Don Bosco auto driver

When in Chennai, keep your eyes open for an unexpected auto stand: “DOB BOSCO ANBU ILLAM AUTO STAND”. It has been named so very lovingly and gratefully the former boys of Don Bosco Anbu Illam, Chennai, who were rescued from the streets of the street, rescued, trained and settled in life with auto rickshaws of their own.

VIOLENCE  AS  GAME

A ten-year-old student in Columbus, Ohio, shaped his hand into a pistol, put his finger to the head of another boy and pretended to shoot, “kind of execution style.” The school principal, Patricia Rice, suspended him from school for three days as his punishment.

The boy’s father says, this time it is not the child who is being childish but the principal. The district education spokesperson says, the principal had, several times this year, warned the students against pretend gun play.

The Father is right. There is probably no male adult who in his childhood days did not “shoot” his playmates more than once in the course of their games. The principal is right. It is not a great idea to encourage children to play games that involve pretended violence. People have campaigned long and hard against toys for children the like of pistols and guns.

What is worse still is when children see just a game in torturing living creatures. It is not difficult to find children who catch a chameleon, tie a string around its tails and drag it around, children who get hold of an insect and pull out its wings, feet, etc., one by one till it is dead.

The fear is real that “pretend violence” hardens the emotions of children, hardens their heart, immunes them to pain not only to animals, but also to humans.

Is it not unfortunate that children watch so much blood, cruelty and violence on TV today, even in programmes meant only for them – even on cartoon networks?

BABY  LION  KILLED  FOR  ITS  NAILS

A five-month lion cub in the Gir forest was killed. What for? For its nails! Even the ‘worst of animals’ would not kill a baby of any other species of animal to collect its nails! What is it exactly that makes human beings so heartless. What makes us sink to levels below all standards of behaviour?

There is no doubt whatever that nature is crying – that nature is gasping for breadth. Are we becoming for planet earth a cancer that needs to be removed urgently through an operation? When a particular sort of cell in the human body starts multiplying out of control, we have a cancerous tumour. If the tumour is not removed, it soon kills the body.

Human beings are multiplying in numbers. Worse than that is the multiplication of every human being’s ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. This multiplication of wants is indeed a cancerous growth. It is destroying the individual himself, the value system that guided his behaviour till now and the culture of entire communities. The struggle for the satisfaction of his wants is threatening the survival of nature itself of life on earth in an form.

If we are not capable of removing soon the cancerous growth of our silly wants, will nature take control and remove us from the face of the planet?

HOW  MANY  BEDS  DO  YOU  NEED  TO  SLEEP  ON ?

Khalid Mohsen al-Shaeri of Saudi Arabia needs only one bed because he is ONLY 290 kilos now. He needed three beds placed side by side when he used to be 610 kilos. He was then ordered by king Abdullah to get hospitalised. Doctors helped him shed 320 kilos in four months.

Some people are obese due to genetic disorders. They need professional medical help. In the developed nations over 50% of people are obese. Even in a poor country like India 25% of young people are today obese.

The majority of obese people do not have genetic problems. They have problems with self-discipline or self-management. They eat the wrong foods or too much of the right ones and do not exercise enough. Being fit and trim is not a sign of vanity. It is a duty to ourselves and to the people around us.

WANNA  TRAVEL  TO  A  PARALLEL  UNIVERSE?  U  R  WELCOME  HERE !

Google Maps recently found a mysterious spiral in Egypt. It covers 1 million square feet. Speculation started immediately as to what it was. Some said it is a landing strip for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) from outer space. Others were sure it was the gateway to a parallel universe. If only we could find the key to pen this gate and move to a better world !

It turns out it is a piece of environmental art installation done by three artists in March 1997. They called it “Desert Breath”. They meant it to celebrate the desert as “a state of mind, a landscape of the mind”.

Thank God for our fertile imagination and our irresistible continuous search for meaning in all that we see, hear and experience. If it were not for our imagination we would not have progressed so much in science and the knowledge of the world. The fruits of these are the comforts of modern life. If it were not for our search for meaning we would not have today the heights of theology and philosophy we have developed.

On the other hand, we have to be careful of where our imagination leads us, the meanings we see or give to things we experience. Imagination gone wild makes us foolish, and our theological and philosophical interpretations sometimes lead us to violence against one another.

May you see a gateway to heaven in all you experience today, and may you walk safe and warm on firm earth all through your life!

REJECTING  REJECTION

Poor Shafqat Amanat Ali ! He went to an audition with a national TV channel of Pakistan. He was rejected – the only one sent back among all those took part in the audition! He did not give up. He just worked harder and kept going, and look where he is now. 

BOSCONET has several people who go out on to the streets each day. They approach and talk to total strangers outside metro stations, malls, cinema halls, etc.  They explain our services for the poor and ask them to become a regular donor, signing up to contribute anywhere from Rs 300 to Rs 10,000 a month to support the education of needy children in India. 

The success rate of these young men and women is about one in thirty. After hearing a resounding “NO” 29 times they can hope to get one “Yes.” It takes a lot of dedication to their mission, and inexhaustible love for children to keep them going despite rejection, insults and humiliation. 

Robert Kiyasaki, the multi-millionaire businessman and writer says every young person should work as a house-to-house salesman at least for a year. Only then would he/she develop the thick skin needed to achieve great success in any field, and true greatness in life. They learn to reject rejection and keep working with a positive attitude, a smile on their face and love in their heart.

By the way, would you like to sign up to donate a minimum of Rs 300/= a month towards the education of needy children in India? If so, send me a message. THANKS.

TOO OLD TO INNOVATE ?

We admire the wisdom of the elderly. At the same time, we take it almost for granted that younger people are more creative, innovative and dynamic.

A recent study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research seems to dispute this “common sense” notion of ours. The exuberance and energy that are required by innovation are not exclusive to youth.

‘Conceptual innovators’ tend to be young. ‘Experimental innovators’, instead, launch out with trial and error, and gather knowledge while tinkering with established ideas; they are older. 

Thank God, I am 65 years ‘young’ – not too late for conceptual innovation and still a long way to go for experimental innovation! Or, am I mistaken? Have I lost all capacity to innovate, experiment, create?

How about you?