AS I See It

Fellow Keralites: Choose Life, Not Death!‍

Valson Thampu It was not long ago that Vayalar, the lyricist par excellence of Malayalis, sang: ‘Give me once again the boon I pray // To be born on this, the blessed shore of beauty.’ I am glad he is not in our midst. Else, he would have, I fear, withdrawn this immortal lyric from […]

If The Church Is To Be The Body Of Christ….

Valson Thampu We are familiar with the story of five blind men who went to see the elephant. For a blind person, touch is sight. So, they touched various parts of the elephant. The first, who touched the belly of the jumbo was convinced that an elephant was smooth and solid like a wall. The […]

Trump and the Resurrection of a Shibboleth

Valson Thampu When Donald Trump unveils to navel-fondling right-wing American audiences his ideology of ‘America First’ – his mantra for Making America Great Again (MAGA) – it awakens a weary sense of deja vu. It portends the resuscitation of the good old shibboleth of European nationalism that plunged the world into two successive World Wars. […]

The Light Of Christmas

Valson Thampu ‘The people dwelling in darkness,’ writes St Matthew quoting Isaiah, ‘have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’ Predictably, we have limited that light to the light of Christmas stars, which have, pardon me, little to do with the […]

What the Advent Means to Me

Valson Thampu We are into the Advent Season. Each time, this significant event in the Christian calendar comes, and goes, I feel, a tinge of melancholy, a sort of residual disappointment about how the Advent is understood and observed in our midst. Or, how stereotypically it is understood. I can’t help wondering if we haven’t […]

AMERICA’S TRUMP OR TRUMP’S AMERICA?

Valson Thampu Trump has won. Those who thought Kamala would make the grade proved themselves seriously deluded. The reason? Well, the ethos of America. What else? In a real sense, America is paying for being the unrivalled Super Power of the world. Power has a genius for excess. Nothing is less congruous with the Golden […]

Hindus call off rally through Christian villages in eastern India

Dayal among three awarded for promoting religious freedom, civil liberties