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| Hotel Taj under attack |
beaten and wounded several times since with bomb blasts and
meaningless killings. Each time Mumbai has risen again, dusted
herself up and has continued her onward journey, offering a home to
thousands of people irrespective of language,culture or religion.
Mumbai embraces everyone, rich or poor, young or old, Hindu, Christian or
Muslim. Mumbai welcomes everyone and invites everyone to reach for the sky.
Surely, that must have been why my parents left God's own country to make Mumbai
their home.
Mumbai is my home land, where I grew up. Mumbai has educated me,
taught me the values of life. Many fond memories of my life are tied
to Mumbai. In spite of the severe challenges, Mumbai is resilient,
not by choice, but by force and by necessity - after all there are
mouths to feed, so Mumbai moves on. Mumbai is the land of so many
common, simple country men who work hard to feed their family and
lead a decent life.
It infuriates me that a few cowardly individuals could strike terror
and kill innocents at CST [VT] station and the streets where I used
to walk, and at the hotels in South Mumbai. On September 11, 2001, I was 2
blocks away from WTC and saw the twin towers come crashing down due to the
cowardly acts of a few evil doers. I felt the pain of New Yorkers and the
Americans on that day. Today, I feel the pain of Mumbai even though I am far
away; and to an extent, I feel the loss of Thomas Varghese's family, Thomas
Varghese who lost his life last November in Mumbai.
Terrorism is a reality of our times. Terrorists do not belong to any
religion or sect. They are just brainwashed criminals trained to
slaughter. At this time, as the country takes a hard look at its
existing laws and infrastructure to tackle terrorism, I think the
Church also needs to look at ways to fight terrorism:
to provide the support and comfort of the Church needed by his family. Always
remember the victims of the terror attacks and the sacrifice of the brave NSG
commandoes and Mumbai police officers who laid down their lives on the line of
duty.
2) Tolerance and accomodation of others, even respecting and loving
them despite differences in the way they worship, the way they live, and the way
they look at life, can go a long way. Guru Paulose Mar Gregorios has been a
pioneer at being uncompromisingly faithful to one's own faith, while being
amazingly respectful of the other faiths. The way he showed can be an
inspiration for us.
3) Issues like the faction fight take a lot of focus of our
Church leadership away from addressing core issues that need to be dealt with as
a witnessing Indian Church, as indeed the Mother Church of India; a speedy and
lasting solution to the Sabha case can help.
4) Expressing solidarity with the Indian government, keeping aside
time (maybe declaring a day) for prayer against intolerance and
terrorism can be considered.
5) The Mumbai carnage occured due to a shocking intelligence failure
and an alarming level of unpreparedness on the part of the
authorities, those whom we have ordained to take care of us. The
Indian Church can help by encouraging our people and our children to
be alert and vigilant citizens of the country in every way, to serve
and help in government services. We can use our pulpits to spread
awareness about the need for strengthening the arms, the eyes and the
ears of the government by being responsible citizens.
6) Corruption is a huge curse of our government machinery and our
society. A huge amount of will power by the authorities and citizens
is necessary to tackle this cancer. The Church's role here too is
very important in being a light of hope and a faithful guide.
Next: Lest We forget - Thomas Varghese of Mumbai.
Regards,
Mathew Samuel,
Albany, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/22389
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