Building a wonder

Over the last week we have started building one of the modern wonders of the world - the one and only Taj Mahal. 

O.K. - it's the lego version of the Taj - but for us it is still a wonder.  And while it will not take (hopefully) the 21 years the original took to construct, we realise that the 5922 pieces in this amazing kit are not assembling themselves on their own.

So Enoch and his Daddy are hard at work play - with occasional inputs from the ladies of the house.

Here is Enoch putting the very first pieces together. 

A series of eight interlocking portions that form the base of this beautiful structure.

Needless to say, with so many pieces, just finding the right ones is half the fun of it.

Till now we have found almost all the pieces - with a few having to be substituted by our existing lego hoard.

Asha has lent the odd helping hand - and has one of the minarets to her credit.

Sheba is slightly bemused by the building fever that has gripped us.  We are trying to parcel it out in reasonable pieces of time (though Sunday night did see me scratching away on my own for a fair bit well after everyone else was asleep).
 

And so here is the progress as of this evening.

The base is complete, the minarets are up.

And the bottom of the main dome is being made.  A lot more to come, and many more hours of constructing this three dimensional puzzle await us....

Fire

We were driving the 'Papaya' (our orange Nano car) on a crisp clear Sunday morning to the home where we meet for worship when we saw a fire engine go by in the opposite direction.   "Must have been something" we mused.  Turning the corner just before the home we meet in, we saw another fire engine and some police vehicles.  Everything seemed quiet, so we carried on and climbed the three flights of steps to the beautiful home of Jolly and Suma where we meet each Sunday morning.

They told us that their morning anything but quiet.

The family had awoken to screams and saw smoke coming out of a near-by building.  Flames of fire could be seen and the fire engines rushed to try and help.

Sadly we understand that two elderly people were charred to death in the blaze.  There were a number of fire-engines who responded, but the fire-fighters ladders apparently only reached up to about the 10th floor.

So a couple had save themselves by standing outside on the parapet of their 12th story home - till the fire inside could be controlled.  They suffered severe burns but were rescued eventually.

Our friends told us how horrible it was to see the whole scene unfold before their eyes and feel so helpless as the people were stranded on the very edge, and the ladders were just not able to reach them.

Makes you think...

How close any of us are to disaster.

Would anyone in that upscale building ever think that the next morning a tragedy would happen in their own 'safe and secure' building?  Would anyone imagine that the best fire equipment would only reach the 10th floor?  What about the many 27 story high-rises that are mushrooming up around our city?

How brief our candle burns.

Are we ready for tomorrow?  Have we set things in order?

Are their people we need to ask forgiveness of?  Are their others who we refuse to forgive, holding onto our bitterness?

Are we right with God?  Looking forward to meeting Him?

The silhouette in the photo below could be you, or me... standing on the edge while the flames leap up blocking our way out...

Dear and gentle reader,

Please do not delay.  Listen to what the Lord has told you.  Don't put off till tomorrow what must be done today.

I include myself in this challenge.  There are many areas of my life that I would say are still undone, were a fire to sweep through and burn everything up.

Help me Lord, to live as you wish me to.

 It is not by accident that the topic I share on that Sunday morning was the marvelous work of God on the day of Pentecost - 50 days after Christ rose from the dead.

All those praying and waiting on God heard the noise like a mighty wind (though no hurricane took the roof off the upper room), and saw fire come down and divide into what looked like individual flames and rest on each person present.  And all were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The fire of God's presence - the purifying, awe-some, powerful force of God Himself, was now not devouring the 'new and living sacrifices', but filling them - and by extension all who call on His name - with His very presence and character.

As we cried out to God on behalf of the bereaved family from the near-by apartment building, and as we sought His favour and comfort for the man and woman who were injured by the fire, we also as a church sought God's altogether difference fire to fall on us afresh.  The power of fire and the destruction a stark reminder of why God chose fire as a way of revealing Himself to us.  But also the new way of living that we now have knowing that a different kind of fire has come upon His new body, us who call on the name of Jesus and are brought into the new family of the Church.

--------------------------------

photos courtesy of Jolly, Suma and Reneta Thomas

Under construction

We got a fabulous gift from the Vethanayagam family today.  5922 bricks.  And 3 books worth of instructions.  Enoch calculated the number by adding up the tally of each kind of brick as noted in the third book.

We spread them out on the floor into different heaps of colours like so:

Our fingers are sore from pulling apart the pieces.

But now the fun begins.  Putting each one of the 5922 pieces into place.  Note that the largest number of the pieces are white.

And what pray, may this all be?

What will rise in the Eicher household?

Well, nothing less than a Lego replica of the great monument to love that we have in Agra....

Let the building begin!

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.