Flock, pasture and a day!

I was in the filed where the above sheep were grazing, at the end of the day when they were about to return to their stable!

I found all of them in different states of readiness to return. Those who were grazing, one resting and another calling out to return to the stable!

When they were let loose by the shepherd, they moved quickly to the path leading to the stable!

As I kept watching the eagerness with which they left the grazing field, I realised that their orientation was towards their stable!

An orientation towards home!

How to make a home, a place inviting for every member of the family to long to return!

Ever since the home became the acknowledged work place during the pandemic of COVID, work overtook the ambience at home. Most people work at home corresponding to their office timings and stay occupied. Children who are at home often wondered as to how parents do not have time for them during the day! A teenager who came to visit for his behavioural  needs put it bluntly. 'My parents have made work as their occupation and made the home to a workplace'!

A home is a place of fellowship and communion. 

What 'work from home'  has done to most of us is to make home an extension of work place!

As I watched the sheep long to return home and made their way with attention and interest it gave me a sense of what a 'home' is to be for our children!

I have teenagers tell me that their home is a place for their parents and friends to have parties in the evening. When children are asleep the parents return to the TV!

Our children live displaced from our homes!Is it so!I hope not!

A home is a place of welcome for children when a god bit of activities at home are centred in the interests that children have. It is for parents to lead children to the blessings and bliss a home can provide!

It is what children would receive from their parent's home in their younger days, which would give them an idea of how they ought to build their own home when they are married! 

A home is place of formation of character and vocation of family life!

M.C.Mathew( text and photo0

 

An Umbrella becomes the walking aid!

I stopped the car out of curiosity to watch how this senior citizen manages to use his umbrella as his walking aid!

It was an effortful walking with his left leg having some deformity and difficulty to move. I wondered whether it had something to do with his left hip and knee!

There are some regular senior citizens who struggle to walk whom I  come across  every day while on my way to the hospital. 

I wonder how they endure pain and hardship during their mobility! 

I enquired from a person who noticed me watching this senior citizen, something about the biography of this person. He walks every morning half a kilometre to meet his friend of his age who is bedridden! He on his return gathers vegetables for his need for the day. He lives on his own. He prepares one or two food packets and leaves them outside his house for anyone to pick up. The migrant workers who have been struggling to find work come to get the food packet.

I wonder whether he strains to do all this! He has a pension from the government. He gets enough to live on and to share his resources with others!

I was moved to hear this story of one person living with the Good Samaritan spirit even when he had limitations to move comfortably. He seems to have a resilient and overcoming spirit! Is  his desire to visit his friend and prepare a meal for 'someone for whom nothing is prepared' is his motivation to live above the strains of daily living!

He lives with a vocation!

It is contrary to self preservation in old age!

He lives beyond the consciousness of his failing body! He lives with a heart that feels and a spirit that cares!

I arrived late at work! 

However it provided me an insight about the missionary vocation of a senior citizen, who is physically limited!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

The three experiences of the first day at work 25 years ago!

I watched Saley, Shantha and Shalini making table candles in the department on Wednesday when there was an in between time! This is towards getting ready for the Easter Cheer in April, 2022.

The process of melting flakes of wax, transferring it to containers and fixing the wick when the wax was about to solidify offered me a learning experience of the steps and details involved in this process. 

The process of pouring wax without any air bubble getting trapped in the column of wax is indeed the most important skill that this process would demand. 

As I watched the above process I was reminded of three experiences which happened on the first day at the Christian Medical College, Vellore 25 years back when I started my life as a faculty in that institution. Through a Memorandum of Understanding between CMC Vellore and ASHIRVAD Christian Concern for Child Care, I was given the responsibility to begin the services to establish a Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore. 

Ms Annie George who was at ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai since 1996 had also joined on the forest day to start the activities of Developmental Paediatrics.  Premila and Shekar were to join a month later!

Anna too, stayed back at Chennai till all the services at Chennai could be wound up and all the facilities and equipment got transferred to Vellore.

The First experience 

Around 9.30 on the first day, when we were getting ready to organise the unit at the side room in the W ward of the Gastroenterology department, a professor dropped in to greet us. This professor, Dr Mathew Alexander had his training in other institutions and had joined CMC to support a department which needed to advance in new areas of service and innovation. 

During the hour long conversation, he referred to an empty cup and the efforts to fill it in his own way through what he was doing in his department. 

He turned to me and said that 'Most of us know nothing about Developmental Neurology and Developmental Paediatrics. You come to create a facility to convey the vision that you carry from the fifteen years at Chennai. In so doing, do it by collaborating and integrating with the ethos and character of the institution'. Turning back to review my experiences at CMC Vellore for eleven years before I retired in 2008, what stands out was a learning journey to collaborate and integrate with the ethos and character of CMC Vellore. 

It was on that day, I felt that I needed a work ethos to high light the mission of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit. It led me to define on that day, that the Unit can offer three features through its work style: caring and sharing; people centred approach; small and yet beautiful! Yesterday while on a zoom meeting with the current team at Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC, this three fold purpose of the department was mentioned as the character of the unit. 

I remember the professor with gratitude for his wise counsel on the first day of the unit. That made all the difference to know the way we are to be in  a new setting!

Inspite of all the care taken while pouring the wax in the container(last photo above), there was air trapping, which involved refilling the container! 

Doing and redoing would be the only way to pursue a calling!

Second experience

Miss Ann Bothamlay, a senior nurse educator at CMC who heard about the department dropped in around mid day to greet and share her suggestions to move forward. Just before she  left she noticed that the room was not well lit. In about fifteen minutes an electrician arrived with two tube lights to fix in the room. Ann arranged to provide the tube lights from her ward stock. I was new to the system and did not know how to intend for fixtures. I had no idea that it was Ann who arranged for the tube lights till in the evening when she returned to check if the tube lights were fixed. 

In the conversation when I profusely thanked her for her generous gift, Ann mentioned something which had a historical impact in the formative thinking about the philosophy of caring. She mentioned that 'while working in any institution, we have an opportunity to build to belong- each person doing something to help the other person to create a sense of belonging' !

It was this perspective that helped ASHIRVAD to incorporate this calling in its attitude to work and relationships. Dr Nisha George while working in the Developmental Paediatrics Unit in 1999 helped to design the following logo to highlight the mission of 'build to belong', which has appeared in the ASHIRVAD publications since then. 

What an insightful message Ann brought  in word and deed on the first day of the beginning of the partnership activity between CMC Vellore and ASHIRVAD to start the services of Developmental Paediatrics Unit. 

Third Experience

The Director of CMC Vellore Dr V.I.Mathan, who was also the head of the department of Gastroenterology dropped in around 4 pm to greet us on the fist day of starting the Developmental Paediatrics Unit. We had set up the space to make it inviting for children when they would come for consultation. He took time to understand as how we would get going in a small space when children come visiting for their needs! He felt the need for more space for us. He suggested that he would look for more space for us.  Dr Mathan called me to the directorate next day to say that he was in touch with the housing committee to find a house in the hospital campus to give for the department till the new centenary building would be ready in 2000 where the unit would be located. 

That was what happened. We were offered a two storey house with all the modifications needed to have rooms for the different activities we needed to offer to children. That house with garden space on three sides became an ideal setting for children. 

Dr Jacob Chacko, professor of Paediatrics Surgery was moving from an independent house to an apartment in a multi-storey housing complex in the campus. He had a lawn in front of his house from which he had gathered a pot of grass when he left the house, just before it was demolished. Finding the garden space around the Developmental Paediatrics facility, he dropped in with a pot of lawn grass and offered it to us to use it to grow a lawn around the building. It was the monsoon season and the we were able to use this pot of grass to develop a lawn on three sides of the building in. short time. That lawn became an activity place for children for out-door therapeutic play. 

It  was from this lawn, grass was gathered to create lawn in many empty spaces in the hospital and college campuses, when the Developmental Paediatrics Unit shifted to the centenary building in 2000.  

Two gifts connected with the first day of Developmental Paediatrics Unit: the director voluntarily offering more space to the Unit and Dr Chacko offering a pot of grass which grew into multiple lawns in both campuses of the hospital and college!

Annie and I closed the day on the first day with Annie praying, 'Lord make this small beginning a blessing to children and families'!

It was Annie who closed the zoom meeting with the Developmental Paediatrics unit at CMC yesterday, gratefully remembering the 25 years that have gone by since that beginning on 24th February 1997. 

The first day of many significant happenings in this journey of 25 years!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

25th Anniversary of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit, CMC Vellore

Anna and I were at cross roads by 1994 after having been  at Chennai pursuing the development of ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre from 1983. The  facility had invited the attention of the  academic community as a resource in developing perspectives in child development and rehabilitation. There were open doors of opportunities to find a future following the invitation from the Institute of Neurology, Madras Medical College in 1994 to develop it into an academic unit. The opening at the Institute of  Child Health, Chennai to offer teaching and training input for post graduate trainees in child health  looked promising. 

It was at this juncture Dr William Cutting from Edinburgh visited us and raised the a question, 'Will it not be better for ASHIRVAD to partner with CMC Vellore to start an academic Unit of Developmental Paediatrics'! No such department of Developmental Paediatrics existed in any Medical College in India at that time. He having shared this idea with Dr V.I.Mathan, the Medical Superintendent of CMC Vellore, brought back message of encouragement about CMC being open to look into this prospects. 

We stayed at this cross road for over two years, wondering whether to enhance our services at Chennai or move to CMC Vellore. 

A chance meeting with Dr. V.I.Mathan in 1995, who by them had become the director of CMC raised this issue when I met him during the governing Council meeting of CMC Vellore. He proposed that ASHIRVAD draws up a Memorandum of Association with CMC Vellore and establish a Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore by incorporating its Child Development Centre at Chennai. 

Between then and  January 1997 discussions proceeded by  CMC Vellore proposing in its governing council meeting in January 1997 to establish a partnership activity between CMC Vellore and ASHIRVAD to start the Developmental Paediatrics Unit. Dr A.K.Tharien who was the chairman of the board of Trustees of ASHIRVAD, who was also the member of the governing Council of CMC Vellore fostered this transition well. 

Following that, we transferred all the facilities of the ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre to begin the Developmental Paediatrics Unit on 24th February, 1997.

It is now 25 years since that day. 

 

When I returned to work last week after a week of break, I was greeted with the above collection of candles made in the Developmental Paediatrics department by the team who had a respite from the regular work due to the third wave of COVID. They were preparing for Easter Cheer in April when all the hand made articles would be presented to raise funds to support families who need subsidised care. 

When I stood around this collection of candles, I felt that those candles were memorials of the years of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit of CMC Vellore. 

Between 1997 and 2008 when I retired from CMC Vellore the Developmental Paediatrics Unit had developed training facility with award of post-doctoral Fellowship and PhD for Paediatricians and  psychologists. It had taken roots as an academic unit and service facility with some distinctions to its credit nationally and internationally. 

As I watched this common Egret in the photo below, flew past me early in the morning two days back, while watching the bird movements in our garden,  I was taken back to the years between 1997 and 2008 when Anna and I spent some defining years at CMC Vellore. 

Anna after her post graduate training went on to have a distinguished career in Pharmacology. While at CMC Vellore she became the co-ordinator of Continuing Medical Education department and facilitator for the Medical Education Unit. She became the founding editor of the Continuning Medical Education journal. While at the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences and lately at MOSC Medical College she pursued active involvement in supporting medical students in research. At the MOSC Medical College she became the founding co-ordinator of the Research Unit. It is amazing to see how Anna continues her editorial and research interests with active involvement in bringing out publications of ASHIRVAD in connection with its 40th anniversary in 2023. Apart from this Anna oversees all the formal matters pertaining to ASHIRVAD trust in relating to the government and financial planning and accounting. 

As for me the years at the developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC was truly fulfilling. Two of the trainees in the first post-doctoral programme, Dr Samuel Oommen and Dr Been Koshy stayed back in the department to give it leadership since then. They both have been engaged in taking the department to new horizons in training, research and services for children. Since then the time at PIMS Pondicherry and  MOSC, Kolencherry now have been years to consolidate and conclude the professional components of my vocation. I am waiting for a former colleague to return in September 2022 after her training in Neurology to lead the department. I was engaged in pursuing a call to live in an integrating way. The conversations and involvements to develop the theme of Life, Living and Learning still occupies a good bit of my attention. 

This Egret is  on its way to find its destination for the day! Its readiness to fly and find its direction for the day fascinated me. It would find its feed and its companions during the day. That is the certainty with which it is on its flight. 

Life is all about this movement from stability to vulnerability!

During this movement from more stable to less stable situations, the recollection of the past helps to draw inspiration from the surprising experiences in life. 

Having been given an opportunity to begin the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore was a big Surprise in our lives. It was no where in our horizon of thinking. 

Even when one gets older, it is the same openness to embrace surprising experiences, which stands out as a call in our lives!

The willingness to move from where we are to a new opportunity and opening is a novel dimension in living. 

When we were made willing to move from the known at Chennai to the unknown at CMC Vellore, Anna and were blessed with new experiences of joy and contentment. 

Moving is the way to live in the present and find a vocation in the new opportunity!

We celebrate the 25 the year of the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore and recollect all those who facilitated its formation. 

Annie, Premila, and Shekhar who moved with us from ASHIRVAD Child Development Centre at Chennai to CMC Vellore have been the faithful companions who walked with us in this journey to make the Developmental Paediatrics Unit at CMC Vellore what it is today!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

A view though the window!

I take time in between to look out through the window to the rear side of the building, where I sit to welcome children and families for consultation. 

The above was the sight of the backyard on Saturday.

I watched this builder laying the pavement from the morning. At the evening he had completed about 25 feet long pavement with these bricks. He placed them one by one ensuring the alignment. 

The tree that gave his shadow for a while was a mango tree with bunches of raw mangoes hanging in the tree. That tree might have a long story of existence there, considering that the tree is about thirty meters tall. 

That brought back memories of planting and building, both of which bring benefits to others in the future. The one who planted would not have been able to imagine the picture of the tall tree that would spring from a sapling. 

This builder would not be able to guess the comfortable walk the paved walkway would provide to hundreds of pedestrians in the years to come.

This is self giving not knowing the outcome! The reward for self giving is not available to a planter or builder. What both of those people did was far larger than their job to earn a livelihood. They were providers of wellness to others, although majority of them would receive the goodwill without even remembering to think of those who provided the facility.  

How are we to remember the providers and builders !

Most of us remember birthdays and wedding anniversaries of at least some of our friends. That is one way of grateful acknowledgement of memories and experiences. 

Another way that I notice in some others is the habit of remembering others who live win difficult circumstances. They might not have family, friends or neighbours who reach out to them in the special circumstances of their need. 

What if we notice others who appear to be lonely and bring s uprise to them! A person whom I was not in touch with for a long time sent me a message the other day! It brought immense joy and encouragement!

To notice who are silent providers and builders and remain unknown is a sign that we remember others who bring wellness to others!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo) 

 

A gift of Love!

We received from a friend the gift of a plant with a greeting card last week. It was to remember and recollect with us some anniversaries Anna and I celebrate in the month of February every year!

Giving and receiving bring cheer!

To be thoughtful and communicative is a mindful way of treasuring friendships. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Preparation for Easter Cheer

All of us in the department of Developmental Paediatrics had to be in self isolation during a two weeks by turn.  That dislocated our services for children. 

The above creations are illustrations of how those who could be present in the department spent their time, when they had a respite from welcoming children! Yes, there is the season of Eater awaiting us to display these creations for others to receive them !

We missed two Christmas season without the Christmas cheer that we were used to for eight years as the COVID restrictions restrained us. Now we are looking forward to the Easter 2022!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Waiting to find !

I found this Asian green Bee eater alone in the marshy field perched on a dry stem. Another Bee eater arrived in the scene and was perched on the cable adjacent to it. It joined the other bird and was found to be together for a while till one of them flew away! I am not sure whether they would meet each other again during the day. 

Yes finding and losing is the way of life!

This is what a child told me about this experience. He and his sister play Badminton and they loose the shuttle every now and then to the compound outside. Half of the time of the game they spend retrieving the shuttle from the bushes in the adjacent compound!

Finding and losing are therefore are common occurrences. 

Most people tend to think of friendships as constant and stable, instead all friendships are dynamic and tentative. 

It is honourable to respect and regard all friendships but not to get entangled or dependent to the extent that there is  a frustrating sense of loss! 

Hold on to friendships loosely and lightly! Rejoice as long as friendships are yielding and supportive; when they become demanding then friendships have reduced to be utilitarian. 

Live loving others and offering care whenever possible. Avoid thinking of any one as unfriendly! Make finding friends a way of living! Some friends are more cordial than the others. In all of these, stay grateful- this is my discovery and longing ! 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Presence and Nearness!

I felt moved by the communicative style of this Tree pie bird pair in our garden at dawn when the sun had just risen. Although the visibility of the birds is not as good as I would have liked it to be, the language of presence and nearness that the birds conveyed towards each other captivated me! Theirs was a tender communicative process. 

The attentiveness they offered to each other was striking. They gave each other full attention. The mutual readiness to hear and feel was conspicuous in their posture and behaviour. 

Becoming present to the other person while in a conversation is the way to be communicative. I remember walking with Dr Frank Garlick in the corridors of the Christian Medical College, Vellore when I was still in my undergraduate training. He paused with every greeting he received and exchanged the greeting looking at the other person. He would have paused at least twenty times during that seven minutes walk. 

I recall an instance when a friend who greeted me hoped that I would stop to greet and chat, but I walked away in a hurry. He telephoned me later to say that he was keen to say something but I looked to be in a hurry. Yes, I felt that I was not present and attentive to his thoughts. 

We can convert a conversation to communication if we can receive the other person and be present to the person by giving our attention. 

People around us are seeking for our attention. A mother who came to visit yesterday was heart broken when she realised that her son of three years has  symptoms of the same disease that she was suffering from. This made her aware that the chance of the same disease in another child if she were to plan for another pregnancy was high! That added to her sense of loss. During this conversation, all what I could offer was listening attention till she was ready to go home!

This way of listening presence and attention to the thoughts of anguish of the other person is a sacred experience, as the listener can help the other person to feel the depth of emotions and create a space for the person to attend to them!

Every time I face such occasions, there is also an inhibition to be present as it consumes time and attention!

And yet, the gift we can offer, can be an occasion of comfort opening the door of recovery path for that person! 

At the end of each day, what finally matters is how our openness to listen brought comfort and hope to others.

Listening is a way of becoming present to ourselves and to the other person!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Beyond the obvious!

It was only when I was able to capture the flight movement of an Asian Green Bee eater, I realised how much colour and elegance were hidden in its wings! The design on its wings spread out into a wide span was a surprise! So much hidden in its wings!

How much of us are known to others! We can live insular lives or live openly for others to know as we are to be known!

Two followers in their curiosity asked Jesus of Nazareth once, 'Where are you staying'! Jesus responded, 'come and you will see'! (John.1: 35-39). The two stayed with Jesus that night. 

We are often hesitant to make ourselves known. The dichotomy between what we present ourselves to others and what we are truly inside is an issue that we overlook. We get away by our words and the impressions we create about ourselves. 

I have a long journey to make to match my words with the way I live. I was waiting to get some medicines form the hospital pharmacy. I was hoping that I would be served out of turn because I am a faculty in the hospital. It was during the ten minutes I had rot wait, I realised how self absorbed I was about myself! I should be promoting to serve others first before I am served! That is true hospitality in a hospital towards strangers! I struggled to stay content till I was served.

It is a little thing one might say. But it is more than that! It is a pointer to how we live relationally! We can live engaging our own interests or move about mindful of the needs of others. 

To watch the colourful spread of the wings of a Bee eater gave me something to ponder upon! When I am exposed what do I leave behind as a witness or an example!

A group of interns stopped to greet me. With all of them wearing face masks, I presumed them to be students. I enquired about their forthcoming examinations. It was then I recognised one of them, who belongs to our foster family. The face masks can be a symbol of our intent to hid ourselves from being known! 

We live knowing others distantly even in our work place. We are weary of nearness and knowing each other beyond the social acquaintances. That gives us the protection from self disclosure. 

I struggle with this in my life. To live openly and confessionally in order to be appreciative of the goodness in others! To be known to each other through the goodness we spread around us!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Looking to see!

Of all the birds I have become familiar, the King fisher has surprised me the most because of their alertness and promptness! 

The King fisher in the photo series above is often found on this cable at day break. It is stationed in this site for nearly half an hour most morning and keeps looking at the movements and activities around it. I have not noticed it pouncing on insects of fish in the marshy field below at this time of the day! Its breakfast feeding is at a later occasion. 

I have wondered what this bird might be doing through this searching look all around! The King fishers live mostly in their territory and not often are trans-territorial.  

It was later in the day I noticed that from this height it would then go to perch on shrubs near the stream, edge of pool of water or in an elevated place near the marshy ground to fly down to catch the feed and return to its earlier position to swallow the catch. Often the King fishers are found as singles during such times. 

The way the King fishers function is interesting! From an overview to a focussed attention on its feed! 

When this is over the King fishers are found in tall trees resting! 

Its vigilant look, awareness of its surroundings and the clever way it finds its feed fascinated me. Perhaps the largest number of photos I have in my collection would be of King fishers. 

 To live with a sense of awareness of the environment in which we live is the need of the hour!

Recently  the Christian Medical College, Vellore lost its right to admit students for post graduate training who are sponsored by different churches and hospitals. This is a departure from what has been the practice for over fifty years. We would never know if this privilege would be restored! As the honourable Supreme Court hears the appeal on 14th Feb 2022, I hope there would be a favourable decision for  CMC Vellore. The Mission hospitals in the country depend on this access to get trained specialists for the hospitals. Those who worked for two years in mission hospitals were eligible to be sponsored and were obliged to serve in the mission hospitals for another three years after their training. This seemed to work well and brought many mission hospitals to an upgraded status in their level of competency offering higher specialty services. 

We live with gain and losses. 

Whether we loose or gain, we are to live vigilantly doing what we are called to do. 

That is the least we can do to ourselves!

There is so much reference to the religious identity of people in India that intolerance towards other religious groups is the undercurrent in our social fabric. 

The righteousness that Jesus of Nazareth advocated His followers to practice was to 'exceed' what was prevalent at His time. I wish the followers of Jesus of Nazareth woeful be known for their uprightness and integrity so that even those who oppose them would not have anything wrong to point out! The followers of Jesus of Nazareth do not follow a religion but a faith journey to live serving mindful of their neighbours. 

The mission is to live as Good Samaritans. 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

     

 

Layers of goodness!

Every time I look at a rose flower in our garden, what overwhelms me is its rich colour, fragrant presence and the symbolic message! It gives a glimpse of the layers of goodness it brings to a beholder!

Each human being is endowed with such layers of goodness, although most of us do not see beyond the superficial or the obvious in people around us. We have a preoccupation of bias or suspicion of others being selfish or self absorbed. 

A senior citizen walks about a kilometre with his elbow crutches to take breakfast to a man in his neighbourhood who is bed bound due to a stroke recently. This senior citizen had heard about him about a month back and since then he does visit him every day morning. The bed bound person with paralysis on his right side has reduced language skills. From being bed bound during the last one month since this senior citizen started visiting him with breakfast, he has made progress and sits on a stool at the entrance door waiting for this senior citizen in the morning. On one morning when the senior citizen reached the house, this person was preparing black coffee to serve him on his arrival. In a month's time, the man was able to recover and is back at a shop as a helper. 

When I heard this story, I was moved to appreciate something of this reality of layers of goodness in each human being.  A senior citizen walks with a pair of elbow crutches half a kilometre each day carrying a breakfast packet; a hemiparetic person gets up to make coffee for his visitor!

I wish we would see the deep layers of goodness in the lives of others!

How do we look into the lives of others!

The other day I was climbing the steps with four bags in my hands. Two middle aged people stopped and took from my hands two bags. They were brothers who had come to the hospital to visit their father who was on a ventilator following an advanced COVID infection. They thought that their father was sinking! Amidst this cloud of sorrow and sense of loss, they stopped and lightened my burden till the main gate of the hospital. It this from such experiences, I get a sense of the layers of goodness that I come across in day to day life at work and in my neighbourhood. A colleague came to greet me at the car park when I returned to work after a break! I left my lap top at the security checking station in the air port when I travelled last time. Just as I was about to board the flight, a security official came and handed over me the lap top. The pictures in the closed circuit camera led them to find me! It was when it was handed over to me, I realised that I had left it behind! I had my camera bag and that absorbed all my attention. 

The election campaign is now in its last phase in five states in India. The language of hate and anger which is spoken by many leaders starting from the prime minister downwards make us hide our face in shame!  

All of us are people endowed with goodness. We are destined to be Good Samaritans. 

I wish we would normally hear a language of kindness and brotherhood spoken towards each other!

Let our relationships with each other help us to unfold the layers of goodness in each other! 

M.C.Mathew(text and Photo)