We reach Mumbai after 16 hours on the road at 7am and by
8am we’re all at Juhu beach along with another set of youth from the
Archdiocesan Youth Commission to help clean up the beach as part of a drive to
keep Mumbai clean. We all divided into groups, spread out and picked up a
section of the beach to clean. There was sooo much trash all over! Never
realised just how much people smoke
and chew gutka. The cigarette butts and gutka packets were everywhere! I think
a majority of the rubbish we collected was just that only. And plastic bits and
bags and broken glass and all.. People also na..
But one thing about physically going and picking up all
this garbage and getting your hands dirty and throwing all of it away was very
gratifying. It made you feel literally ‘hands on’ in making a difference in the
world around you. We should have more stuff like this all over the country. And
if a city doesn’t have a beach, then just fix up something to clean the city.
Whatever. There just should be more.
After lunch we head out to the Nirmala Niketan College of
Home Science at Churchgate. Fr. Anthony
explains that it is a special program with migrant youth from all over the
country along with the K2K team with games and interactions and discussions and
the works. Cardinal Oswald, Archbishop of Bombay Diocese enriched the occasion
with his presence and his thought provoking speech. One thing of his message
that really struck me was that everyone keeps saying the youth is the future of
the country, but the Cardinal said, “You are not only the future, you are the present of the country. What you do now will make an impact in the
future.” How profound.. How come no one
ever thought beyond the cliché before?
When we reached, honestly, I didn’t know what to expect,
but the whole thing was soooooooo muuuuuuuuch fuuuuuuun! Fr. Anthony and Fr.
Walter led us through the interactions and games and they were some of the most
innovative and entertaining games I’ve seen in a long time.
One was where there were 2 decks of playing cards which
were shuffled and everyone took one at random and you had to find the person
who had the same card as yours and interact with them and get to know them.
Another one was where we were in groups and we had to
learn everybody’s names and Fr. Walter actually quizzed people at random later.
To see how much you were paying attention.
And there were action songs too. Normally, I’m not much
of an action song person, but this time it was different. Fr. Walter and all
the volunteers made you feel so comfortable and you could just let loose. The
action songs were one of the funnest activities.
The last activity was the discussions. Everyone was
divided into groups and given a ‘dilemma’ of sorts and they had to discuss it
in the group and provide a solution. I really appreciate that so many topics
like drugs abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, feelings for another person,
homosexuality, platonic relationships and the like were thrown out there to
talk about. And the solutions were so creative and such a fresh perspective of
thinking. And most importantly so positive. And Fr. Anthony was guiding this
section of the evening and providing his inputs from his own experiences. It
made everything so much richer.
I really liked how Fr. Anthony was so open to listening
to what the youth had to say and accept it the way it was. And even if he
disagreed with something, he could agree to disagree. That tolerance,
especially towards the young people these days, is so needed. It was really
cool to see that.
And I just gotta say - Fr. Anthony and Fr. Walter are by
far THE MOST BRILLIANT priests we've ever come across! Their ability to relate with
the youth, entertain them, guide them, counsel them, support them, and be there
for them is exemplary and I feel fortunate that we got to meet them and
treasure the time we got to spend with them . You rock!
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