VANITY OF MODERN DAY RELATIONSHIPS        

(CONT… FROM PREVIOUS POST)

Further to what I have written in the previous post, I came across a few of anecdotes said by Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Valiya Metropolitan – as quoted by Alex Thekken-nattil (in Mar Chrysostathinte Navathi Pinnitta Narmangal).

Mr. Alex went to Poolatheen, the Metropolitan’s residence, for an interview. The Metropolitan started with the narration of the trend of burial in the Christian families.  

“In the yester years, when one person is dead, we could see the children, grand children and the relatives gather around the body and sing songs and read bible portions. We could also see some of them sob at times.

Now a days we do not see this. There is no time for the children and grand children to do it. The machine (c.d. players and key-boards) takes their place and do it efficiently. In the death of a person, it is the machine that cry. It even makes the hearers cry.”

Another story: “A husband and wife from United States were always in disagreement and were fighting.  As the days went by the intensity of difference of opinion also grew.  One of their friends advised them to visit the Holy Land to settle the matter through prayer and penance and they went.  

On the second day of the visit the wife died.  The undertaker was called and they said, “If the body is to be taken to U.S.A. the expense shall be $5000; but if buried in Israel, it shall be $150”.

The husband told that the body shall be taken to U.S.A in spite of the heavy expense, the reason being: “I have heard that someone was buried here and he rose after three days. I don’t want to take the risk…”

VANITY OF  MODERN DAY RELATIONSHIPS

A few years ago, a cartoon appeared in a Magazine. In the first frame, the father, mother and children of a family are arguing about what they have seen in the house next to them. The father says, “It is marble” to which the wife says, “No, it is mosaic tile”. One of the children argues that it is neither marble nor mosaic, but ceramic tile only. Finally they decided to visit the house again and settle the argument.  In the second frame, they are inside that house. You may think, “What is so special about it!” In that house lies the body of a dead person. While they came to pay homage to the dead person earlier, their eye was on the floor and its details.  The cartoon is trying to depict the vanity of modern humans.

We have come to an age where even the burial is ‘administered’ by the event-management teams. Following is a conversation that can take place in the near future in Kerala – as anticipated by a writer.

An old lady died. One person in the neighborhood (Let us call him X) asks, “Have the children of the deceased arrived?”

An unknown person (let us call him Y) standing in the house of the dead person says, “No, they have informed that they are not coming.”

“Who are those sitting near and crying,” asks X.

“They are the staff of the ‘Always Event Management’ and I am the manager. We conduct this program,” was the reply from Y.

X asks, “Program?” to which Y replies, “Yes, Sir. We do everything our client asks, whether it be for marriage, baptism, death or anything you ask... you name it; we do it.  We do it the in the most colorful way and as per the requirement of the clients. Now, there is about 100 staff taking care of every aspect of burial.”

“Who has entrusted this to you?” asks X

“Her children only! They booked for it from Canada last year,” said Y.

X said, “She was not ill last year!” to which Y told, “Not necessary. It is better to book once one cross sixty. We could work out every detail of this event much early.”

X asked, “What are the services you render for burial?”

Y said, “As soon as we hear about the death, we bring the mobile mortuary; make flex boards as per their requirement and place it appropriate places to let the society know of the death; inform all the relatives whose phone numbers are given; shamiana, photo, video, mike, band etc. are arranged.  In this case, since she did not have much close relatives around, we have also arranged some people to cry sitting near the body. How can anyone organize so quickly, if not planned earlier?”

X exclaimed, “She is lucky! What is the next program?” to which Y told, “funeral procession, sir. For that we have arranged 100 cars.”

X further asked, “Will it not fetch an enormous amount for all the expenses. And the reply was, “No, Sir. When compared to the four families with about 15 people in this case coming from Canada, the expense is very minimal. Moreover, they are watching everything live at their homes from the beginning.  Hence they will not miss anything that happens here.”

X was curious and asks, “How did you come to know of the death?” to which Y replied, “That is the efficiency of our service. Once a person is registered with us, he/she is constantly watched by our staff.”

“Does that mean that you were waiting for this person’s death?” X asked.

“Of course, Sir! More than 300 people are now being watched by our staff. That is ‘Always Event Management’ and that is why so many people rely on us for any event. You name it; we do it.”

A TRAVELER FED TWO HUNGRY STREET KIDS...  

Many people look for ways to help the people in need; but do not know how to go about. Well this story that I found on Facebook is an answer to those people. Good deeds often result in a kind of domino effect and the chain can go a long way in making the world a better place.

Here's the story, which was originally written in Malayalam:

Our protagonist, let's call him Mr. H, was in Kerala's Malapurram for a business meeting. He spent the day chatting up with similarly business minded commercial men who resembled droids more than humans. 

Tired, he decided to spend the night in the city. He rented a room and set out to find himself a sumptuous meal in the town known for it's amazing culinary variety.

He was really hungry as walked into a nearby hotel and quickly placed his order. As his hot meal arrived  on his table, he could barely contain himself but that's the exact moment when he saw them... a pair of small eyes, peeping through the glass panes onto all the food being served and the people savoring them.

These eyes belonged to a street urchin. His hunger betrayed his young eyes but the diners were just too busy to notice him or his plight. Mr. H felt a deep pang in his heart. He called the little guy in. He was not alone, his little sister was also by his side. Their eyes betrayed them again. Their gaze was transfixed at only the food  and not the person who beckoned them.

Mr H asked them, what they wanted to order. But they just pointed to his plate. The food arrived promptly. 

The little boy tried to dive right in but his sister stopped him. Her eyes told him something that he understood and they rose up to wash their hands before the meal.

They returned and finished the meal. They didn't speak, laugh or made a fuss. After finishing their meal, they rose up again, washed their hands and left.

Mr H had not touched his food till then. He found that his hunger was sated, he felt a rare feeling of fulfillment.

He finished his meal and called for the bill. When he returned after washing his hands, he found the bill on the table. One look at it and a tear - one that was hidden somewhere by his conscience - left his eyes and dropped gently onto it. He looked at the man at the counter and smiled. The smile was reciprocated by an even bigger one.

As he walked back to his room - he felt like he was better person, a better human!

This is the bill he had received. It had no amount on it, but just a message:

The note on the bill says, "We do not have a machine that can bill humanity. Godspeed!”

HOLD ON: THERE SHALL BE A WAY OF ESCAPE

The general human tendency is to succumb to adversities.  Have we not many a times thought, “I cannot do it”, “I will not succeed in life”, “How can I cross this difficult situation?”, “I am a failure in life” etc.?

Here is a parable about an old mule that fell into an unused well. Its owner was not very keen to save it because he was thinking of disposing it since it could not do any hard work. He calculated the cost of saving it and the money he may get when he sells it.  He felt that saving it shall be more costly. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer asked the neighbors for help to fill the well with dirt so that the useless well as well as the worthless mule shall be disposed.

Initially the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit on its back, a thought struck it. It suddenly dawned on it that every time a shove-load of dirt fell on its back, it would shake it off and step up. This process continued until it stepped out triumphantly over the wall of that well. What seemed to bury it actually helped it to come out victoriously!

When the humans who claim to be wiser worry about even about silly things, the mule with its determination found a way out. As someone has said, “If there is no way, make a way.” We have the caliber and intelligence to do it; provided we are composed and ‘cool’.