TERRORIZED PICNIC

This is an old incident. Somewhere in the late seventies. The place is Kohima,the capital of Nagaland. Myself and one of my best friends (Ajith George) decided to go for a picnic. Just the two of us. We decided to go to a location which neither of us had seen. It was a small clearance in the beginning of a forest area. We brought some chocolates, bread, jam and some snacks. We also took a small kettle and necessary things to make some coffee. We started of around 8am. After walking for almost one hour we reached the location. There was no clear path or route. Being young we enjoyed the adventurous journey. After finding a good spot we sat down and started of with chocolates. The weather was cold and so we decided to make some coffee. We gathered some twigs and lighted a fire. At that point of time a stone whisked past my ears. We looked around but didn't see anyone. Both of us felt some fear. We put the kettle on fire when another stone came flying barely missing my friend's head. Our courage started melting. Suddenly it started raining heavily. We looked around for a few seconds and packed our things in a hurry and started running . It didn't take us much time to reach the main road. That was a time when some terror groups in Nagaland were in action.....of which we were quite unaware. Now, when I read or speak of terrorism this incident always comes into my mind. I sincerely doubt that we must have been near some terrorist hideout or practicing area. If not for our age and the heavy shower I wonder what would have happened. Fear still grips me when I think about the incident.

MOTHER

One of the greatest or may be the greatest loss in my life,I believe, was missing the chance to meet Mother Theresa. It was somewhere in 1994. Self and two colleagues decided to visit the Nirmal Shishubhavan run by the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata(then Calcutta). Accordingly an appointment was fixed and we were asked to reach there before 9am so that we could meet the Mother. Unfortunately one of my colleagues got delayed and we could reach there only by 9.10am. To our dismay we were told that Mother had just left for some meeting. After due apologies the sister who greeted us did not forget to remind us that Mother does not wait for anyone. Needless to say that we were all very upset. But we decided to go ahead with visiting the Shishu Bhavan.There were so many children. Infants to kids, orphans, abandoned babies, disabled children and so on and so forth. It was nothing but a heart- rending scene. The entire place was so well kept. The children were so clean. They were well fed. The individual care each one of them got from the Sisters were above words of praise.I wind up in the memory of an infant.They called her Anju. She was all smiles when I went near her. She lifted her feet and started clapping her hands. One of the Sisters handed over to me a feeding bottle with milk. I started feeding her and she appeared so calm. After feeding her I took her into my arms and gave her a soft kiss.Later I was told by the Sister that Anju had already been adopted by a German couple and that she will be leaving for her new home very soon. Whenever I remember Mother I fondly remember that cute face too.