The first article I ever wrote!

This was a write up for Pit Stop 2009, an event by the youth of my parish, where the aim was to just sit back, relax and enjoy. :) Hope you have fun reading it!

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A whole new world

A new fantastic point of view

No one to tell us no or where to go

Or say we're only dreaming

A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you
Now I'm in a whole new world with you

Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling

Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling…..

The words of this beautiful song kept going through my head throughout the day. The feeling of togetherness, calm and several other mixed emotions that we felt are truly “indescribable”.

We started in the morning with the Eucharistic celebration by Fr. Fidelis D' Lima OFM who despite his age is very modern in his thoughts. With the readings of the day focusing on how we need to prove our faith in action, Fr Fidelis explained to us how we need to constantly ask God for the strength to overcome difficult situations, to find our “true selves” by letting go of our egos. Aligning our priorities so that we will consciously participate in the life of Jesus is not necessarily the easiest thing to do, but it always brings us closer to our faith’s goal, our salvation.

After the mass, we celebrated “Bumper Birthdays”. As we all joined together in singing the birthday song, Sandeep had an extravagant vanilla facial done as the rest of us wiped off the cake together with some lovely biscuits and coffee provided by the brothers.

Stomachs temporarily filled, we sat down for a session by Fr. Fidelis, wondering what he would talk to us about now (the topic for the session was not known to us). We were surprised as he honestly admitted being initially stumped for a topic that he felt he could talk about to a bunch of people less than half his age (at least in the physical sense – at mind, he’s younger than most of us). He asked us to think of a single thing that would give us “greatest fulfillment and contentment in life”. As we all came up with our thoughts on what we felt would make us happy in life, he classified the same into 3 categories – Being, Doing and Having. He explained to us how what we “have” or what we “do” is mostly based on the circumstances around us; anyone who believed in living a problem free life was, as the author Scott Peck put it, living in a “fool’s paradise”. We only have control over “Being” who we are – we are responsible for our own actions and we need to continue doing our best irrespective of the circumstances. Our norm of living our lives should not depend on our circumstances. We need to do our best in every sphere of activity. This will ensure that we are not disappointed. While telling us all about this he came to the topic of the day “INTEGRITY”

Integrity means

1. Honouring your core word – Your “core word” is a promise that you may have made to yourself or to others.
2. Matching your word with actions towards others in keeping with your core word
3. Admitting fully to ourselves (and if need be, to others), your lapses in your core word – your inauthenticity.

After the food for thought that Father gave us, we now realized we needed some food for our stomachs – we were really hungry. With rumbling stomachs, we all went down to the Friary dining hall, where we were met with the sight of a really scrumptious looking chicken biryani. After the Grace before meals said by Fr. Tom, we ate with the brothers who seemed as excited to meet us as we were to get to know them. The biryani was every bit as delicious as it looked – some even debated joining the Friary for the food. We all chatted with the brothers, laughing our way through lunch and discussing our different cultures and lifestyles. I’m sure they enjoyed the change in their regular patterns with all the noise and liveliness we brought in. It was a welcome change for most of the brothers.

Post lunch, we all marched to the basketball court, geared up to win the matches to follow. As Br. Tomy came with enough lemons and Glucon-D to feed an army and Ravin turned up with a First Aid kit, we all got together and formed teams. Naming the teams “Creative”, “Loving”, “Active” and “Yielding” to go with our group name, we formed teams of 6 members each, mixing up the brothers and our group members. What ensued were matches between the teams “Creative” and “Loving”, and “Active” and “Yielding”. As two of the teams “Creatively Yielded”, the “Lovingly Active” teams made it to the finals. Those who weren’t playing cheered with all their might as the teams competed to win the match. After an exciting match, the “Loving” team won, and Br. Francis was unanimously declared “Man of the Match”. After the prize distribution, we all went in for tea which we had in the bowls used by the Friars for tea along with some delectable snacks – a truly unique experience of having tea from a bowl.

As the evening progressed towards an end, we all gathered together in the garden for photo sessions with the brothers. It seemed like we’d all been together for years. “A whole new world, a wondrous place” was now opened to us and the memories of this day will linger fresh in our minds for a long time to come.