Friday, 23 August 2019

We are all weak human beings, we should freely admit our weaknesses

All of us are weak human beings, none of us are perfect. We all have more weaknesses than strengths. In Psalm 90, it is written "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away."

Some of us may make some wealth, or earn some fame, or do something or other while we are on the earth. But all that will pass away for sure. No matter what, all of us commit more mistakes in our life than right things. Nobody is better than the other. That is the reality. All of us gain a fake importance for ourselves based on things like our wealth, our status in society, our family status, and other things. There is no point in trying to build up that fake image or trying to make others to believe it. I myself have done it lot of times, but in recent times, I have realized that it is nothing but a fruitless task. It is very vain, and we are only trying to hide the truth about ourselves. Even nowadays in the news we can see that lots of big people who had big names have been arrested for their crimes and taken like common criminals. They were all big politicians, film stars, godmen, and so on.

I was thinking, in Anand Jon's case also, this is one major factor. He committed immoral actions on lot of naive young girls against their will. Many of those kids were underaged girls. Anand Jon was unfortunately unable to control his impulses. Finally when he got caught, he and his family tried to put up a show, that he is innocent, his victims are lying, he is the victim of racial discrimination, that they are targeting him because of the colour of his skin, that he is the victim of jealousy by his rivals, and lots of other stories. Even now they are going around telling the same stories.

The wise thing for him to do would have been to accept his mistakes before the judge and plead guilty for his crimes. Then he would have got a shorter jail sentence, maybe 10 to 12 years or something like that. It is only my guess, I don't know anything about American law. But one thing I know is that if anyone commits rape on an underaged kid, then there is very heavy punishment for that, in whichever country it is. In India now the penalty for that is death penalty. But instead of pleading guilty, Anand Jon claimed that he is innocent, and went about telling fake stories. Because of that, he got a 59 year jail sentence. If he had pleaded guilty, he would have been free by now, and he could have began his career again by God's grace.

When I think about why he did not plead guilty, it was because he and his family were thinking that if they plead guilty, their family status and fame will be affected. They might have been thinking that their image in India will go down. They had built up an imaginary hype about themselves by being in the media glare, by telling lots of big stories about themselves, by appearing in the company of celebrities, and so on. Anand Jon himself used to appear with lots of celebrities and pretended that he was a very famous fashion designer. Later on, we came to know that most of them even did not know him. By pleading guilty, all that hype would have been exposed. They were trying to defend something which was not there at all. What was the need for that? There is a saying that honesty is the best policy. They should have been honest and straightforward. Even after he was found guilty, they were still trying to protect their image by going around and telling fake stories about the case and that the American justice system is racist and all that.

I am not writing all this to criticize Anand Jon or his family. I don't want to add any more pain to them. I made a big mistake by doing that earlier. When I think that he did not plead guilty and got sentenced to a huge jail term, I feel very sad now. I am not trying to justify any of his crimes at all, what he did was very wrong and sinful. But I feel sad for a fellow Malayali family. They got trapped by their own hyped image about themselves.

My advise to everyone, especially to young people, is that we should always be honest, straightforward and humble. All of us are weak humans. Nobody is an exception. We should be kind and polite with all others. By admitting our weaknesses and mistakes, we will only gain respect. We will gain respect from other human beings, and we will gain forgiveness from God Almighty. We should help each other, and pray for each other. I always pray for Anand Jon and his family. I hope that someday, he will be free, and he will dedicate his life to God after that.
 

Friday, 19 April 2019

I will just have kanji and payar tomorrow on Easter.

When I first started this blog many years ago, on Easter Sunday in 2013 I had written a post saying what all I had on that day. I had hoped that Anand Jon will be free one day to celebrate Easter just the same way like me and all other Christians in the world. Unfortunately he is still not free.

I have told my wife that I will just have kanji, payar and a little pickle tomorrow on Easter. Jesus Christ suffered for all of us. The same way, we also should suffer for each other. So no feasting for me. My wife and daughters can have their usual Easter feast like every Easter. It is my way of sharing in the suffering of Anand Jon and his family.

I wish Happy Easter to Anand Jon, Sanjana Jon, Shashi Abraham and Alexander. I also wish all daughters in America, and everywhere in the world. May our Lord Jesus bring peace and love in everyone's hearts!

Thursday, 31 January 2019

Let us try to build a new world of brotherhood!

Nowadays, whenever I switch on the news channel, I feel very afraid. Somewhere or other I read about a crime against a girl child. If I change the channel, again some or other terrible news is running. Nothing is in my hands, I wish that God will show the right path to people who do such things.
 
In the past few years, I have had some wonderful experiences caring for other people's kids. I just thought of writing them here. I am  not trying to praise myself or anything, I am just writing my experiences.
 
When I first started this blog, my children were both in school. My younger one is still a schoolgirl, whereas my elder daughter is now doing a professional course in Tamil Nadu. In her hostel, there are many other kids from all over India. She took 1 week leave for Onam in 2017, and came home with 2 other girl children. One child she was from Meghalaya in North Eastern India, whereas the other child was from Tamil Nadu. My daughter brought them home so that they have a look at a traditional Kerala village and surroundings.
 
I and my wife were very happy to receive them in our home. As soon as they came, she hugged and kissed both of them like our own children. They had brought some gifts for our younger daughter, which they joyfully shared with her. The next day, my daughters took them around the countryside, through the rubber plantations, the flowing stream nearby to our house, and also to some of our relatives houses. Wherever they went they were warmly welcomed and loved. For Onam, my wife and daughters dressed them both in the traditional Keralite Kasava Sari, put flowers in their hair, believe me, they were looking so happy and beautiful, I cannot express it in words. All of them helped to make the traditional flower pookalam of Kerala, and they enthusiastically participated in preparing the traditional Onam Sadya (the feast which we make on Onam). They took photos of everything, put it on Facebook, shared with their relatives in their homes, it was such overflowing joy.
 
In that one week, I felt as if I had 4 daughters, not just 2. I never felt any difference between them and the children who were born to me. Finally after a week when it was time to go back to their college, all of us were crying. Neither they could control their tears, nor could I and my wife control our tears. They both invited us to visit their native places, Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu. If God gives us good health and resources, we will definitely visit their homes. In that one week, I felt as if I was in Heaven.
 
One of my elder cousin brother's son went to Australia a few years ago for higher studies. He completed his studies and started working there, and after some time, fell in love with a beautiful Australian girl and they got married. Initially there was some tension at my brother's home, but they accepted it. My nephew had come home last year with his wife, and they visited us too at our home. We warmly welcomed them. His wife was such a wonderful, God fearing child, we felt so ashamed at all those silly thoughts which went through us when they got married. When she came home, she immediately mingled with my wife and daughters, and my daughters started calling her as chechi (the affectionate Malayalam word for elder sister).
 
In future, I don't think people will segregate themselves by race or language or anything. Already in Kerala we can see there are so many people from North East, UP, Bengal, and other places from India. Earlier when there was no means of communications and transport, people had to gather together by community and language and other ways. But in future, everybody will be everywhere. In USA, there are so many Indian boys and girls, not only Indians, but people from all over the world. Same way in other countries of the world too. I don't think it will happen in my lifetime, maybe in 1 or 2 centuries, it will be a brotherhood of human beings. Then only the Kingdom of God will be established on Earth!
 
Let us all pray for that day and age, and start behaving now itself to bring that time! May God bless everyone of us here on Earth, no matter where they are from, India, China, Japan, USA, Africa, no matter where, God has created all of us in His image!

Apology to the daughters of America

In one of the articles about Anand Jon's court hearings, I was very shocked to read that he did not apologize to his victims. So I decided that I will apologize to them.

My dearest, most precious daughters of America,
 
I wish to sincerely apologize to you for the crimes which one of my fellow brethren from Kerala did on you. I myself have 2 precious daughters, and I can completely understand the pain that you have gone through. I cannot even imagine this kind of evil in my worst nightmares. I can imagine the hurt of your parents. They must have dreamed a lot of wonderful dreams for you, just like I do for my children. I apologize to your parents too for the pain they have undergone. I wish that if I was in America, I would have washed your feet just like Jesus Christ washed His disciples feet, and I would have begged your forgiveness. I would have washed your parents feet and begged their forgiveness also.
 
In spite of the evil that other people might have done, by the grace of God, I am sure that you have gotten over some of the pain at least. God can work wonders for everyone, and even more for you. I am very happy to read that some of you have made very good progress in your lives. Keep it up! I praise God for that! I will only encourage you to work more on your God given talents. You can glorify His name by that! Eventually the pain of all the evils that happened to you will subside. May God Almighty shower his amazing grace and blessings on each one of you!
 
My precious children, please forgive the person who did all this to you. What he did was extremely evil. He is a weak human being, just like all of us, in moments of weakness, he committed the despicable acts. Please forgive him dear daughters, and just see the amazing peace of God that comes over you!
 
If possible, please also go to the courts and tell them that you have forgiven him. If there is some little thing you can do to get him out of jail, I beg you to do it my dear daughters. His mother is growing old, and will need him to support her in old age. Please forgive him my children.
 
I will always pray for you. You are no less than my children. They are the whole world to me, just as you the whole world to your parents. May you always prosper, bloom and flourish for God's glory!

Hello everyone again!

Hello everyone again!

I am back after long time again. I didn't know what to add more. Though now when I look back, I feel I was very evil to make this blog in the first place. Simply I heaped abuse on Anand Jon and his family. It was very very wrong of me to be so judgemental. Jesus Christ spoke to me, and I repented. I wish to seek pardon from their family. Dear Mr. Alexander, Shashi Abraham, Sanjana Jon and Anand Jon, please forgive me for this terrible blog. It was the product of an idle mind, which is a devil's workshop. I don't know what evil made me to start it. Agreed, I was very angry at that time, but who am I to judge anyone? I showed this to my priest, he told me that my behaviour was exactly like the hypocritical Pharisee who was very proudly telling God that he was not like the tax collector who was standing nearby him. How bad!
 
I have been praying for Anand Jon. I have been praying for his release from jail. I am hoping to see a news one day that he has been set free. That will be happy day of my life. Every Christmas, every Easter, every Onam, I have been remembering Anand Jon and his family. I wish that they were sitting at the same table as my guests and sharing the meal and the fellowship with me. After all, they are fellow Malayalis like me. Alexander and Shashi Abraham are like my elder brother and sister, whereas Anand and Sanjana are just like my cousins. I hope that some day in life I will have that privilege.
 
Eventually I will delete this blog after few years. I will just let it remain for now so that it will warn young people not to behave in criminal ways, and to know the consequences of such illegal behaviour. Already in the news wherever we are hearing, it is too horrible. There is too much crimes against women nowadays. That also, by big cinema stars, big godmen, and other people who are supposed to set an example for the society. It is a very sad state of affairs.
 
Also I want people to not behave in the disgusting way like I did. Meet the biggest sinner, me. I was pretending as if I was perfect, whereas I am not. Everyone who is reading this, please do not behave like I did. Instead of sympathising with Anand Jon's family, I added more pain to them. Jesus, please forgive me for what I did.