The Shack

A German friend who visited GEMS gave me 'The Shack' to read, knowing that I am fond of books. I took The Shack along in my recent travel to meetings in Chennai and Pondicherry. To be precise, I read the book on the four days of my travel.

The Shack is a novel written by William Paul Young, who was raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of New Guinea. 

Reading this book had been a wonderful experience. I enjoyed, repented and resolved so many things in my heart. It has taught me new areas about relationships. God's perspectives to relationship told in a very practical way. Truly an amazing book. 

A brand new way of presenting God to this generation, that which is struggling to relate with God, in all matters, bogged down by the traditionalisms, expectations and all the hypocrisy around. 

Truths beautifully told in a novel is The Shack....

Read this book and I am very sure it will surprise you in ways you will not expect and will change you..... Also visit http://www.theshackbook.com to read a few pages online...

I Scream "Ice Creams"

I love Ice Creams. Chocolate Truffle, chocolate fudge, fruit & nut, vanilla, strawberry, butter scotch, Pistachio, cassata slice, all flavours! When I was in school doing my 11^th standard, my friend Antony Prabhu and I would go to an ice cream parlour which is very close to our school. The name of the parlour is Michael’s. The ice creams were all made in that shop and the cost was very less.

Vanilla was two rupees, chocolate and fruit salad four rupees. The man serving ice creams at the shop always calculated the total cost for the ice creams had by the customers by the cups on the table. We used to eat cups after cups that the shopkeeper would run out of cups that he had to take away our cups from the table to be washed and serve us and other customers. We used to eat 10-12 cups of ice creams each.

And I remember that we used to always go to that parlour right on the last day of our exams. A good way to end the exams!

Even now, wherever I go the first thing that I look out for in a place is an Ice Cream parlour.  So much so that my wife says that Ice Cream parlours have become my landmark for any place that I take her.

A few parlours that will always remain in my memory – the Michael’s (near St. James school) & Arun (near Singarathope) of Trichy, Fruits & Nuts and Baskin Robins (besides Hotel Maurya) of Patna and Kamadhenu of Dehri (though it’s not an ice cream parlour as such)!

When I was in Dhanbad, it was usual for me and my friends to celebrate all our birthdays with a good meal at home and end it with an Arun Family Pack!

You know why am I typing this today? Today is 6^th Oct 2010 and it is my wedding anniversary. We are in Sasaram with Angel’s dad. Uncle had prepared a good lunch for us. And just as I had finished my food, uncle bought a chocolate cone ice cream. Wow! It was good. My heart was merry and I remembered all about ice creams. Ice creams, a good way to celebrate anniversaries too! Thank you God for making ice creams!

My Birthday Surprise

You know what this is?? The surprise birthday cake that my wife had made ready at 1:00 am on 29th Jan 2010. My birthday is on 22nd Jan. But I was gone to Hyderabad and Surat for meetings. I left Surat on 27th, but my train was 5 hours late and so I missed my train at Varanasi and reached home only at 1:00 am.

I was very tired because of the travel and hectic schedule. But as soon as I saw the preparations that my wife had done for me, I became excited.

She had also made a beautiful card (actually a birthday greeting book) for me. She had not slept till then and was awaiting my arrival.

I was trying to blow off the candles, but couldn't. She had placed a non-blow-able sparkling candle :)

Then I cut the cake. My wife made my birthday a memorable one. I thank God for my wife who overwhelms me with her surprises.

Teacher's Day Visit

On 5th Sep 2010 the teacher's of GEMS English School were taken on a visit to Sasaram, the district Head Quarters of Rohtas District in Bihar. Since my wife works as an English teacher at the School, we went as a family to the trip. We all went in two buses of the school to the tomb of Emperor Sher Shah Suri.

This tomb belongs to the Emperor Sher Shah who was a commander under the Mughal emperor Babur and then became the governor of Bihar. He later overthrew the Mughals and established the Suri dynasty. He is well known for rebuilding the Grand Trunk Road. He died in the year 1545.

This massive structure is 122 feet high and it is built in the center of an artificial lake.

We all went around this place for sometime. Then we had games. The female staff played passing the ball and the male staff played a game in which each male member was given a name of a fruit and the ring was thrown up and the name of a fruit was called. We had to quickly respond and catch the ring or else we lose. Then all were given newspaper sheets and were told to tear them and make into a long rope without any cut. The games were all interesting.

We all had some snack and then we left back to the campus in the evening.

We all had a good time of fellowship and the teacher's day was a memorable one.

My Wedding Story

My wedding with Angel took place on 6th October 2008. I thought as we will be celebrating our 2nd Wedding Anniversary in four days time, it would be appropriate to write my wedding story.

 

My director Brother Augustine Jebakumar brought me the proposal of Angel in Feb 2008. I had laid a few stipulations for the girl-to-become-my-wife. One, she should be a believer and committed herself to do only God's will. Second, should speak Tamil (as I wanted her to converse well with my parents and all my relatives). Thirdly, she should be ready to go with me wherever God send us and to live anywhere in any condition.

 

I was against caste based marriage and after marriage I came to know that Angel also had determined the same. Angel had already passed all my laid tests.

 

I was very busy with the preparations of posters for the meeting in March 2008 in Sikaria and so couldn't give my reply regarding the proposal. Later I came to know that Angel's parents were very anxious to know my reply.

 

The meeting got over on 29th March 2008. On 31st March I spent time alone with God to know His will for my marriage. God gave me a verse and confirmed that Angel is the one to become my wife. I came out of my room, smiling (every one noticed that!). The same day I gave my reply to my director and he conveyed it to Angel's parents. Her father came and met me the very next day. I talked to my parents regarding this. Angel's parents and sister and her husband went to my home in Trichy and met my parents in the last week of April and our marriage was fixed.

 

But, on 5th May as I got up early in the morning, I had terrible pain in my stomach and couldn't even brush my teeth. I called for help and I was taken to the hospital in our campus. The pain was excruciating and was unbearable to bear. I was put on pain killers. I was diagnosed with Pancreatitis. I was shifted to a hospital in Varanasi and was entirely on pain killers for 5 days. As it was getting worse I was flown from Varanasi to Delhi to Chennai and was admitted in CMC, Vellore. There after all diagnosis the cause was found as Pararthyroid Adenoma. I was operated. All this took five long months.

 

Pain, diagnostic tests, medicines, pathiya sapadu (sick-bed food), books and SMS (from my would-be!) became part of my life for all those five months. As nobody was sure when I would be healed, our marriage kept postponing. Doctors had even said that I may not live. Later I heard that Angel was asked to forget me, because of my condition. But she kept on persevering with me, though in a distant land. All those five months, she kept on fasting and praying for me. God healed me completely.

 

I came back to Trichy and printed my wedding card.

 

I was back to Bihar in the last week of September 2008. And our special day was on 6th October 2008.

We were declared man and wife. And we live happily ever after.....

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Being Genuine

I found this unusual thing in a shop on my way from Darbhanga to Sitamarhi in Bihar. Honey Bees drawing honey from a sweet. I was wondering at the times we are living in. People talk about natural products - natural honey, natural herbal products, etc. But even nature itself is after artificial. When the source is itself not original or artificial, where can we go and get original stuff?

This is pretty much the same even with our own lives. That we think is authentic or genuine is not so in reality. People whom we think are credible fail. It shows the frailty of man. Added to it there is lot of hypocrisy around. People acting as genuine. But, hypocrisy will not stand the test of time and character. Because such people will be inconsistent in their words, actions and behavior.

Is there someone who is authentic, credible, genuine? No one.

But there is hope! The one who is connected with God, genuinely!

Because he will retrospect his life always and will try to live a life that is not hypocritical. Because such a person lives not to please men, but God. Because his standard of reference is God. His authentic connection with God makes his life authentic.