Night time surprise

12.30 AM. Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong.

We open the door. A beautiful heart-shaped cake is outside. 11 candles burning merrily around it.

No one in sight.

Well, almost no one.

A glance down the stairwell and we see the happy culprits.

Our amazing friends - John and Nalini Gabriel - with their happy twosome of Nikita and Jasper. This family started out from their home at 11 PM and prepared the surprise for our 11th wedding anniversary that started at 12 AM this morning!

Big grins as they came up the steps, hugs all around, amazement for our groggy kids as they woke up to the wonderful sight of their friends so unexpectedly present in our home. A big bowl of fruits (complete with coconut) followed. Then grateful prayer together for God's loving kindness.

His amazing kindness to us as a couple for helping us complete 11 full years of marriage. To us as a family for giving us a set of friends like this who place us first in their hearts. John left for Pune early in the morning. Nalini and the girls played hooky and took a day off school (unheard of in Mumbai-town). We were delighted that they stayed with us till 11 am before taking the busses back to Borivali and then on to their home at Goregaon.

What with a full 1 hour of sleep from 11ish to 12ish and then all of us up well past 2 am as we soaked in the joy of being together it was a shortish night. But how blessed to be blessed by such love.

11 years ago today - the two of us intertwined our lives together on a cold clear morning in Rourkela, Orissa. We did so through the promise that we took before God and man. Looking back we can only marvel. We have had our shares of rough-edges. Since we are our closest neighbours we have rubbed off on each other (and the rubbin' has not always beeen smooth). But what amazing grace as we see sooooooooooooo many many areas (to use my Dad's way of expressing himself) where God has allowed us to bless each other. Love is a decision - and has been nurtured over the years in countless ways.

And who could have imagined the marvels that Asha and Enoch are. Such mysteries they are - and in many ways how unprepared we have been to nurture them. And yet here they are - a blossoming girl who is about to touch 10 in mid-January, and a strapping lad who will be nudging 8 the month after. Two bundles of love and affection where the essential wonder of life is being played out before our eyes.

So much to be thankful for in the past. So much to live for in the present. Such hope for the future.

Its a great life. 11 years of marriage have been very, very, very good to us.

To all who have been along with us for this journey - thanks!

More than...

Who are we? What makes us who we are?

The young man in the pic above could be anyone. An athlete pushing himself further. A student determined to do well and get into med school. A child of God who has experienced grace - and is in the business of passing on the gift.

Caleb Baber is all of these. With a very signficant and life-changing twist - the picture taken of him doing a 5 km run - has left out a key component of who Caleb is at this point.

The picture above does not show the two prosthetic limbs that Caleb uses to walk with, to run with, to snow-board with. It does not show the remarkable on-going story of development that this young man is going through (previous postings on this can be seen here and on a dedicated blog here).

It does not tell about Caleb's being here with us at Jeevan Sahara Kendra for a month (manically sandwiched between his last day of exams of the fall term and the first day of classes of the spring Junior Year pre-med studies he is doing in the US).

We are so blessed to have Caleb with us. Life is more than limbs. And the two carbon fibre legs that Caleb straps on below his knees are more than just pieces of technology - they are extensions of a will to be all that God wants him to be - and parts of the means of grace which God is equipping him with to live out a life well lived.

Caleb has been writing about his adventures at JSK at www.calebbaber.blogspot.com

Talented class-mates

Woodstock School occupied only 700 odd days of my educational career - but the impact it had on me was far larger than the now 1/20th of my life that I spent there.

The 54 of us who stood starry-eyed on the stage of Parker Hall on the 25th of June 1987 to receive our diplomas and step out into a world of adulthood are now scattered around the world.

Each one has - and is - making a mark somewhere on this fine globe.

Some - like Merryn Glover - have turned to their prodigious skills to writing. Others - like Sundeep Gupta are public health experts in Uganda with the CDC. Others have taken to the visual arts - like Davina Stephens who shows in Australia, France, Bali and Goa (among other places). The list goes on.

Today a note came from Christabel Khiangte Corazza with a clip of her latest - a gospel song she wrote and sings along with the Carolina Voices of Faith:



Last week we were blessed with a visit by the evergreen Anand Sinha.

From his facebook page it seems the man spends most of his life on the seat of a bicycle - traveling round the forgotten fields outside Gurgaon.

In reality the man is a head-honcho for Abt Associates in India. Slipping off his tie apologetically after arriving from a business meeting with folks from JK industries in Thane, Anand showed up as large as life - and as bald as ever - making me look almost hairy in comparison:

The (now) bald half of the infamous 'Pundits' reunited!

In the all-too short 2 hours that we squeezed in before it was off to the airport for Mr. A - we caught up on some rather large changes in his and Ratna's life. Biggest one being the smallest - their wonderful daughter Medha who adopted them just over a year ago. Life changed from a twosome to a threesome pretty rapidly.

Anand made the impatient taxi-wallah wait so that he could see our happy 2 come home from school! With Enoch's second name being "Anand" (named after the very same one) we had to have our Anand and his namesake together in a shot!

Just a few minutes before Anand had been regaling us with stories about his interaction with the head of India's Government Anti-Tuberculosis programme. We drank chai together and marvelled at the roads we have taken.


And so it goes. We are so privileged to know so many remarkable people - and the crop of 87 from Woodstock School ranks up there. Hats of the the happy "chaotics" - wherever they are...

Night watch

The little boy was crying. He is 11 months old. He weighs hardly 6 kgs. Severely malnourished. Severe dysentry. The pungent smell of his leaky bottom pervaded the room.

I had walked into the JSK centre at the end of a working day. Sheba was there praying with the nurses and little Bablu (all names changed of course). Mohan - Bablu's father - was with him. Sarita, his mother, had gone back to the tiny room they stay in to be with the other three children.

Bablu's parents are both HIV positive. One of his older siblings is positive too. It is too early to test the boy (we will wait till another 7 months before we can be sure that any antibodies for HIV are really his own). But Bablu was clearly sick. Very sick.

We came back later at 10.30 pm. We had been to a prayer meeting and my friend Jolly and I dropped Sheba off at the centre to see how Bablu was getting on. When Jolly tried to start the car again it didn't. The two of us spent another 20 mins outside trying to get it going - finally a friendly mechanic helped us start it up and with a vroom Jolly was gone.

Sheba had still not come out - so I walked back into the centre. The child was crying - Sashmita - one of our nurses was holding little Bablu. I think his mother was cleaning some of his clothes. When Sarita took Bablu into her arms again he calmed down.

Sheba was worried. "The boy is very sick" she told me. High fever. Frequent passing of stools. Very undernourished. We prayed with the family again and walked home in the night to our children (who were sleeping with Agnes - Sheba's cousin who has just joined us).

It was a tossy-turning kind of night (thanks to Enoch practicing judo on me in his sleep) and in the morning we were groggy. But the good news we got when Sheba called up Sashmita at the centre was this: Bablu's fever has gone - and he did not pass stool again all night after we left.

Small miracles.

What a privilege to serve this family and be part of their lives at this very difficult time.

Blood lust

The front page of today's Indian Express showed a horrific set of pictures. Images from a video of what seems to be the killing of naked men and women in the final stages of the elimination of the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

The accompanying article says that comments heard on the video indicate sexual abuse had taken place before the triggers were pulled. The video - apparently shot by one of the participants - lingers over the naked bodies. In one portion another hand can be seen capturing the scene using a mobile phone.

The cruelty that we as the human race mete out on each other. Where else has this scene been played out? A quick list that forms in my head include the killing fields of Cambodia, the dirty war in Argentina, the clusters of massacres in the Balkans, the slaughters in Rwanda... and these are all during my life-time, to speak nothing of the long line of incidents that keep being done along the long bloody trail of our historic inhumanity.

During this week I have a task at hand. To prepare a talk on one of the names of Jesus Christ - namely "Immanuel - God with us." Christians usually come to this name around the time they celebrate the birth of Christ. Its usually thought of in a sweet and lovely way. My own daily reading of the Bible had me covering the events of Jesus' execution.

In my revulsion and horror at the pictures from Sri Lanka - heightened by the knowledge of the sexual abuse that was carried out along with the murders - my cry was 'God, where are you at this time?' There is no pat answer - but there is one of flesh and blood. This is where my current Bible reading offered some insights.

The nakedness of those corpses was experienced by the naked corpse that hung from a Roman cross in AD 29. The abuse by the one who knew no sin - and yet was executed in the most degrading manner of the day. They stripped him of his garments, hurled abuse at him, marred him beyond recognition, yet tried to keep him alive so that he would experience the pain. Soldiers have over the centuries excelled in rape, torture and killing. The professionals who carried out the execution of Jesus of Nazareth would have taken pictures with their mobiles if those were available in those days. Perhaps to show their colleagues in the barracks later, perhaps for their own blood lust.

But the indescribable was experienced by He who flung stars into space. I can only imagine - in the most superficial way - the horror and pain those men and women went through in that nameless video. Jesus has experienced the degradation, the tearing of flesh, the unamable shaming in his own body, in his own soul and spirit. He remains true to His name - Immanuel - the God who is with us - even in the most unspeakable situations - because He himself has gone through them.

One difference to the men and women in Sri Lanka is that Jesus' death was public. It was witnessed by his enemies - who participated in further hurling insults and abuse at him - and at least some of his friends. We are told especially that at a distance women looked on. Mary Magdalen, Mary his mother, Mary Clopas (possibly his aunt) and others. What went through the minds of those who loved Him as they saw Him being tortured to death? What went through Christ's pain-scarred mind as He glimpsed His loved ones looking on from the distance?

As horrific as the account of Christ's execution is (and most of the Gospel accounts use very sober language when I would have gone into the gore had I been there) the fact of the matter is that they do not end with Jesus' broken body being brought down and buried in the tomb. The structure of Scripture takes us further - to His victory over death and repeated appearances before his followers.

And scripture also takes us forward into uncharted territory for us as humanity. A time when all will be called into account. A time when the ultimate war-crimes tribunal will take place. Where every deed is detailed, every hidden act is brought to light, when true justice will be meted out - once and for all.

Whoever pulled the triggers in the murders of the naked men and women in Sri Lanka, whoever used their bodies to rape and sexually abuse those about to die, whoever recorded the scenes for their further blood lust - all will be called to account. There can be no other way. The Bible says that the dead, great and small will be standing before the great white throne of judement - and books will be opened (Rev. 20.11-15). No dodgy FIRs, no hazy statements - just the facts - whatever they were in those hazy jungle days. And the eternal consequences for those who have not repented of what they have done.

Cure for melancholy

Martin Luther went through many bouts of what we call depression. One of his favourite ways to 'get out' was to sing.

A quote the just finished book about this robust man:

I would add another. Looking into the gorgeous smile of someone you love.

Like little Shofar for example.


He may be half-a-world away from us - there in Phoenix AZ, but my does that smile ever warm the cockles of our heart.

Blues? Where are you?

AIDS Day musings

Another 1st of December.

The sun came up on a mildly winter morning in Thane. Before the morning traffic got underway, students turned out for a marching rally - organised by the government HIV unit - wearing their red ribbons.

Our JSK staff has been out on the streets - meeting people - talking about HIV testing - giving information and on the spot counselling.

Its afternoon now, and a portion of the JSK team is now moving towards Dombivili where the District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit is organising a special meeting for young people. We will be running an information and counselling stall there - and meeting with youth one-on-one.

In the evening we are holding a small prayer meeting at the JSK centre.

All of this - while the earth continues its slow spin around itself. For 24 hours the world commemorates World AIDS Day. The 33 million brothers and sisters of ours who are living with the disease have the virus in them the other 364 days of the year too.

Its easy to get discouraged. Its easy to tune out. To move along with the many other things of life. What good is what we are doing anyway? And who really cares?

The government is trumpeting the figures that the rates of new infections of HIV in India are halved from 8 years ago. Any reduction in the numbers of people getting HIV is of course tremendous news. We are still far from being out of the woods however. At Jeevan Sahara Kendra we see the damage that is being done through HIV. Each day we meet the wounded from the silent bombs that keep going off in our midst - silent because of the fear of disclosure - and of rejection. A fear so deep that many many die even though treatment options are now available.

The challenge for us in India is not to let go of the efforts at this point! Though the new figures are not even a month old we now have statements like this:

[BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation] Standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said, “The AIDS epidemic has been controlled to a great extent while the number of cancer cases, particularly among women, are rising. The BMC is determined to see that the project passes through.”

The context is a proposal by the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai (BMC) to build a cancer hospital on a site currently housing the Mumbai and State AIDS control societies.

Besides apathy - we also have plenty of down-right greed. The tribe of quack-doctors shows no sign of abating. They are happy to announce 'cures' (which are never free), but are never around when the person with HIV finally dies. The medical fraternity still remains largely indifferent if not hostile to peopel with HIV. Two months ago we met a lady who had been in labour-pains and was sent away from a private hospital where she. Sadly, is even our local govt. ART centre is accused of asking for bribes for treatment.

So how do we move forward?

Well, we do it by taking a deep breath and thanking God for letting any of us see today. We move forward by reminding ourselves of real people in whose lives a massive change has taken place.

We remind ourselves of people like Mr. Sam who joined our JSK staff members for this morning's outreach on World AIDS Day. Mr. Sam has had HIV for some years and was in such a debilitated state that he could not walk. But today he is walking on the streets telling others about HIV. Today he looks after his family with such amazing love. Today he radiates the simple joy he has found in Jesus in a way that humbles.

We thank God that we live in a country where Anti-Retroviral medications are free from the government. We now have over 100 of our Positive Friends taking ART - and what a difference it makes.

We are humbled by the quiet saints who are helping out in big and small ways. Some who whisper prayers each day for our dear friends with HIV. Others who come along and visit people in their homes. Still others who quietly support widows with house-rents and children's educational fees.

The list goes on. We move forward because a small but real number of God's people love.

Oh that we would see more. And that HIV/AIDS would only appear in our children's history books - rather than in the flesh-and-blood lives of our brothers and sisters!