Using what it does not possess!

Almost every day as I drive out of our gate, I notice this cat having its sunbath resting on this motor bike. 

The households in the family do not mind a stray cat strolling in their compound. The cat comes to the kitchen begging for its meal. It likes only sweet biscuits. The family consents. The cat wanders around in the viscidity and comes to the kitchen door two or three times for its meal. 

I stopped to ask a few people who were sitting on the veranda of a closed tea shop. With the 'locked down' like regulations the shop keeper did not open the shop. Even at 8 am they were still waiting for the shop to open! They are habituated to the tea brand that shop keeper provides. 

At the next junction, I noticed a vendor clearing his vegetable stall as was unlikely to have many customers as moving out of the house is restricted for this week. His response was again helplessness. 

The auto rickshaw stand had nor autos except couple of drivers in their uniform wondering how they would manage to find their income. 

At the hospital, I met a professional, leaving the hospital after 12 hours of work, looking tired and hurrying to go home. He wondered how long the current surge of the COVID pandemic would go on.  He conveyed anxiety and stress. 

I came back to think about the cat who gets looked after each day!

Bishop Philippos Mar Chrisostam, the retired Metropolitan of the Mar Thoma Church at 99 years started a new enterprise- rearing sheep to give away to families who had limited income. His thoughtfulness about people who needed help came to my mind as I reached my room for the day's work. 

People live stranded by the adverse circumstances. The vicar of  the church who called us to greet us for our son's wedding anniversary mentioned that there is so much need all around us for offering friendship. 

In our attempt to greet families on phone, who visit us with their children, we noticed that there is a group among them, who are weary and helpless with the pandemic depriving them of their daily wages! 

Many among us do not possess much even to meet there basic needs! They wait for us to reach out to them!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)