Philharmonia Orchestra

After sipping a white caffe mocha at Starbucks a pleasant surprise awaited me at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was a gigantic theatre with its colourful arena that bewitched me at the first sight. It was a thrilling experience to barge into this really royal theatre. With less or no experience of concerts made me little bit apprehensive about the whole project of watching Philharmonia Orchestra in a jam packed theatre and a huge stage set for musicians. 

A huge number of musicians took to stage to the brim. Everyone doing their adjustments before the time. A violinist arrived to take the centre stage who greeted the musicians and the audience. He was Andrew Haveron who is the concert master. He looked small in stature but his violin expertise showed his glory and fame. Then there arrived a man in black suit with a little stick in his hand to a huge applause. Apparently it came as huge surprise to me that people knew this famous conductor called Daniele Gatti, an Italian artist. 

The first piece of music was from Wagner, prelude, Act I, "a good friday Music, Parsifal." This piece was taken from the artist Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) of Romantic age. The first piece of music was for about 30 minutes. Absolutely scintillating performance thrilled me and the fellow spectators. Knowledge about this kind of orchestra is very menial, so a special effort helped to grasp and cope with this mind blowing musical piece. 

The second piece of music was from Mahler, Symphony No. 5  for about 70 minutes. This piece was absolutely incredible with its intricate and complex intonations. This was a big challenge to cope with long haul of music which looked the same as the previous. I should caution you that this was because of the lack of musical knowledge particularly orchestra. 

A brief study made me to understand the intricacies this musical piece involved. Wagner's melodic musical arch rises, then slowly falls back to its starting point, intensely focused and glowing inwardly like a candle flame carried silently through the darkness. This is the same experience most of us have at this concert. Its incredibly strong to feel that one has moved miles listening to music.

A little bit about the conductor Daniele Gatti. His vigour and gusto in conducting these two pieces of music mesmerised most the spectators. This world renowned artist made us wonder in awe. His movements and body language was enormously depicted in the music he conducted. Without a piece of script he would conduct the orchestra for about 70 minutes at the stretch. This shows his expertise and his talent to music. It really baffled me that he could do this without any scrip and with enormous gusto and zest. 

In conclusion I would like to express my thanks to Philharmonia Orchestra who put up a splendid performance which made me who is musical cripple to admire this romantic music, I am sure musicians out there will admire much better than I. 

God's Wedding

Arnobius writes at the turn of fourth century about the marriage and gods. Presumably for him life styles of the pagan gods and mortals were no difference. He writes:

Do the gods have wives, and do they enter marriage convents (conuiugalia foedera) on terms previously arranged? Do they swear to each other the oaths (sacramenta) of the marriage couch by cohabitation (usu), by the wedding cake (farreo), or by the purchase price (emptione)? Do they have girl friends whom they hope to marry (speratas), or to whom they are engaged (pactas), or to whom they are espoused (sponsatas). 

Source: Adversus nationes 4, 20 (CSEL 4, 157, 16).

A Song for Friends

All time hit song in Hindi originally sung by Jagjith Singh, a well known Indian singer. I have tried to sing but I am sure you will enjoy the original. So please listen to the original too, to know the real voice of the song. The photos are from my archives and old album of my friends. There are still more good friends who are not on it. May be I shall do one more video for them too. Please do enjoy the song and the photos. Cheers. 

My all time favourite song (Konkani)

This song is one of my all time favourite song and have tried to sing with my hoarse voice. I am sure have done justice to the original artist. He is all the best. Photos in this video are from England just boost the song. Hope you enjoy it. Lol. 

Missionary Motto

This letter was written by Mother Teresa in 1948 when she left Loreto to establish the Missionaries of Charity.

"The heat of India is simply burning. When I walk around, it seems to me that fire is under my feet from which even my whole body is burning. When it is hardest, I console myself with the thought that souls are saved in this way and that dear Jesus has suffered much more for them.... The life of a missionary is not strewn with roses, in fact more with thorns; but with it all, it is a life full of happiness and joy when she thinks that she is doing the same work which Jesus was doing when He was on earth, and that she is fulfilling Jesus' commandments: "Go and teach all nations.!""

Jesus Nut

Jesus nut: The “Jesus nut,” also called the “Jesus pin,” is the nut that holds the main rotor to the mast ofsome helicopters, such as the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter. The long and strongmetallic fans of the helicopter are fitted to the main rotor of the mast. The“Jesus nut” is a slang term first coined by American soldiers in Vietnam; the technical term is MRRN or mainrotor retaining nut. The origin of the term comes from the ideathat, if the “Jesus nut” were to fail in flight, the helicopter would detachfrom the rotors and the only thing left for the crew to do would be to pray to Jesus before the helicopter crashed.  This can remind us that Jesus must be the pivotal point in our lives, through the little parable of the vine and the branches. We got to remain in him and always connected with him. 

Militant Saffronization as a response to Militant Evangelization

During his recent visit to the Vatican Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo expressed two vital alarms in the Church in India, namely, persecution of Christians and a rapid decline in the Church turnout due to the recent scandals in Europe. The religious of India can contribute towards these two concerns that are affecting the Church today.

The Militant Evangelization

In the wake of recent attack on the Catholic College in Anekal, I am inclined to enunciate the cause of deep-seated atrocities on the minorities in two worldviews. Firstly, ‘the militant evangelisation’ made its way into India through myriad missionary activities. It is an unpleasant historical dilemma that Church faces even now. Missionaries brought Christianity to India under the noble cause of saving souls through the Church. But this noble cause formed an indelible mark on the ethnic people of India and it remains an unhealed wound until now. Gandhi in his autobiography accounts to his first reaction to Christianity. Christianity in his early boyhood was one of resentment, because Christian missionaries ‘used to stand in a corner near the his high school and hold forth pouring abuse on Hindus as their gods as satanic.’ However his early resentment was largely overcome when he later on met worthy and noble Christians and studied the New Testament when he was in England. This is just trivial spark that can trigger Hindus to react badly towards Christianity. There are other issues that can give way to hatred towards Christianity namely, calling us as ‘Roman’ Catholics or public holiday on Sunday, which happens to be our worship day. We have to try and solve these small issues with utmost respect to a religion that existed even before Christianity.

The Militant Saffronization

Secondly, “the militant saffronization” can jeopardise the fundamental right to freedom of religion guaranteed by the country’s constitution. India is fundamentally a secular state. The diverse religions make India a unique cradle that accommodates major world religions. However, some militant fanatics, who motivated by the political ideologies, act with an allegiance to some group or leaders who seek to destroy the harmony between myriad religions constantly threatening minority. Hindu civilisation, which came to be considered by the Hindus themselves as non-offensive, docile, tolerant and the accommodating type unlike the war-like and aggressive Greek, Roman, Christian and Islamic civilisations. Hindu apologists project ‘non-invasion of foreign lands’ as a great virtue and an outstanding characteristic of the great Hindu culture and civilisation. ‘We never invaded anyone in our 3000 or 5000 years of glorious history’ croak the Hindu leaders. One wonders how is the docile, non-offensive, and tolerant and accommodating religion has turned into a religion of offensiveness, intolerance and non-accommodating enterprise. Religion is the gateway to instil hatred and enmity between brothers and sisters of the mother India. One can question, is that a true religion or just political façade under which personal and selfish goals are met.

A Way Forward

Pope Benedict XVI clarifies in his book, Light of the World, that it is not the same thing to say that Christ is the Son of God in whom the full presence of the truth about God finds expression and to say that various kinds of truth are also present in other religions, that they have some thing like fragments or beams of the great light, that, in a certain respect, they even represent an inner movement toward him. Thence the traditional Christian understanding of Church alone is salvific is modified. Today the Church accepts and recognises that other religions contain truth and God’s continual revelation. Today we have to redefine the papal document ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’ issued in 1975, on mission in modern times. The Synod of Bishops from all over the world met to draft a document for the “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” on October 7-28, 2012 in Vatican. The draft of the Synod, lineamenta clearly seems to suggest that success in the new evangelization implies an internal examination of conscience and a willingness to explore “new ways of being Church” and “new models.” Therefore religious have a gauntlet that is challenging and dangerous. We have to think outside the box to be witnesses with taking on board all the people in our land. We have to coexist with each other rather then remaining in our own ghettos. We have to have due knowledge of other religious practices in order to coexist with others.

Oozing Wounds of Scandals

Cardinal Toppo by thanking the missionaries who brought faith to our continent forewarned that Indian Christians are facing a crisis as a result of the scandals in the Vatican. And the Churches are getting emptier and emptier. It is vital for us to pray and especially to stay united in Christ and close to Pope. Whole episode of revelation of scandals in the Church has created a rift between the religious and the people. Trust that once religious enjoyed has been distorted after the perilous scandals. I was confronted by a group of young boys with an obvious question, why should we go to Church, to listen to the priest who might endanger our children? One has to be aware that the Church existed long before these scandals, and faith is rather personal, consequently the crisis in the Church should not virtually affect the functioning of the Church and be a cause to change one’s faith. There is ample literature written on this issue. Pope Benedict addressing in the Westminster Cathedral apologised to the victims of sex scandal with deep sense of pain and regret.

This can be a huge challenge for the religious in India sooner if not later. Mass media is no more sympathetic and poignant in reporting the truth. Unearthing of the long kept secrets can affect the faith of the people and empty our Churches. We got to act quickly but with ‘New Evangelizing’ approach. People are becoming aware of the current knowhow of the situation. We can preach without preaching through our undivided and sanctified life.