interview

Fr. Lionel - The living pillar of JDV "Let the Eucharist be your life and your life the Eucharist" this was the message, Fr. Lionel, a man with a lion's heart, put across to the present generation on the occasion of his sacerdotal diamond jubilee, 23rd November 2008. "A naturalized Indian," as Fr.Lionel humorously calls himself,was born on 6th may 1920 to Dr. Alfred and Anne Mascarenhas in Karachi. He was the eldest child and the only son followed by three daughters. He lost his father when he was 3 years old. His father who was a doctor, died in an accident. After finishing his schooling in St. Patrick's, Lionel joined Sindh College, Karachi. At that time Bombay archdiocese extended till Kazakhstan. In 1934 the Sindh mission was handed over to the Dutch Franciscans, and the Jesuits moved on to the Gujarat mission. During his studies Fr. Lionel had personal contact with our regents whose lives - and in particular Fr. Duran, then a regent – played a vital role in inspiring him to join the society. The other thing that inspired him to join the religious life was the Altar boys Society run by a Diocesan priest. Eighteen boys opted for the priesthood and later one of them, Joseph Cordeiro became an archbishop of Karachi and a Cardinal. Soon after his college studies, Lionel joined the Society for Gujarat mission and was sent to Shembagnur for the novitiate – the only novitiate in India. After spending almost seven and a half years at Shembagnur doing his novitiate, juniorate and philosophy, he came to St. Xavier's school, Mirzapur in 1943 for his regency and to teach in the school. Here he shared his memory that in pre-independent India, they were not allowed to speak Gujarati in school and so he never got a chance to learn the language. Nevertheless when he was in Shembagnur he took the initiative to teach Gujarati to the Braganza brothers, Fonsecas and a few others! In 1946 Fr. Lionel went to St. Mary's college (theologate) Kurseong, the NorthEast. On 21st November 1948, at the end of third year he was ordained a priest. Soon after he headed for his tertianship at Hazaribagh. He was asked to teach theology and so he flew to Rome for his doctorate in Fundamental theology (now known as SystematicTheology). He took his final vow, on August 15, 1953. In the same year he started teaching theology in De Nobili College. In 1959 he was appointed vice rector of the Papal Seminary. He was president of JDV from 1983 to 1986. The same year he retired, but continued teaching as emeritus for ten years. Thus he has been in the teaching arena from 1953 to 1995. Beside his teaching career, he used to give retreats to both laity and religious. "The Society is my second mother." he said, "all that I am, I owe to the society." He says that our lives should be prayer and mission oriented. He stresses the two characteristics that each Jesuits should have – dedication and availability. Each should have a solid foundation in the spiritual exercises and union with God, so that he may be able to find God in all things like St. Ignatius. He has message for all the priests that, "the church is what priests are." So the good priests will make a good church. At present Fr. Lionel resides at the Papal Seminary (Pune) and prays for the society. He smilingly says that he is waiting for his sunset. He is very happy for he has run his race. A musician, he still sings the mercies of the lord. At the end he said that if he were to be born again, he would again join the society to live his life in the context of St. Ignatius' vision. NAVNEET PARMAR

"The human being may be little less than an angel but is much more than an animal"

"The human being may be little less than an angel but is much more than an animal"

When I look at the sky, which you have made, At the moon and the stars, which you set in their places. What is man, that you think of him; Mere man, that you care for him? Yet you made him inferior only to yourself; You crowned him with glory and honour. You appointed him ruler over everything you made; You placed him over all creation; Sheep and cattle, and the wild animal too; The birds and fish and the creatures in the seas. (Psalm: 8: 3=8: Good News Bible, Catholic addition.)

The Bible gives a clear cut account of a creation story. In the beginning there was chaos and the Lord God brought about order. To do this HE just said, "Let there be," and it was. The words spoken from his mouth were powerful enough to generate an order and to create creatures that could fly in the sky, walk on the earth and swim in the water.

When the Lord God thought of creating a man, He made himself actively involved. He bent down and stretched his hand out to take some soil. "Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; HE breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live." (Genesis: 2: 7). So much so that he shared his own breath (life) with man. Thus God made man little less than HIMSELF.

Bible does not give any account of creation of an angel. This does not mean that the angels are existing from all eternity. Angels were created to serve and praise the Lord God.

They serve him best, his state is king. Thousands at his bidding speed. And post o’ver land and ocean without rest They also serve who only stand and wait. (On his blindness by John Milton)

Angels have an extensive existence and are not bound by time and space. We see in the Bible that an angel of the Lord appeared to Mary. Yet they cannot be in two places at the same time, for their essence and existence are two different qualities. In the case of God this essence itself is existence. Angels are not embodied spirits, therefore they will never die. They had an origin but have no end. Man is an embodied being, hence he will die. The beauty of an embodied being is that he could express his feelings and say "I love you." or "I hate you", this is possible, for God has endowed him with free will and intellect. Angels are just pure spirits.

When we, the members of the human family, look around us at the world in which we live, we notice three types of beings, basically. First, there is what is traditionally been called the mineral kingdom, the vegetative kingdom and the animal kingdom.

Let’s begin with the mineral kingdom and the human being. What we have in common is that our body is 65% oxygen, 18% carbon,1.5 % calcium, 1% phosphorous and 1.5% other elements. We are 70% water. As someone has well put it, "We are cousins of stones and sisters are stars." As for the vegetative kingdom, it is characterized by four basic living activities: growth, reproduction, nourishment and repair. We share with it these basic functions with the vegetable kingdom.

Finally there is the animal kingdom which, in addition to the vegetative activities mentioned above, also has locomotion (can get up and go elsewhere for food, not being rooted in one place like a plant) and , in addition, gives clear evidence of sensation (that is can see, hear, smell, taste and touch – which include feeling pain and pleasure). All these animal activities are ours too. And maybe we can pause briefly to ask ourselves what we mean when we say that a thing has life or is alive. Actually life is a kind of short-hand term for a complex of activities; and when a being gives evidence of them, we say that it is alive. A being which is able to move itself without any apparent pulling of strings or shoving or pushing from outside is alive. Here of course, the meaning of motion or movement would be widened from its usual connotations of local motion (capacity to transport oneself from one place to another), and not of plant-life. It would encompass any self-initiative activities (growth, reproduction and the like).

Human being in his/her uniqueness

But there are other equally evident and undeniable activities of human being which distinguish her/him from all other observable realities on our planet. The human being, and only the human being, gives evidence of his activities. They can be listed in various ways. I prefer to sum them up as the following trio: use of a conceptual language, art, religion.

In the first place, I do not say that only a human being has a language, a means of communication: even bees and ants have some kind of language – they inform each other (by tapping their feelers on the ground, or whatever) as to where recently discovered food supplies may be found. But their communication is limited to very concrete and limited topics. Whereas we humans can, by means of abstract ideas and concepts, communicate to each other about theories and notions that go far beyond the creativity. The human being is ever creating new styles of architecture, dress and so on; s/he is able to express her/his imaginative insights in a variety of ways from batik to sculpture to dance and painting. Animals have some instinctive know-how: how to construct their nests, burrows or whatever form of dwelling places they have. Some of them have a more or less elaborate mating "dance’. But they remain singularly devoid of any creative or artistic variations here. The same species or sub-species have always built their nests in the same way as far as we can reach back in recorded knowledge of these things. The scorpion and snake haven’t come out with any new dance steps to vary their mating game. But look at the variety of styles and fads in architecture, dress, dances and what have you which characterize human social life! Finally, a human person is the only observable creature which has been able to form some sort of an understanding of the deity, be it gods, goddesses or spirits. Only a human being has evolved a religion which concerns this whole area of her/his life. Various rites and rituals and religious beliefs have existed among men since the dawn of human history. There is nothing comparable to this in the animal kingdom. These three examples of uniqueness are characterized by one word, "transcendence," the capacity to go beyond; to be driven from within toward in the world. A Psychological look into human and animal kingdoms.

A human being is neither an angel nor a brute. A human is both lower and higher, both body and spirit, both outer and inner, both mechanical and purposeful. I would like to high-light specially the behavior of a human which makes him different from both animals and angels. Behavior is a mirror in which everyone displays his image. Every aspect of our behavior, feeding to reading, depends on the nature and support of society, for we are social animals. We are individuals, but our individuality evolved only within and through our interdependence.

I divide human behavior in to five categories…

Innate behavior

It is widespread in all the species. As our physical form has evolved, human behavior too evolves. Invariably a chimpanzee probes holes with twigs, a baby kangaroo will hop. But humans have gone a step beyond and can analyses rocks from moon. I mean humans can control their innate behavior. From the primeval age there were and are men dedicating an entire life for celibacy. Man can be like a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile or a rapacious vulture.

Learned behavior

A child newly born learns, through experience. As its brain develops it behaves. Dependence, co-operation, plays, problem-solving are some of learnt behaviors. The animals extensively are driven by innate behaviuor (drive). Though there are cases of taming animals but animals by themselves are incapable of learning.

Experience behavior

From time immemorial, behavior has been expressive. We know who somebody is by what he does and how he behaves. Let me explain this by taking you all to primal age –at that stage humans relied on hunting for food, hard work was mint for males and child caring for women. Thus the division of labour was allotted between male and female. Eventually social arrangement, old and new emerging tradition, the essential sexual behaviorism and group co-operating paved the way for interdependence

Purposive behavior

Human behavior can be oriented on a sense of purpose which is not just fragmentary, but overall, relating to long periods and even to an entire lifetime, taking the form of long-term planning. Such a capacity, implies first that the subject is conscious, informed about the environment and about his potentialities. This awareness, the sense of purpose which guides choices and the effective implementation of purposeful behavior, is the essential feature of the freedom which is the impulse behind all self-constructed behavior. Contrary to other mammals, the human being with an over-riding sense of purpose can transcend the most powerful drives like the need for food or self-preservation and more easily sexual urges. Man hungers and thirsts not only for bread but for the bread of eternal life, truth, beauty, goodness and holiness- there is an aim for his existence.

Free behavior

Man is gifted with free will – to choose or not to choose. He is free to take control of himself (even to the point of offering his life), and free to decide his attitude towards his fellows (even to the point of dying for them); man is a creature capable of deciding what his relation will be to his creator. This gives rise to ethics and morality. For something to be ethical there are alternatives modes of action- man is capable of judging the alternative in ethical terms and he is free to choose what he judges to be good. Freedom implies commitment.

Animal behavior is instinctive, mechanical and unconscious. A dog knows a bone but does not know that it knows the bone. There is no possibility of cultural convention, non-competition, co-operation, territoriality, teamwork, selflessness, kinship, tool-use, communication, generosity, reciprocity in animals… man is an animal that bargains – no other animal does this – a dog does not change one bone with another. Man cooks his food.

The angels may have wider spheres of action and nobler forms of duty than ours, but truth and right; to them and to us are one and the same thing. Angels are mighty, frightening and unlimited; in their nature they are spirits, in their behavior they are angels. We humans can only behave a high-degree of flexibility - within the limits imposed by our nature (that is why our freedom is like being a fish in the tank). Angels relate infinitely irrespective of universal boundary. Angels are also serviceable, caring and active.

Thus human being may be little less than an angel but is much more than an animal.

“I shall never pray again. My mother was suffering from an incurable cancer, so we were told. We prayed and spent all we had to relieve her pain. After we had spent no more money to spare, we literally storm the heaven. I don’t see the point in praying any more. God doesn’t care about us for he has already decided what should happen.” 24 years old boy. Rather than delve straight into the topic, I would like to initiate it by quoting; Shakespeare.

“All the world a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exists and entrances.” In this few lines of a sonnet a static understanding of God and the world is portrayed. God who is a director, he has given to each one of us a particular role. When the time comes to enter on this world a stage, we are sent, and when the role is over we are made exist the world a stage. In this context of the above lines said by the boy, the last lines projects the same ideology, so the boy is in a same boat as Shakespeare. Her mother was sent to play a particular role. Now the role is over as it was decided by the director-God. The above lines said by the boy have several elements involved in it, which I will deal one by one.

The aspect of prayer

“A God who heard everyone’s prayer would have been a God of children” Jaun Luis Segundo.

Prayer are not “gimme” requests(give this and give that), nor is it a matter of saying words from time to time, but an attitude, a state where one lives continuously in God’s presence, as in any deep human relationship. If God listens to all our prayers, we would be like spoilt children. Our God is God who struggles and suffers with us in our efforts to build a just world. The best example of what prayer is, is given by Jesus himself; “father, if you will, take this cup away from me. Not my will however your will be done.” The boy has a very narrow and static understanding of prayer (God’s providence). Prayers should always be heard. What is asked must be given. When prayed, miracle must take place. God must not refuse any prayer. However HE must fulfill it. If God is bound to answer our prayers then we human are superior to God, for God does not have any option not to answer them. Humans can confine God within the words of prayers. Human casts spell upon God by words and God can not but yield to their demands. Actually a prayer should be participation and respond to God’s constant invitation to share in his wisdom and strength. Man’s response has to be of openness to god’s light and strength through constant and intimate communion with god. Man’s ultimate, fundamental prayer is to ask “show the way and give strength to tread the way.” But ultimately it is he who is going to tread the way. In this light the meaning of Jesus’ words “ask and you shall receive” is not that ask whatever you want and it shall given to you, but ask and God’s spirit shall be given to you to attain for yourself what you have asked. God’s grace is nothing but God’s spirit that enables us to face life. Left to our petty strength, we would have made a mess out of life. That is why St. Ignatius of Loyola gives the axiom, “work as though everything depends on God and pray as though everything depends on me.”

Bonhooffer puts it another way, “live before God as if there is no God.” A concluding word

The prayer which comes closet to my understanding is to ask for meaning and strength from God, the ultimate source of inspiration and meaningfulness in order to have courage to change the things that I can, to accept the things which I cअn not अnd wisdom to know the difference. Differences between the static and the dynamic world. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) had a static understanding of reality which was taken and developed by the roman branch of Christianity. He said that the story of genesis is literally true, that Adam and Eve were created finitely and by their “fall,” their perfection was destroyed. Adam and Eve had no excuse. They were adults who had knowingly committed the fault hence disrupted God’s plan. Hence this world was a vale of tears and all the life’s trails were divine punishment for Adam’s sin. This understanding will lead to passivity for this world is finished product and everyone’s including creature’s fate is destined. There is no room for freedom; freedom to love and hate. Whatever happens – an accident, a rape, an earthquake …etc, is bound to happen. That is the will of God, even the suffering and evil is planed by God. I would call this God a sadistic God, an immoral God, a culprit God. Who takes pleasure and joy in destroying. This God must be brought to a trial and hang. St. Irenaeus of Lyons (140-202) had a very dynamic understanding of reality which was taken and developed by the Greek branch of Christianity. Even St. Iranaeus took the story of Genesis as literally true but with the dynamic understanding that Adam and Eve were created as imperfect, immature creatures who were to undergo moral development and growth and finality be brought to the perfection intended for them by their maker. Their fault was something that occurred in the childhood of the race due to weakness and immaturity. And the world, mingled with good and evil was an environment for human development towards the perfection intended for them by God. This understanding will enhance one’s perspective towards reality and God. Our is a dynamic world, not a finished product, but still in the making. In this context providence is one of the several dimension of God’s relationship with the world, implied in creation. God’s providence consists essentially in providing creatures’ with the inner dynamism that orients and guides them towards the full flowering of their being and full realization of their selves. God’s creation aims at drawing all the creatures under one head that is the Omega point. This can only be realized if every being use their inner dynamism to become full being. God’s kingdom can only be established if men in his freedom collaborate with God in the realizing of the full flowering of its creation and employ everything that is provided to this sole end. Man as the fruit of evolution (humanization) is specially given the responsibility of becoming “fully human and fully alive” by using his gift of freedom plus all that is provided. There is yet more a dimension to providence which makes it still more divine. It is the direct involvement of God in assisting man to use this delicate gift if freedom. God’s role is not so passive as to disappear over the horizons but God helps us in our journey towards full flowering. In the light of above discussion, when critically analyses what the boy has said “…God does not care about us for he has already decided what should happen.” Seems very static understanding of reality. The boy falls under the same category of St. Augustine, for whom the reality and this world is finished product. Hence there is no chance to become fully human and fully alive. God has preplanned every stride of human being. Hence even his mother would suffer from an incurable cancer and eventually die. The boy condemns God for his mother’s death. He considered God the culprit for not heeding the prayer. As a result he makes resolution not to pray ever again. Aspect of suffering (evil) and death

In the face of evil and suffering, omnipotentce and love are two seemingly paradoxical attributes of God. If HE is al powerful and yet permits evil and suffering, HE is not loving. If HE is loving but can’t help permitting evil and suffering, HE is impotent. If HE is potent and loving, why evil and suffering at all? The Epicureans had shrewdly posed such a question. In my opinion evil and suffering do not come from God but it is man made and at times natural. Evil caused by deliberate human action like the terrorist attack on the Taj Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal. This can be called wickedness. This is possibly due to the instinct of survival, which we used for the survival of the fullest. It is a selfish drive in us. There is also suffering and evil not willed d by human beings like natural disaster and calamities like flood, famine,, earthquake etc. this is en evil which causes suffering, but it is a part of evolving world in which we are placed to gain our full flowering and maturity. At times behind natural calamities human hand is involved. The exhaustion of petroleum may cause the imbalance of earth’s chemistry and will encourage volcanos. Nuclear experiments are bound to have repercussion on the earth. Deforestation leads to draught, famine and starvation. Air and water pollution will lead to ill health and new diseases. Thus we can site thousands of examples where God can not be blames so easily. This evil and suffering caused on day to day life is nothing but man choosing hatred out of free will and freedom. God has predetermined neither our birth nor death. Once in a while we hear some talking that God took away a loved one form the family. Even some posed question like why did God take away my mother, my sister, my brother, my son, my wife? The real fact, we die is not that its God’s will but same reason why the things of the earth disappear, dissolve or get destroyed. We have seen an iron getting rusted after some period of time or river getting dry and wood rotting away. In short every thing that is made of material will slowly go back to its original material components. The death can occur on two ways. It may be a sudden death like someone getting heart attack or someone meeting with an accident and dying on the spot. The other is gradual process of getting old and the body gets exhausted and collapsed. Embodied beings are finite. Our being finite is God finest expression of love for us. This embodiedness is a greatest means to love to God and others. Just imagine if awe were not embodied, how could we express our love? God so loved us that he made us free beings. If we were not to be finite, there would be no need for growing into full personhood. In which case man would not have to struggle and make choices in conformity with this end. If he need not to make choices, the gift of freedom would automatically stand absurd. Man’s glory is in his freedom to make choices as he tries to bring the epistemic distance between his embodiedness and full personhood. We were given the bodies so that we could enjoy the freedom. Unlike angels we are not pure spirit but spirit-in-the-world. A final word

देसpite our rational analyses evil and suffering and death remains a mystery to be lived with the help of God’s spirit and not a problem to be got rid of. No amount of analysis can give an absolute, exhausting, compromising explanation for the profound reality of evil, suffering and death. And if it did, life would loose its punch. All that can be done is to keep purifying the understanding of evil, suffering and death from the possible misconception. Keep illuminating ourselves with more and more revelations of its profoundness and be open to God’s spirit. Once having done this; what remains is to place it in the Oder of love and face it.

NAVNEET

MY UNDERSTANDING OF GOD IN VARIOUS STAGES OF MY LIFE

Introduction The initiation into Christianity through baptism was not just putting me into the fold but the introduction to God, when my mind was not capable of comprehending even the ontological aspect of myself. No sooner did I become capable of grasping the things or persons around then the various idols of gods were thrashed into me. Having their pros and cons, these idols have influenced my lifestyle a lot. Hence I will delve into my past and present to bring out how my understanding of Gpd has evolved. Hulky God When I was 3 or 4 years of age, my parents taught me not only to join hands and close the eyes and thus nurturing the seed of faith but also God who was like a hulk, huge in form dwelling beyond the sky. Here, unconsciously or unintentionally I was introduced to god for whom we were just tiny creatures. God, who was beyond my reach. Hence whenever I joined the hands or closed the eyes I could not create any fatherly image rather an image of a giant before whom I was standing like an ant. Magician God When I was more or less 5 or 6 years of age, I came across God who captivated my little mind and left me marveled and amazed. In my catechism classes too I was taught that God created everything. God said, “let there be and it was.” Just like the magician who lifted his hat and lo behold there was a rabbit out of nothing. The creation story, story of Abraham and Isaac, story of Moses etc motivated me to join the classes on the regular basis. Here God became answer for everything that was in the universe. HE became most powerful and almighty. HE was the only creator and hence the gods of people of other faiths were false. They were not gods. Slowly the understanding transformed into such a strong belief that I thought; only Christians worshiped true God. Policeman God As I started my schooling, during the same period of time I was introduced to the policeman god or the watchman god. Who kept constant watch over me, so that I never do anything wrong. And if I did I would be punished. To certain extent it helped me to be a good boy. Especially to be away from stealing, telling lies, speaking ill of someone. This concept had certain moral and ethical influences on me. At the same time I had developed fear for if I had done something wrong which was not pleasing to Him then I would be punished. By this time I had also developed the concept of heaven and hell. Hence I would be sent to hell if I had broken the 10 commandments. Racist God As I grew and became more mature boy, my understanding of salvation became rigid. I do not quite distinctly remember how I developed the understanding that only Christians would get salvation. On the Day of Judgment all the others would be doomed for they did not recognize the only savior; they have been worshiping false gods and idols. I would be saved for I was a Christian chosen by God. The dhobi and Paracetamol God When I reached to my teenage, the understanding of loving and caring God did developed. Nevertheless the image of prodigal father had great impact on me. My god was a forgiving God hence I did not have to worry for whatever I did, HE would surely forgive me. HE would wash away my sins and make me as white as snow. HE would not allow me to be a strayed. If I did so HE would bring me back and accept me. Another image I developed was that God was always there to help me out in my difficulties and troubles. Hence I would run to Him whenever I had problem. HE would work a miracle and do away with it. When there was no problem I did not require him. In my happy time neither I disturbed Him not HE would poke his nose. So God became like paracetamol tablet when I had headache I would take it and my pain disappeared. God of all When I came to high secondary school, I had privilege to have friends from all major religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Islam and Sikhism. These friends had contributed a lot to change my images of racist god to God of all. Though I did not know much about theses religions except the names of Gods and Holy Scriptures, all I knew for sure was that God was and is one. He loved/loves everyone equally irrespective of cast creed and colour. Neither I nor they had any problem sitting with each other and having food and water. We participated in religious festivals and at times in the rituals. Thus I came to realization of indiscriminating God who manifested himself in different ways according to the different cultures. God working trough Agents Earlier I used to question God for all the havoc, upheaval, chaos that was in the world. Today I have realized that it’s me who has to work for peace and harmony. God has unique ways to call each one of us for different tasks. It was my working with Gurjarvani [centre for communication] on a vocation movie, where I heard God calling me to be his instrument among the poor people of south Gujarat. I had gone to south Gujarat to give some shots. There I came across the tribal and their challenging lives. They were totally unjustly treated and deprived of basic human rights. I saw God working there trough some committed and dedicated Jesuits for the empowerment and well being of the tribal. I really saw God slogging and laboring for the just and equal society. God is not just for the reach people but also found dwelling with those who required the basic necessity for a good dignified life. Hence I felt the urge within, God calling me to labour with him. Friendly God After joining the society the concept of God changed drastically. Now HE did not remain dwelling outside but within me. HE became a friend who was always with me in all the circumstances whether I was happy or sad. The sharing did not remain one way traffic rather it became reciprocal. The desire for mutual companionship is fulfilled in HIM and perhaps a common bond of love. In HIM I find freedom of choice, accountability, truth and forgiveness. This friendship becomes tactual in the Eucharist when I receive the Holy Communion. God manifests his love to me through all people and to people through me. Today God has become part and parcel of my life. Conclusion After coming to JDV and attending the classes my understanding has not changed but my faith in God is been purified and has become more strong. Even today God remains loving, caring and friendly to me. Specially learning the different idols I realized that how I had been worshiping them. The course on the Indian religion has helped me to broaden my understanding of different religion and appreciate the richness of each one of them. Simultaneously it has helped me to understand my religion in much better way. I do not necessitate any proofs to believe in God nevertheless reason does play a role. The God I believe in his very much active in each one of us and not passive, God who loves every human being equally. God who is unique thence likes to manifest himself in unique ways to all of us. To conclude, god is love and we all are embodiment of love. Therefore God manifests himself through all of us when we love each other. When we love each other we become fully human and fully alive. PARMAR NAVNEET

A VISIT TO BTC,PUNE

SOUND OF SILENCE

"O" Sound of silence;

How powerful thou art is!

thou has stirred me within,

And left me disturb.

"O" Sound of silence;

How eye-opener thou art is!

thou has un-enveloped my heart within,

And made me contemplative.

"O" Sound of silence;

How rejuvenating thou art is!

thou has transformed me within,

And gave me life afresh.

NAVNEET

A Report on a Journalism Course.

The intensive journalism and creative writing workshop was held in Premal Jyoti from May 3rd to 13th. There were sixteen participants including four sisters from all over India. Fr. Ambrose the main organizer made this course possible with the collaboration of Fr. Varghese Paul. Fr. Varghese Paul, being the main resource person took the full charge of the workshop and introduced us to the overview of journalism. The afternoon session was allotted for the professionals working in the field. Hence Ms. Ayesha Khan, Fr. Vinayak s.j , Mr. Yashwant Mehta, Ms. Jumana Shah and Mr. Paul John shared their experiences and gave inputs for the effective practice of journalism. Each participant wrote the letters to the Editor of various news papers. Many of them were thrilled and excited on finding their letters in the following day news papers. The exposure in the printing media was completed by the visit to the Anand Press and Gujarat Shahitya prakash. Keeping the presents trends and signs of time in mind even a session on the electronic media was included, which gave the total satisfaction to us the youngsters. By the end of the workshop each one had developed the nose for news reporting and creative writing. The workshop was called off with the publication of two magazines “BUDS” and “PEN WISE” and a solemn Eucharist.         Navneet Parmar.