Santhosh's ramblings

Nostalgia is good, but one need to realize that the world around is no more like of the past. Traveling and visiting my parent’s friends, KV Mathew and M J Joseph Achan and Kochamma, brought back nostalgic memories from my father and mother. For those who may not know us, my parents were Thomas Mathew Achan and Kochamma, passed away in 2016, and 2014, respectively, after many years of serving the church and other ministries.  I was taken back in my memories to November 2016, when I came back 3 months after my father’s funeral, to wind up some issues at home and meet all my parent’s friends. That trip back home was special. This was a time to listen to my parent’s friends. I have written about this in another blog, and I quote from that – “ But as I continued to listen, especially to friends and relatives about my parents lives and their contributions, what I was left with was, not cash, concrete mansion, their contributions or career. Yes, there is some cash left. The concrete hous...

  A friend who just turned 61, has put this up in his web page, as a reminder to self and others. “Autumn has come; my dream is for it to ripple. It will be a gentle moving away from the intense productivity of summer - one of accolades, awards and ascend...Towards Generative, Spacious. Descent, Falling upwards, a rippling effect. I see an Autumn which ripples to a broader, wider, more gentle, more spacious, quieter, and softer season, for people and communities which I am a part of. A season of receiving, non-achieving and descending - a burst of brilliant and vibrant colours. As autumn leaves fall to the ground, it brings nourishment to the younger saplings. Yet the tree is alive and well because of its deep, deep roots…” https://www.weileong.xyz  A beautiful reminder of what to expect from his life in the next couple of decades. Some of the words and phrases are very poignant. Let me dwell on some of the phrases… Autumn Seasons of life. Recognizing...

As we look around, and listen to the global, national, and systemic and structural discussions, there are a few words that seems to describe the “spirit of this age” in which we are living. Uniformity - the quality or state of being the same : the quality or state of being uniform or identical, Conformity - behaviour in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards, Singularity   - the state, fact, quality, or condition of being singular, though this word is also uses for a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies have become so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change: These three emerges out of the desire to have a Predictability – which is the degree to which a correct prediction or forecast of a system's state can be made either qualitatively or quantitatively. Ultimately these emerge from a need to be in Control - the power to influence or direct people's behaviour or the course of eve...

Listening to vaccine discussions and vaccine related forwards are interesting. I am talking about “scientifically minded, trained health care professionals” who listen, read, reflect and forward information. There is the majority who have accepted what is being told to them by the “powers that be” and submit to the context of vaccine roll out. Then there is large group of people, who are actively looking for alternate information that is around and then promoting and forwarding these. In in the middle of this, there are the so called “eminent experts” who seem to be convinced that their point of view is what should be accepted, and use given information or data, in such a way to prove what they have come to believe as truth. And not to forget the “conspiracy theory experts” who confidently using at times religious information to prove their point. The points being - all this being conspiracies of powers that be or signs of end times! There is the minority, that is trying to understand ...

As a young Medical or Dental student or graduate, you will be busy with your studies, your dreams for career, future, experiencing the daily pressures of examinations and assessment etc. Amid these pressures sometimes, we do not have time to focus on the “important” things of life. The urgent pushes out the important. This short write up is to challenge you to continue to keep the important thing upmost in your life and to give you a biblical frame work to look at your whole life, your work and the choices you will be making sooner or later. What is important for our life? Is it the degree we get, the career we build, the spouse we will marry and the resources we will generate with our skills and talents or something else? All these things are important, but the ultimate and most important thing in our life, is our relationship to God. Unless our life finds its purpose in that relationship with God through Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, all what we consider as important wi...

The first book on Lord of the Rings, the story ends with “The  Fellowship of the Ring ” splitting up and all go their separate ways.  Frodo  and  Sam  go to  Mordor ,  Boromir  is killed,  Merry  and  Pippin  are kidnapped by the  Urukhai  and  Aragorn ,  Legolas  and  Gimli  pursue them into  Rohan . For those who are new to this story, the “Fellowship of Ring” was set up to destroy the ring and protect the middle earth from being taken over by evil. In their journey, after leaving  Lothlórien , the fellowship are rowing down the  Anduin  in the boats given to them by  Galadriel . They stop at  Amon Hen  where they have to decide which way to go next. Opinion is divided on this as Boromir wants to pass through  Gondor , the land of his people, which he thinks will be the safer option. Also, not understanding the power of the  Ring , he thinks ...

In the beginning It was 1978, November. Medical college that should have started by June started only in November. There were cases in the university against the admission that continued for about 5 months. Finally, after this long wait, we were Medical students! In those days there were only 2 professions that was considered worth joining - Medicine and Engineering. And between the two Medicine was the elite one! (That is what we thought). So, it is with great anticipation and joy that we joined toe college. Of course, there was the fear of the ragging. But much to our relief there was a court order that our batch should not be subjected to any ragging and should be protected by police! This was because the previous year, a physical assault during ragging had ended in loss of life of a student and mental breakdown of another! But as we entered the college and the Anatomy dissection halls, and classrooms, we were faced with not too encouraging professors.  Or we felt as if...