Greetings to all our beloved brothers and sisters in the mighty name of our Lord and Saviour. May the Lord bless you and anoint you with rivers of living water during this Lenten season. May the Lord bless you and cleanse you with His holy sinless blood. May we all introspect and return to His fold during this season.
Thinking of childhood, how joyful it was ! Looking back through the mirror , six decades past ,I may project a different world, at least for today’s youngsters, too diverse from today’s familyhood. We are four of us with an elder brother and two sisters. Four children per family was the average and six was not unheard of. With grand parents and parents monitoring you each moment, still it was a wide world inside and outside. Eating together during breakfast and dinner was almost mandatory and everyone including the elders adhered to the time schedule . Early morning and evening family prayers together was regular with normally a song from “Kristhava Keerthanaigal” (now almost an extinct species other than a few songs for occasions) and Bible reading and prayer. Six o clock in the evening was the cut off time for me and my brother to return home on any account, a quick wash and read the Bible a few chapters ourselves before taking up our home work / school assignments. By this time the Chimney will be lit up burning on kerosene and we had a chimney lamp with a long glass chimney , which gave more lighting in the room. Returning home after evening play, one minute past Six pm (the cut off time), we will by default kneel down, and read the bible on our knees, which if not complied with on our own , will earn harsher punishment from mother like memorizing at least one chapter in the Bible and narrate to her before taking up our home work. Unlike home, skipping home work will deserve beatings or standing on the bench in class the next day amidst bullying by your peers, so it was best avoided. Otherwise no corporal punishment at home. And truthfulness was appreciated from the children on any front and no stories. Any way both the parents were teachers in the same school where we studied, so either way the truth will be known to them today or tomorrow. But the parents encouraged the spirit of truthfulness and uprightness as important attributes of our character. I remember one rainy season when my father had gone out of station, a violent storm followed by torrential rains started and continued unabated. Those days, all the houses will be constructed with an elevation and with a front portion called “Thinnai” as a comfortable resting place for the grand father or some guests for long casual talks. Now, the schools were closed and outside street, the flood waters was running about four feet high ! Mother gathered all of us and we started singing from “Krishthava Keerthanaigal” starting from the first one and on and on. This was followed by Bible reading and mother telling a few thrilling stories from the Bible like the great flood during Noah / Daniel and the Lions den / story of Esther the queen. We were thrilled to read the country ”India” (Indhu Desam) appearing in the Book of Esther and listened with rapt attention. The only reservation about this whole episode was mother preparing her famous “Marundhu Kuzhaambu” made of small onions, lots of garlic and pepper made with ground nut oil liberally floating on the surface – very spicy and it prevented any one catching cold. Even our little dog “Keiser” was not spared but to comply by taking this “Marundhu Kuzambu” with rice and the poor one used to cry scratching his nose against the floor! Otherwise it was one of the most thrilling experience worshipping the Lord as the flood waters went on rising for the first four days and then started receding. Why I am giving such a graphic description things is to state with awe and gratitude about the wisdom of our parents and grand parents. Full control on us but giving lots of freedom and seeing whether we are obeying and being truthful. This kind of a character building has brought some of the best in all of us and made us sail through stressful and difficult situations in both office and home in later days.
Days and years have dramatically changed and today how many children enjoy their evening play in the ground or outside home is a big question ! The world has become so crooked that even safety issues are to be thought of before sending the children out alone. Mostly no grand parents at home. Today’s nuclear families are technology and career and wealth and academic achievement driven rather than “the pleasure” of being a family. Even within the nuclear family, it is home within home either the TV or the mobile demarcating very clear dividing lines from the very young to the adults. All lost to themselves even during dinner time, if at all they have a regular common dinner. Even small amount of parental control is not liked by the children and the teens alike with statements like “Enakku theriyatha ?” (Don’t I know ?).
Of course, we should not compare between the time lines, when so many things around us have changed including the social fabric and our value system mostly influenced by the communication revolution which has become ubiquitous in our lives. Incidentally I remember the beginning pages from the great Novel “ The Mother(by Maxim Korgy celebrating its centenary this year), how the life of an industry worker started and ended – all like a machine and a dream , a bad dream rather ! We can not but agree on one fact, that between these time lines, we appear to have lost the fine fabric of inherent love and compassion uniting everyone , from the infant to the old ones , in the name of liberation or freedom , which was hitherto keeping the family as a perfectly woven fabric, resisting any stain or wear and tear…..
Last Friday night, while returning from the Church, suddenly the verse written on the side walls of the Church compound struck me :
