abuse and neglect.  For girls, the 'reality' that they are about to be married off hits hard - with many parents unwilling to 'invest' more, knowing that they will be leaving the home.

"We try to engage them again" is what I recall Ashish telling me "but, some of them retreat into another place."

As a family we love reading together.  One of the most entertaining reads of this past year has been "The Thief Lord" by the German author Cornelia Funke (we read it in English).   Currently we are reading Dickens' "Great Expectations."

"The Thief Lord" is well worth the read - for young and old - and strikes a number of deep chords, especially on the questions of friendship and being grown up.  Besides being steeped in the wonder of Venice and having more twists and turns than the road up to Mussoorie - the book reaches out to you because its characters discover what friendship, and the loss of friendship mean.  It feeds into our own dreams of belonging - and being part of each other.

What does loyalty mean?  How do we grow together and cherish each other?  The children in the book travel through fantastic adventures at break-neck speed (as well as with a great deal of quirkiness) through the fabled city of Venice.  They are on the cusp of adulthood - and the questions are real.

How do any of us transition from the joy of childhood into the mixed terrain of adolescence and what we call being an 'adult?'

At 44 I am amazed to be in a home with a 13 year old lassie and an almost 11 year old lad.   Enoch just finished reading 'Oh Jerusalem' got his first picture of the brutal struggle between the Jews and Arabs.  Asha is working through being one of the only girls in her class who does not 'hang out' extensively on Facebook.  Asha's closest friend - who is her age - recently decided that she wanted to be baptised.  We have just sent out feelers about whether Asha and her friend could volunteer later this summer with two pediatricians ... in Orissa!   Amazingly our little ones are taking big steps forward.

One of the advantages of books is that we can see the stories of others and live out our own through those of the characters.  I wonder how many of the children that Ashish and Namita are working with have the blessings of parents who read with them.  In our experience here in Thane, we see family after broken family where the father lives his dead-beat life out and the mother more often than not tries somehow to get the kids moving forward, but often just gives up because of the challenges of getting through each day.  How slim hope is for so many.

The challenge is to birth hope.  Which is what Ashish and Namita are so fearlessly doing.  That the tendrils of sadness creep in is due to the vast sea of sorrow that swirls invisibly around us.  Most of us erect the comfort zone of ignoring the needy and so move through life blithely unaffected - it's our main coping mechanism: ignore-ance.  Ignoring the needs of others.

Working to bring hope to young lives means getting messy inside.  Means being vulnerable. Means allowing our hearts to be broken too - especially when youngsters make the same poor choices their parents made a generation ago.  But the choice ends up between doing something - and seeing some fall through the cracks - or doing nothing - and papering over our consciences - no make that walling-in our consciences while this generation falls away.

The strength to carry on cannot come from ourselves.  We are too weak, too porous, too quick to get angry and throw in the towel.  It has to come from the Lord.   Who gives strength to the weary, who makes us rise on wings as eagles...

Lord bless Ashish and Namita.  Let them see many of their young people regain hope again.  Build up new webs of relationships that will see this and coming generations break out of the crippling mistakes that their parents have already made.  Lord send others to do the same work that Ashish and Namita are doing.  Bring about a new generation of people who really love others and are willing to invest themselves and walk with young people.  Lord start answering this prayer in me...