Bimola Montry wears many hats as she balances the roles of a family breadwinner and a committed catechist.

The 45-year mother of two has served the Our Lady of Charity Church of Raikia, a parish under the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar arch-diocese, for the past 22 years.

“Being catechist is a call from God despite my unworthiness. This work strengthens my commitment to be an instrument of God,” Montry said while talking to Matters India over phone on May 27.

The archdiocese has 400 part-time and 42 fulltime catechists. But only two full-timers are women, including Montry. “It is true it is a male-dominated world. But my male colleagues collaborate with me well. They never discriminate me just because I am a woman,” she said.

Female catechists are a rare species in the Odisha Church.

For example, all 300 prayer conductors and 32 full-time catechists in neighbouring Rayagada diocese are men.

Berhampur, another diocese in the state, has one woman among 370 catechists and 30 touring catechists. The same is the case with Rourkela diocese that has more than 300 part-time and 43 head catechists.

I read the article ‘Why the Modi government gets away with lies, and how the opposition could change that’ by columnist Shivam Vij in The Print.

With due respect to Shivam Vij, the article is superficial, and only reveals the fatuity and intellectual vacuity of the so-called Indian intelligentsia. In times of elections in India, it is completely irrelevant whether the leader of a party or a candidate is a liar.

Shivam Vij refers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 20 lakh crore (200 billion) rupee economic package to say it is far from a stimulus and is instead a “grand loan mela.” He calls the Modi government’s statement of paying 85 percent of the migrants’ train fare during the lockdown a lie. He was also critical of Modi’s statements on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), demonetization, and electoral bonds.

Shivam Vij refers to the term ‘double think,’ coined by author George Orwell in his famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and asks: “Why do people accept all this so willingly? Why do people, who are lied to every day, go and vote for the BJP?”

Shivam answers by referring to a paper that Christopher Paul and Miriam Mathews wrote for the RAND Corporation, dealing with the four ‘fire-hosing of falsehood’ propaganda techniques of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Vij then suggests five ways to India’s opposition to counter Modi’s lies.

Shivam Vij’s thinking is totally superficial, inane, and lacking in depth. Here’s why the BJP keeps winning elections despite Modi’s lies.

As I have explained in several articles – ‘India is still India – A Response to Aatish Taseer’ published in indicanews; ‘Is India truly a secular country?’ published in Punjab Today; ‘Dark days are ahead for India’ published in Daily Times – although the Constitution declares India to be a secular country, the ground reality is very different.

India is in fact a highly communal country. That is because secularism is a feature of industrial society, but India is still semi-feudal. In India, most Hindus are communal, as are most Muslims. This I can say from my personal knowledge. When I am sitting with my relatives and Hindu friends, and they are sure no Muslim is present, they often spout venom against Muslims. When a Muslim is lynched, most Hindus are indifferent, some are even happy…” Said Justice Katju.

The first Indian from the deaf and dumb community on May 25 pronounced his first religious vows, in a historical and rare event.

Brother Joseph Thermadom made became a member of the Holy Cross Society as the congregation’s novitiate at Yercaud in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu State.

Joseph hails from the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in neighbouring Kerala State. He was born deaf to Thomas and Rosy Thermadom, who are hearing parents, says a press release from the congregation.

Members of the Sikh community won several hearts as they sanitized the Delhi’s Jama Masjid ahead of Eid, a Muslim that ends a month of fast and penance for Muslims.

The incident, which has set an example of communal harmony in front of the country, took place on May 23.

Jama Masjid will remain closed for congregational prayers as part of the lockdown imposed in the country to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Ahead of Eid, several important names in the Muslim community also released video messages, asking people to follow the norms of social distancing to prevent the further spread of coronavirus.

Socrates was born in Athens but he considered himself “a citizen of the cosmos.” H.G.Wells believed borders eventually disappear, and geopolitical gurus have proclaimed the “end of geography.” The protagonists of globalization celebrate the advent of borderless world. “The future has a new home,” the website declares of a megacity being built in Saudi Arabia wirtes Ash Narain Roy

The coronavirus pandemic has shattered all such dreams and utopias by exposing our collective vulnerabilities. After all, the future has a way of arriving unannounced, and we’re too shocked to welcome it. Whenever the dream city does come up, this new home, brainchild of Prince Salman as-Saud, it will not be the future of humanity. We are nursing now a fear of the future, but we have a different future in mind: the future of the past.

The never ending caravans of migrants marching along well-laid tracks and highways carrying children and their belongings become the next defining moment in India’s development path. The humiliation of the poor and of innocents, the disdain for the marginalized, the utter callousness towards their plight manifest how little India has moved up the ladder of social inclusion, and how the othering of people —making them something other than ourselves— has only expanded the India/Bharat divide.

His own body was a site of resistance for Gandhi. Migrants’ bodies too are sites of resistance. They carry not just their belongings but their world on their bodies. They know there isn’t plenty to eat back home either but they know there will be no humiliation there and they will not be viewed with scorn.

The pandemic reminds us how, in Frank Furedi’s words, “Belonging to a community is the most precious asset that human beings possess.” With migrants trying desperately to leave, where are the leaders they elected to represent them?

Bishop George Palliparambil of Miao on May 12 hailed nurses as ‘real heroes’ in the global war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Salesian prelate was addressing the International Nurse’s Day celebrations held at Krick and Bourry Memorial Hospital, Injan in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang District.

“I really want to thank and congratulate all the nurses for the great sacrifice they make for humanity. I want to assure you and all the nurses across the world that you are always remembered in our prayers,” he told the nurses of the hospital that he founded in honour of two missionaries who were martyred in the north-eastern Indian State. The World Health Organization declared the year 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwifery in recognition of the contribution they make and the risk associated with nursing, in the context of Covid-19.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India on May 7 expressed shock and pain over the gas leak in Visakhapatnam, a port city in Andhra Pradesh State. “From the reports it is noted that many have died and scores are ill, and the accident has created mass panic in several areas,” says a press statement from the conference.

At least 11 people were dead and more than 1,000 fell ill on May 7 after gas leaked overnight from a chemical plant of a multinational firm near Visakhapatnam.

Lima Joshi, a Catholic lay-woman living in Vishakhapatnam, told Matters India over phone that people felt breathlessness when they came out of their houses. “Many fell on the ground unconscious,” she added. According to her, the gas spread over a 4-km radius of an LG Polymers factory. “People started running away from their homes. Many died on the spot and many are admitted in hospitals.”