It was business as usual in the marketplace. Shopkeepers were opening and cleaning their shops, as customers began trickling in. Each shop had a signboard vying for the customer’s attention. This is about the Five Shopkeepers. The first shop’s sign was -ATA. The first letter had fallen off, and the shopkeeper hadn’t bothered to repair…

This is in response to the article “Lay Participation Down the Ages” that appeared in two successive issues of “The Examiner”, written by Rev Erasto Fernandez SSS. Some may not have read them, and others may not remember. It was about how the Eucharistic celebration evolved over time, with special reference to the role of…

(In the sequence of “If I Were the Pope” and “If I Were the Prime Minister”) A mischievous friend of mine said that if a black man were to enter the White House then pigs would fly, and swine flu (flew)! It is a witty ditty to which I trust nobody will take offence, as…

Writing about a giant is a dwarfing experience. The giant is my spiritual mentor (I won’t call him Guru), Fr Augustine Deenabandhu Ofm Cap. I write this on the occasion of his Birth Centenary. First the basics. He was born on the 9th of April 1911 in Bajpe parish of Mangalore diocese, and baptised Henry…

Good Friday is a holiday, and holidays are associated with festivities, so it is not surprising that some of my well-meaning non-Christian friends wish me a “Happy Good Friday”! We Christians are ourselves to blame for a wrong choice of word. It should actually be called “Holy Friday” in English; just as in Hindi it…

There is a popular TV programme named after the old adage “The Buck Stops Here”. It literally means, “Who is ultimately responsible?” It is usually asked in a pejorative sense, for somebody shirking responsibility, or for apportioning blame. Now that Anna Hazare has made his Jan Lokpal Bill (JLB) a life and death issue, it…