Santhosh's ramblings

Four journeys over the last two to three weeks and some ramblings on life!   Journey One – Journey with a Bird   About three weeks back, we found a pigeon laying an egg and sitting on it in a nest built in an empty pot on our balcony. Both of us, along with our helper, have always had a hate-hate relationship with pigeons. The reason was simple: they dirtied the veranda, the clothes hanging out to dry, and the whole place. I would constantly wave my hands and shout every time I went out, and our helper would always curse and complain!   But suddenly, our posture changed from hate-hate to hate-tolerance, and maybe even a hint of tolerance-love deep in our hearts. The helper still complained but kept a safe distance to avoid disturbing the pigeon and the egg. I would walk in and out, intentionally ignoring the nest and the pigeon. Children of family friends would come and go, gushing over the nest and the egg.   If I could talk to the pigeon and understand her heart, I would ask her: How

 In the evolutionary cycle, there was supposedly a point when humans became Homo Erectus — the moment when we began standing tall, observing the world around us, and addressing challenges with newfound confidence. (Some readers might be wondering if he believes in evolution. We never knew! Don’t worry, this isn’t about debating evolution  😊 ).   Looking back and ahead, we’ve come a long way, evolving from Homo Sapiens to now being on the journey toward becoming Homo-Technologicus .   Let me digress for a moment. I developed my first back pain in my mid-forties and my first neck pain in my mid-fifties. I chalked it up to ageing, perhaps a bit premature due to my lifestyle. Today, every other young person I meet complains, “I have a cervical problem.” Some even know the diagnosis—Cervical Spondylosis—thanks to the modern-day medical bible: Google! The picture here is from our home! The question I want to consider is: Have we moved three steps forward in technology but taken two steps b

This October 10th was different.   October 10th has always been a special day because it’s my wife’s birthday. However, this year was unique. From the morning onward, reminders started pouring in from friends, colleagues, and others about World Mental Health Day 2024, which also falls on October 10th—specifically focused on mental health in the workplace. I began to wonder, “Is there a problem with my leadership style? Am I making life difficult for the people around me?” (I do have my own mental health challenge, which I’ve learned to live with, but I never thought I was making others miserable!)   Last night, I had a conversation with a young man working on a school project. His project was about developing a tool to address study-related stress among adolescents—a handheld device that provides visual reminders and is soft enough to use for stress relief. Meanwhile, my phone keeps reminding me, “Time for mindfulness.”  We also have someone in our workplace who recently took a mental

This blog is for those who have seen Inside Out 2. If you haven’t watched it yet, you should—then come back and read this! I’m not an official agent of Pixar promoting their movies, but some films are worth talking about.  😊   After 10 years, four (plus one) new emotions suddenly emerge. I wonder, where were they all these years? Were they suppressed by the overwhelming Joy, Fear, and Sadness? Who knows? It took Pixar 10 years to let them out.  😊  These emotions are Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. The one emotion that keeps trying to surface but gets pushed back by these new kids on the block is the one I identify with most these days—Nostalgia. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot lately. As you grow older, there’s a tendency to live in the past—the good old days!  Recently, two statements challenged me: "Burn your bridges every season of life" and a quote from Thomas Merton: "We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will neve

This is the “report” of a recent faith-based health worker gathering—not the typical blog! I was compelled by what I witnessed over the last two days to write down three key observations and learnings.   The gathering brought together doctors, nurses, administrators, allied health professionals, data managers, priests, sisters, and laypeople, all engaged in listening to one another. While the structure of the system had its usual strong hierarchy, much like any healthcare system, what stood out to me was the absence of an "us vs. them" mentality. They were all there to learn from each other—nurses working alone in remote and challenging areas, administrators struggling with the sustainability of large institutions, and doctors stretched to their limits. It was a community of learning and growth!   When will I learn to live without an "us vs. them" mentality? In my mind, I often divide people into 'us' and 'them'—categories that seem justified by my o

For the last 10 days, I was ‘Rat–tracted’—completely distracted by a rat in the kitchen. I tried everything to catch, kill, or chase it out! Nothing worked. Finally, thinking it had left, I sealed all the potential entry points, only to find it was still there, destroying exhaust fans and gnawing through every plastic utensil.   I lost money dealing with it, lost sleep over it, and even lost my inner peace. I started waking up in the middle of the night, hearing imagined rat-running noises! Like any good Christian, I began praying about it since nothing else had worked. Then, one morning, my better half suggested, "Just calm down, keep the doors open, and see if it goes out." To my surprise, it worked! I should have listened and done that earlier.    But this rat distraction taught me some valuable lessons about distractions in life. For those of us who generally have our lives under control, peace-draining distractions aren’t usually major issues—they’re small things, like r

As we age, various challenges inevitably arise. Two things that stand out for me these days are clothes and hair.   Clothes are interesting—when you go shopping, you often find slim fit, narrow fit, tight fit, and other styles that our generation didn’t grow up with. But this also becomes an excuse to "renew your youth." You buy these clothes, telling people you have no other choice, but in your heart, you’re happy because you’re following the current trend! Carl Trueman wrote, “If no eighteen-year-old male believes himself to be immortal, no middle-aged male wants to appear any older than he was twenty years ago… it would seem that the market for youth clothing (albeit with slightly expanded waistline sizes) is alive and well long into the territory previously reserved for the superannuated and beyond.” Hair issues are different. Greying and thinning hair is part of aging. But every time I go for a haircut, the barber suggests coloring, a comb-over, and other new methods to