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Finding your Radhe Shyam.

Radhe Shyam lost his father, mother and sister the night the wall of the national park collapsed killing 31 people in Malad East, Mumbai. He, has a brother, sister-in-law and a six months old niece all of whom who miraculously survived the tragic night of the first of July.

Over the last one month Bro Paolo has been tending to the wounds of  both the brothers one of whom who received a severe back injury. Each time they visited us they would recall the horrors of that night. Radhe Shyam still can’t sleep at night. He says that his dreams are filled with sadness and fear. The hole in his heart gets bigger when he goes to the piece of land he once called home, now nothing but a heap of rubble. Through these tears, Radhe Shyam and Uttam also see the ‘kind’ hand of God who spared their lives.

Now, it is time he moves on and even though he does not want to accept the home the government offers him in the polluted area of Mahul, he feels he has no choice. There is a sister whom he has to marry and a brother and his family whom he has to take care of. The injuries they suffered that night have now altered the choices they can make to earn a living; a chronic back injury does not lend itself to hard labour. 

Radhe Shyam deserves to smile, even if it was for just an evening. So when I asked him what he needed for the new rented house (read one room tenement in the slums) he turned up with a list that had ten odd items; surprising for a family that has lost all their possessions and three loved ones. I thought that this simple man who loves God (what ever his faith be ) deserves more.

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Travel

The façade of the Cathedral in Orvieto – A picture book in stone

The work on the Cathedral began in 1290 and went on for 150 years. While this was completed in 1444 the work on the façade spanned a period of 300 years and is a blend of several styles. The façade can be well described as a wonderful picture book and set up at a time when most people could not read or write.

In the bottom panel are four large relief panels in marble. From left to right one can see the story of creation found in the book of Genesis followed by the Tree of Jesse which gives you the genealogy of Jesus. These two panels on the left are taken from the Old Testament. To the right one sees two panels from the New Testament. The one closest to the main door depicts the life of Jesus followed by the fourth panel which depicts the last judgment.

So detailed are these works that one can even see the teeth of persons depicted. In the panel of the last judgment, on the second line from the top, among ‘the blessed’ is a man carrying a set square which is how an architect was depicted. This is the Sienese sculptor and architect Lorenzo Maitani who was commissioned to work on the church and solve several issues concerning the load-bearing capabilities of the building, especially of the choir. He substantially changed the design and construction of the building, increasing the similarity of the building to Siena Cathedral. The architecture of both buildings sometimes is classified as a sub-style of Gothic architecture; Siennese Gothic style.

Above the four panels are the sculptures of the evangelist depicted in their symbolic forms; a man, a lion, an eagle and an ox. Above the marble reliefs on the right hand side, captured in mosaics, are events from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary in whose honour (the assumption) the cathedral is named. The mosaic depicts the birth of Mary and is flanked by mosaics of her parents, Joaquim and Anna. Just above this scene is the presentation of Mary in the temple. On the left hand side, to the top is the marriage between Mary and Joseph. Below this scene, on the left is the annunciation with Mary and the angel which flanks the triangle that depicts the baptism of Jesus.

Orvieto, Exterior of the Duomo: The Birth of Mary
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Update on the relief work 

Shabnam’s family was one of those who lost their possessions in the landslide in Malad East. Shabnam’s parents run a small business by stitching clothes. They lost their sewing machine in the landslide. We decided to give them money to buy a new machine which they did.

This morning they proudly showed us their new machine and the daughter expressed her desire to study. She has begun a course in computers ( I would like very much to give her a second hand desktop). Today Shabnam wrote me a message which I have reproduced here along with photographs of her family and the sewing machine. 

We continue to reach out to the families who have lost much. Yesterday  I was joined by Lenny Soares and Sylvia Fernandes.  I’m chatting with these families to understand their needs in the days to come. We are in the process of collating the list of school books that the children need and which were lost in the flood.

We are also looking to help the young men get jobs. We put one young man who worked in a hotel with Annabelle Rodrigues who was my professor in catering college and now continues to serve as the head of department in Don Bosco’s catering college in Kurla. Thank you Annabelle. 

Many of the young men here, worked as food delivery boys( and need jobs ). We came across one young man who has done his pharmacy and is looking for a job. Most of these people continue to be homeless as they await the governments decision to give them a home . 

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Food

Cantare has been around for more than a decade. This charming Bistro situated bang smack on the road in cruzwaddo, Saligao, is a must visit.

Several years ago, Maurice Britto returned from the USA where he had settled, to find that encroachers had taken over his beautiful one storied ancestral home. After a long legal battle the property was rightly restored to Maurice who decided to turn this ancestral house into a local watering hole.

This wooden floored restaurant has quaint interiors and large doors that allow the main dance floor area to float right out into the balcony. Food and song are in the air; you smell it, you hear it.

Cantare simply translates as ‘song’ in Konkani, that’s what you can expect every day. From jazz to rock, funk to blues an evening at cantare keeps your feet tapping and the rhythm flowing. You can even grab a microphone on karaoke nights. We were told that Mondays is especially the wild night with couples burning a hole in the dance floor. ( you should call in for reservations )

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Opinion

When love flows

After the dedication of the new Church in April of this year, the parish family of St Jude in Malad East discerned as its mission statement the following; ‘The Judean Family, striving to witness to the love and service of Christ to all’. What we never envisaged was how seriously the Lord will take us on our mission statement to love and serve “all”.

On the night of the first of July, parts of a fifteen foot, two kilometre wall, built on a hillock to prevent further encroachments from a workers colony, came crashing down. Unknown to all, the incessant rain had collected behind these walls like a reservoir and when the foundations gave way death rolled down in a flash killing 29 people, severely injuring a hundred and completely destroying more than a hundred homes

Ambedkar Nagar and Pimpripada are literally in the backyard of our spanking new Church. In the midst of reaching out to our own parishioners whose homes were flooded that night, word came to us of the wall collapse. Fr David Castegnetti, a few youth and myself went to visit the site only to find ourselves in the midst of an unimaginable tragedy; homes destroyed, people buried under the rubble or simply washed away in the ‘nullah’ while thousands of onlookers whom I now call ‘tragedy tourist’ looked on.

Social media is a powerful tool given to us by God for the good of others and my first message went live on Facebook from the site, the second went to my brother priests on our priest whatsap group and then to the laity. What happened next has left me ever so humbled and grateful for the love we as Catholics have for the least and the lost. Within minutes, responses and calls flooded my phone. Friends in Orlem sitting down to a pound party mobilized their neighbours to action, priests of the Archdiocese of Bombay, religious brothers and sisters and our Bombay seminarians jumped in to help.

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