God is a creator. The Bible teaches us that God made us in his image.  We as the created, have imbibed certain traits from our maker. We are also creators. I stay in the YMCA which is near the Gateway of India. Many a evening, when my head is heavy, - and my heart too, i sit here and watch life going by. And marvel at the grand ole lady - the Taj. Every time i look at it, i marvel at our creativity. Last week, i was walking by the Town Hall and i admired the ancient but beautiful buildings where people have lived their lives and gone on to meet their maker. Their creativity lives on!

With the Deepavali festival holidays coming up, the newspapers are full of advertisements for products available on discount sale. It seems that today's Times of India has more advertisements than news reports. Mobile phones, cameras, house hold products and the list is endless. The hype of the Apple iPhone 6 launch dominates. It is more fun to scan through the adverts rather than the news items. Phone proliferate.  The dual core has /was become/became quad-core, which has become octa-core. More RAM. More Apps. Lighter. Gorilla Glass. And so on!

 My friend at the YMCA bought a new iPhone, the 5S.  Though friends tried to persuade him to go in for the iPhone 6, he felt that 62,000 was beyond his target. We live in a world where it is imperative that we communicate. I find it difficult to reach my wife or daughter on the first try. Their phones are for ever busy. Every one is busy communicating with someone. I board my suburban train at VT station and it takes me 30 minutes to reach my destination. Gives me a lot of time to 'people watch'. Whether they are inside the compartment, or at the various stations, people seem so busy speaking, texting, etc.

Which brings us to an amazing fact: God is a communicator. And he is ever looking for an opportunity to communicate with his people. The only stumbling block is that we do not receive, respond! Our receiving units are turned off and our antennas are disoriented. I wish I/we could take time off to hear and communicate with him who is our maker.

Monday morning, and it's back to work! This week has a 4-day holiday stretch due to Deepavali festival and hence there is a perceptible joy across the floor!!!

I was in an auto-rickshaw returning to the office after a site visit. Signal after signal was green, and i was grateful that we did not have to wait under the blazing sun, with the buses belching out their diesel smoke into our rick! 

Wished that in life too, all signals would be green! Unfortunately, it is not. Often, for reasons not clear to us, the lights go red. But the Bible says, the Lord is in control. It is He who determines our direction and timing of motion.  As with traffic signals, if we jump the red light, we might get hit, or even hit someone else!! (The car in the below photograph jumped the light - and created quite a scare for those autos!)

Wait. Time spent waiting is well-spent time. The Bible says: '...They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength... they will run and not be weary, walk and not faint...'

Rains in Mumbai have come to an end. That 'essential' part of the morning gear - the humble umbrella - has been consigned to the back of the shelf. But, during the blinding constant rains that drenched us and filled our shoes with water while walking from Mumbai Chatrapathi Shivaji Railway Station to the YMCA at Colaba, me, and hundreds like me, made a bee-line for these magnificent covered walkways for the shelter they offered from the rain. 

Reminds me of the song we sing in church written in 1880 by Vernon John Charlesworth and was sung by the fish­er­man on the north coast of Eng­land, as they ap­proached their har­bors in the time of storm: 

The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide,
A Shelter in the time of storm;

Secure whatever ill betide,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

Refrain

Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A Shelter in the time of storm.

There are many verses in the Bible which talks of God being our refuge  - too many to be listed here. But thank God for those people who built such structures, who have lived their lives and gone on to their eternal rest.

P.S. Just a though - when we die, what do we leave behind that lasts and bring solace to others???

Little 'sins'

These magnificent banyan trees growing out of these buildings, unchallenged, reminds me of the verse in the Bible: Song of Solomon 2:15 - "...Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom...". 

So often it is these 'little sins' that are left unchecked in our life, that cause our downfall. These trees were once very small - now they have put out their roots and have threatened the very structure they live on. The tree grows out of the 3rd floor, and is so big that birds nest in it.  And the worst part is that no one notices while they put out their roots into the superstructure - deep, until one day, it becomes un-manageable, unfortunately, too late!

 

I challenge myself and you dear reader to examine whether there are any small 'foxes' that are nibbling away at our roots causing us to wither away, and not be what God intends us to grow up into.

Get going!

I have been inactive on this page for quite some time now. Possible, due a geographical transplant! Bhutan to Mumbai!! However, with a firm resolution to  post at least one picture a week, here it comes. 

On the way from my work place, to the new data centre which we are constructing, a journey by an auto-rickshaw costing around 80 rupees, is this old van. It is complete with its number plate, its tires, upholstery, and even its engine! But it goes no where. 

 
Aren't we folks sometimes like this? We have all that we need, yet are static. Lets get a mechanic over, and get some life into us. P.S. (God is often the best mechanic - after all, it is HE who has made us!!

Today was mum's 85th Birthday. Mum and Dad did not have a comfortable life, but despite all the odds against them, they managed to raise the two of us and while Dad went on to be with the Lord in 1989, Mum has lived on to see her grandchildren.

They had little, yet lived a joyful life in Calcutta, far far away from home. I remember the coal-steam engine train rides back to home every Christmas - used to take 5 days between Calcutta and Trivandrum, with no modern travel comforts, coal dust in the eyes, etc.. But they enjoyed life, contributed to the church and to society. She is 85 now and in the sunset of her life. We her children and grandchildren have much more and more comforts than they could ever hope to have - yet we  still have not been able to imbibe the principles they followed. They have left us examples of joyful sacrifice and i can only hope that we will follow their footsteps. Happy birthday Mum!