The Voice In My Head…

On 16th April 2005 (about two weeks ago), my parents were driving to Goa. On that same day (unknown to my parents), Mr. Zaidi, his wife & son along with Zaidi’s sister & her daughter (both of whom had come down from Delhi for a holiday) were on the same road, their destination was Mahableshwar.

The following was reported in the (Mumbai) “Afternoon” newspaper titled “One moment took away half of our family”

Masood (50) along with his wife Rubab (40), son Adnan (16), sister Samina Abdi (41), her daughter Sarah (16) were going to attend the Mahabaleshwar Festival when they met with a fatal accident at Dabilgaon, 2 kms from Pratapgad, off Mumbai-Goa Highway near Poladpur on Saturday afternoon. Their driver Pramod Mishra (32), who also died in the accident had lost control of the Ford which skidded into a deep gorge on the highway. As his sister and her daughter had come all the way from Delhi, and his son had just finished his tenth standard examinations, Masood, a legal consultant by profession, had taken the weekend off for Mahableshwar.

The Zaidis reside at Lokhandwala complex, Oshiwara, from where they undertook the journey on Saturday morning. “Even I was willing to go but could not make it due to some work,” said Farhat adding that he first came to know about the accident an hour after Masood’s body was recovered. “All the way to Poladpur I was praying it’s the wrong car and the information was not true,” Farhat added.

(above: a Ford Endevour, same model as the one the victims were in)

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Imagine for a moment, a big, strong, shiny (yes, it could be red) motorbike.

(here’s a lil something to help you imagine it )

The bike thought it was all big & strong & nothing & no one could do it any harm. So it rode on the dusty & dug up roads of Mumbai city, showing off it’s abilities to weave through the endless traffic in seamless fashion.

Now one day, just when the bike thought it was invincible, out came a little nail…

HaHaHa… thought the foolish bike… what can that small little nail do to big & strong me??

So the bike played with the nail, allowed it into it’s life (in this case, it’s back tyre) & before the bike knew what happened, the nail destroyed the bike’s tyre…

Similarly we “play around” with what we think are “little” sins, thinking we’re so “big” and “in control” of the situation, not knowing, like the foolish bike, that even a small sin can destroy us…

And destroyed we do get.

We’re still all shiny on the outside, but with no tyres to ride on… our souls are decayed & corrupted on the inside…

The good news is that there is a way out… We must go back to our Maker, our Creator (or in this case, a good tyrewala) and He will remould us into what we should be.

Tyre Puncture? No Problem, Submit yourselves to God, (He’ll make it all ok… and in the future) resist the devil and he will flee from you (cf James 4:7)

Don’t play around with sin… all it will do is puncture your tyres. And we’ll only enjoy the ride of life when everything’s smooth.

The End.

Ever since our new Pope Benedict XVI was elected (& even some time before, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger) I’ve been hearing all sorts of silly statements been made about him.

The worst of all the rubbish would be however the implication that he was a Nazi in his youth.

I’d like to highlight some key points to show Pope Benedict’s true colors:

(01) His father, also called Joseph (a rural Bavarian police officer), was an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler’s Brown Shirts forced the family to move home several times. Thus we see from the time Ratzinger was six (when Hitler came into power) he was surrounded by very strong anti-Nazi influences from his own family.

(02) He did join the Hitler Youth aged 14 (which is probably the root of all the rumours) but only after membership was made compulsory in 1941 (the alternative was to be possibly killed as a traitor). Still, he managed to drop out by insisting that it was incompatible with his life in a pre-seminary.

(03) He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps following which He deserted in April 1944 and spent a few weeks in a prisoner of war camp.

From the above it is clear that Pope Benedict XVI was completely Anti-Nazi, in his thoughts & actions.

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Khush, Simone, Renuka & me @ PEs.

Interesting fact: Average age at PEs on a Wednesday night = 14. Go to bed already you guys.

Witnessed (through the wonders of television & live CNN coverage) a little bit of history today.

Just shortly after my prayer meeting ended, Fr. Byron called out from the priest’s dining room “They’ve chosen a Pope”.

What’s even lovelier was the fact that the church bells were all ringing continously at our church - some people even came out of their homes to find out why ! We were all so excited that we decided to all head over to Sean’s place & watch it all live - we had at least fifteen minutes between the white smoke & the announcing of the name of our new Pope.

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Went out with the guys to Mocha & then this other place (I forget…!) Khush sent pics!! (And FINE, maybe they’re NOT so candid, go with it)

Here’s Gail & Khush going “”

& here’s one of me… that’s all they gave me to eat

Was a fun night. Remember something about Maroon lipsticks & lamposts too… hmmm

Had SUCH an amazing day

Got up early morning (5.30am!!) and went for Holy Mass… after that got home & finished off some important stuff like the day’s washing etc and also got time to check my mail!

Left Mumbai at around 8am & was in Pune in slightly over two hours… lovely drive… the expressway is just So beautiful! (click for bigger pic)

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Started the day pretty late as I didn’t have to go into work.

Went to see ‘The Polar Express’, had a good time (review below). After that had lunch at IMAX itself - American hot dogs with extra mustard & dessert & coffee.

Also took the chance to browse through the Crossword branch at the place. Bought Cyrus Merchant’s Heartfelt for mum since she really loves his column in the Times of India… am also like the boy who gifted his grandmother a football - I needed something light to read on my trip to Pune tommorow

Wasn’t happy to see the amount of ‘Da Vinci Code’ books on sale (in every size imaginable) and also the number of ‘related’ books that are now doing business because of it… all anti-Christ rubbist like the “Gospel of Mary Magdalene” etc. There was not even a single copy of “Cracking the Da Vinci Code” available for anyone who would have liked to hear the truth (or to the sceptic - at least the other side of the story).

Little later went for a prayer meeting in Juhu. Turned out to be quite nice.

Was supposed to go out again (to bring in a birthday) but thankfully that plan changed - don’t know how I’ll get up early for Mass otherwise, am already zonked

When we went to se ‘BeCool’ the other day, noticed that ‘The Polar Express’ was playing at the dome (2.30pm show).

Ok granted, we were completely off season for this Christmas Special but decided to go anyway

As it turned out though, the IMAX experience was really amazing - I’m sure this movie was MADE for IMAX (correct me if I’m wrong), it was just so beautiful.

And yes, fun was made because I did cry a little towards the end. A truly beautiful story about the wonderful magical season of Christmas & the innocent joy of belief.

I think a lovely thing to do would be to find some poor children (maybe from an orphanage?) and take them to see this lovely movie at IMAX. I’m sure it’ll be an experience they’ll never forget.

Went to see “Be Cool” - 10:45pm show at IMAX

Before I went I had mixed reviews from friends - some hated the movie & some others reeeally loved it (wanted to watch it again!). As for me, I hadn’t even see a preview of the movie and had NO idea whatsoever what it was about - the only thing I knew is that it starred John Travolta & Uma Thurman.

Was wondering whether I should go for the movie at all - the last thing Gail said to me before I left was “Enjoy the boring movie” (!!) but Khush managed to make me go anyway, so I did.

What followed was PURE FUN… we all (Mamu joined us) were in splits the ENTIRE time - right from the beginning to the end.

The humour’s kinda black & alternative & I’m not really sure everyone will get it - but if you understand black, it’s fantastic (can’t help but think Ram is going to trip on this one!!).

As for me, I especially loved the scene where JT & UT dance in the disc… so many years after their famous dance in “Pulp Fiction” - which I also loved!

Lots of other AMAZING things in this movie - The Rock - who is downright Fabulous in this movie… Steven Tyler (oh, Delu would die!!!) and so much more. You really can have a blast by just looking at all the things on the side which are Not part of the movie, like the billboards on the road while the cars are being driven, the funny words on UT’s t-shirts etc.

Another which is great - this movie is the sequel to ‘Get Shorty’ - which I didn’t see!!! and YET I loved this movie!! As sequels go - this movie stands out - as a movie in itself & as a fabulously funny piece of art.

What are you waiting for? Go book yr tickets now!!!

(And remember, at all times, Be Cool)