"It's all about the Journey"

Today, walking back to my room from the gym, I had the strangest revelations from the unlikeliest places.

I was walking briskly on the footpath with my ears plugged to music when I was slowed on my tracks by a grand old man who was walking ahead of me on the footpath. The pedestrian walk was quite narrow and enough for only one person to walk through at a time. I’m the kind of person who hates to get down onto the road let alone jaywalk with the crazy rush hour traffic. 

To my dismay, the old man was walking super slow, even slower than what is expected of his age. I tried to tell myself that he’s old and he can’t help it but he seemed to be walking slow on purpose. 

He leisurely looked around taking in the sights around him and appeared to be in no hurry. At this point, my patience was running out. Why is he walking this slow? Doesn’t he have any other work to do?(I didn’t either, but still..) Wait, he does know I’m walking behind him, right?

Now, there was a long trench dug on the side of the road (for around 100 mts) and I had lost all hope of overtaking him. Is he walking slow intentionally? To take revenge on the millennials for all the annoying things we do? Should I squeeze past him? What if he falls into the trench? Maybe I’ll squeeze through the other side? What if I fall into the ditch? Damn, I’m stuck behind him for eternity!

Wait a minute, is he looking at the sky?

That was when I started to notice.

I saw him looking at the tiny kiosks like a little kid full of wonder, he paused for a second to whistle back at a cuckoo that let out a tune sitting on a low tree to our left, and he greeted the friendly tea kadai bhai on the other side of the street and enquired about his son’s health. He even waved at two little kids inside a compound playing with cardboard planks as cricket bats and asked them if they’d let him bowl an over. 

I was taken aback. He had so much of life in him than a lot of 20 year olds. He was actually living every moment. 

 

After a few minutes, the path widened enough for me to overtake him. However, I didn’t. Unconsciously, my hands unplugged my earphones and I could feel my legs slowing their pace. 

I now knew what matters more: the journey, not the destination!

Am I worthy?

Last week I was invited to lecture a group of pastors belonging to the CSI Tuticorin & Nazareth diocese. Initially, I found it hilarious. Imagine someone as mediocre and ordinary as me, being called to address these men of God, more experienced in every possible way than I am. Then the reality slowly sunk in. 

I WAS TERRIFIED! 

I can't do this! Why God! Why do I have to go? ME, of all the smart, good and experienced people on this planet? 

Lord, I am but a child! I can't even talk sensible most days! I cried out. 

Like always, mom came to my rescue. She told me,"God wants you to do this for him. God can use even the stones and the trees to do this work for him. But, he chose you. He doesn't chose the worthy. He'll make you worthy. You are blessed to have been the chosen one. He chose you, so he'll guide you. He'll talk instead of you. You just need surrender yourself to him. He'll use you for his work!"

I was still scared. Nevertheless, I decided to go. Then I saw with my own eyes what I was capable of, when I had God with me. He spoke through me. He used me as his instrument to share his word. I spoke about the history of the Church, Ecumenism, the books of the bible and even about interpreting the book of revelation. 

Seeing how God uses the simplest of his creations for his great work, I'm humbled.
Those who are suffering from insecurities and anxiety, I want you to know this.

If you have God with you, no one can stand against you. No one on earth is greater than the person who sticks close to God. 

Unlovable

Some people are hard to love. They have a knack for getting on our nerves.

Remember that infuriating teacher who used to embarrass you in front of everyone or that know-it-all who kept shouting out answers in class. Didn’t we always want to kick that nerd with the annoying laugh? Don’t you need basic common sense to be a senior politician at an established party?  How are these celebrities full of crap? What do we do about it? Bitch about them online?

Social media has become the ultimate dump for people pouring out their unprocessed emotions.

If we actually think about it, there is SO much of hatred clawing through the internet. Why are there so many memes that are infused with loathing and hatred? Why are people like JULIE a contestant of Tamil Bigboss and BJP leader TAMILISAI the butt of every joke?

Not everyone has a cute lovely face. Not everyone has perfect hair. Not everyone may be a good person according to your standards. Not everyone agrees with your views. Not everyone may fit in the cool category.

When did it become cool to make fun of others, to create degrading memes, to publicly abuse celebrities, or to Slutsham people?? When did we start thinking that it’s okay to do so?

If we don’t like someone, why don’t we just leave them alone?

Or even better, What if we CHOOSE to love the unlovable, like how God loves us worthless shits??

#SpreadLoveNotHate #LoveTheUnlovable #WeAreBetterThanThis

To be or not to be?

Never once in my lifetime, did I ever think of becoming a teacher. Now that I think about it, I guess it was in my blood. My mom is a Professor and so was my granddad. My great great granddad was a school teacher and had his own “thinnai pallikudam”. Still, I hated the thought of becoming a teacher and always saw myself doing research and social work. But God had other plans.

Last year this time, I chanced upon an opportunity to teach at a semi-rural college in Madurai, my hometown. At first I was apprehensive but thought I’ll give it a shot. Turned out, it was the perfect place for me to be at that period of my life.

Being a professor is a huge responsibility. My students were just teenagers on the verge of entering adulthood. When I myself was in the midst of an uncertain lookout to find where I fit in the society, it was a dangerous spot to be in. And honestly every day, I was afraid of messing up and not doing the right thing when I’m with them. The fact that I’d been trusted with educating the next generation was scary and a big responsibility.

Sometimes, it’s hard being a teacher because you care so much for these kids but you also can’t control what their outside lives are like when they go back home. I have heard some heart wrenching stories and I have seen it firsthand and it’s tough! But as a teacher I hoped I could give them a safe and comfortable environment at college where they can have fun while learning some life skills. I am proud of my students and marvel at their amazing potential. Some of them never failed to astound me every day. Their brilliant questions and different perspectives on the subject were straight out of Sci-Fi.

Was I ever a good student myself? Not really ;) Yes, I liked to read for fun and liked learning new things but these kids worked way harder than I ever did in my whole student life. The downsides - though they focused on studying, they studied only for the sake of marks. Blame it on the stupid education system! I really hope I was able to create a passion in them for learning and to approach the world with curious eyes. Anything to keep them going in the right direction.

Most importantly, these kids have changed who I am and who I strive to be. Patience, acceptance, cultural differences, similarities in beliefs, the simplicity of being a kind and generous person, and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to grow – What else does one need to be perfect?

Sucked into the Web!

Hi everyone! 

I decided to write this one because it’s the season of Lent. And I’ve been going about with an anti-Facebook campaign recently. 

Basically my main aim is to convince people that there are far more pressing problems on earth, far more important things that needs to be done than to waste their time on facebook. 

I’m going to give you 3 reasons why youth (or anyone) don’t need facebook.

1)      Facebook is capable of making you a self centered, vain and narcissistic person. In due course, we start pretending to be someone we are not. We hide behind a false front and project our lives to be far more exciting and glamorous than it actually is.

2)      I'm not homophobic but will it not be strange that you will soon be sharing your posts with people of 50 different genders. You heard it right!

FB is about to introduce 58 different gender orientations for its users to choose from…. including trans-male, trans-female, asexual, polygender, trans with an asterisk (whatever that means), Non-binary and a whole bunch of other weird half-breeds- including a centaur. I’m kidding… but soon they will be having a centaur in there, I tell you.

3)      People spend 110 billion minutes each month on Social networks put together. That’s about 2000 years each month. Think about all the inventions we could have done, all the stuff we could have done to address poverty, all the medicines we could have made to heal the sick.

I mean, what do you gain from reading things posted by your friends anyway? Most times, it’s meaningless. “I looove my new haircut”<everybody’s like ‘So what?’>, “Today was the best day of entire my life!!!” <Nobody actually cares!>

How much time does it take to post something on Facebook? 20 seconds? Every 20 second someone dies by suicide somewhere in the world. Someone who was too lonely and depressed; Someone who had no one to share their problems with, because their friends were too much preoccupied with Facebook and other social networks.

Every minute you spend on facebook, 14 children die a premature death because of sickness in third world countries.

There are more pressing problems that we need to address: War, terrorism, poverty and sickness...

We want others to think well of us. But unlike others, God doesn’t judge us by the selfies we post.

You might say that you keep in touch with people because of facebook. But I tell you, if someone really cares, they will have time to call you, no matter where you go. I know because, I’ve been off facebook for two months now. And before I went to Glasgow, I had my account off for 1 whole year. True friends have always taken pains to call me. And the others who never called, they are not worth my time!

The Lent days start from today, the Ash wednesday. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days. These 40 days till Easter, we can give up one thing we like a lot. I personally feel God will be happier if you give up facebook and do something constructive with that time, more than you decide to fast or whatever.

Life is full of choices. It would be easier if God tells us, do this and don’t do that. But he doesn’t. He gives us the freedom to choose the good and the bad. God says, “I’m putting the good and the bad in front of you, choose the right thing”.

I’m telling you from my own experience. Deleting your facebook profile is not easy (it's still hard for me to think of doing it again), but I know it’s definitely worth it!

A teary smile

    I stare outside the window....not actually seeing the peaceful little city covered with a blanket of snow. Scenes flash before me; scenes from a decade ago; 8000 kms from where i currently live. I smile to myself and close my eyes…… a tear rolls down my cheek…. I miss home….

A year ago, I lived in a beautiful chaotic world that was home. I never cared about picking up clothes from the floor; had my parents to put food in my mouth as I ran about the house collecting my stuff before rushing off to class; never remembered taking my towel to the bathroom, because my mom was there to bring it for me.

Now, looking back, all this time I am away from home, I can’t believe I’ve changed so much. The metamorphosis from this gawky girl that I was to the woman I am now. It’s been an amazing transformation. All the new experiences; the encounters; places I travelled; the continents I have walked on; the people I’ve met; Sometimes amazing; Sometimes not.

I’m ready now. To step out. To go back to where I belong and jump headlong into the vast expense of human chaos. To take on the world with my bare hands.

And, when I go back home, I know it’s not going to be the same. But I’m sure my parents would be proud of the woman that I am now!

My tryst with Biotechnology

I wish I had an exciting story to narrate when people ask me why I chose Biotechnology. But unlike most other students, I didn’t choose it for the fascination I had for Biology or because of how I marvelled at the minute intricacies of nature. I chose it because I liked taking apart the legs of bugs and putting them back again as a kid and felt this would give me more opportunities to pursue my hobby.

But soon into the course, came the time when I actually fell head over heels in love with Biotechnology. I used to go extra miles to read new interesting things that I’ve never heard before. Then during one period I started obsessing over it to the point where I convinced my friends that nothing on earth can be as exciting as biotechnology. My biggest achievement was when my mom started referring to fruit flies as ‘Drosophila’ on a daily basis like it was the most natural thing for a mom to do.

Before long, my undergraduation came to an end and I was at crossroads as to choose one field to narrow down for my masters. I really had no idea on what to go for because all of them were dear to me and I didn’t really prefer to weigh one over the other.

My first love, which was Genetic Engineering, beckoned me to the wonderful world of fooling around with genes. It is almost as if God gave us a few building blocks out of his own lego kit to play with.

Bioremediation was a clean sweep (quite literally) and Biofuels tempted me with these awesome stuff to run your car on instead of the boring petrol.

Immunology remained close to my heart because it taught me how entirely different individuals (antibodies) can get attracted, complement and bond perfectly with each other.

But everytime, it was Microbiology that always reassured me how I am surrounded by millions of these little guys even when I feel lonely. Who can resist the allure of these cute tiny things?

The most tempting area was Bioinformatics and Systems Biology which keeps reminding how brilliant human brains are enough to create artificial systems that can actually surpass our wildest dreams!

I always thought Animal cell culture was wacky and more my kind. Because, for starters, it involved growing a part of a living tissue on a dish. And second, the fact that certain cells like HeLa cells can live forever(immortality mania) is like straight out of fiction.

After spending so many sleepless nights wondering what subject to specialise in and if I would hurt their feelings by picking one over the others, I decided that all of them were equally interesting. So I went on to do my Masters in Biotechnology as a whole once again, at the University of Glasgow in UK.

In a few more months I will be in those crossroads once again to choose what I want to do after my masters. So till then, I am going to live my Homo sapien life to the fullest and bond with the delightful little moulds that are currently infesting my bathroom! They look like “fun-guys” ;)

Tales of Blood and Sweat

In recent years, there has been a lot of reports on illegal migrants crossing seas to get refuge in foreign lands. Desperation due to poverty, terrorism and unemployment are the main forces behind this surge in perilous crossings. Unmindful of the dreads awaiting them at sea and the unwelcome lands, millions sell their properties to hire unworthy sea vessels to find a life abroad.

Tourists watch a dead migrant lying on the beach in Greece

This has led to a lot of disdain and enforcement of tougher policies by the affected countries that fear the added responsibility to provide food and shelter for innumerable people seeking asylum might put a strain on the country’s distribution of wealth and employment for its own citizens.

We mark boundaries and map out our countries. We try to develop our own land without looking at the dying just outside our borders. Little do we realise that the land we live in, is not our own! Humans have a life span of about 80 years…. 100 if you are lucky enough. People come and go… In the wink of an eye, generations change. Civilizations rise and fall. In the little time that we live, we try to mark out boundaries and claim ownership for the lands. MAN DOESN'T OWN THE EARTH or any part of it for that matter!

But it’s the Survival of the fittest, like it’s always been. The rich and the healthy own the land while the poor are left homeless without basic necessities. To all those people who think asylum seekers and refugees from poorer conditions should not be allowed into YOUR land, What if it’s not YOUR land???  Whose land was it before you existed? Whose land will it be after you are dead and gone?

Aylan Kurdi-Humanity washed ashore :'(

The sad plight of the refugees is worser than any of your saddest days! If those hungry and scared people are ready to dive into raging seas and monstrous oceans in unsafe boats to travel to unknown lands of hypocrites, along with their children and new-born babies, think about the far more dangerous situation they face at home!! How can anyone with a heart turn away those people who are simply trying to secure their basic right to live!!

Omran Daqneesh- innocent kids caught in the cross hairs of the world's power struggle

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has said of Syrian orphan refugees, “I don’t think that orphans under 5 should be admitted to the United States at this point.” Could Christie look Omran in the eye and tell him he has no home in the United States?

We have failed Aylan Kurdi. We have failed Omran Daqneesh. We have failed all the other unknown children affected by war. We have also failed our own children, by leaving behind a disgusting world to live in.

Let all countries open their gates and welcome these strangers. They might be different from us; they might be of a different colour; they might speak strange languages; but they are just like us, people trying to save themselves and their children, only more scared and hungry!! Hope God opens the eyes of everyone with hardened hearts and let them welcome the refugees with open arms and selfless love!