Brazilian Midfielder Kaká testifies
July 6, 2010 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, Testimonies
“When I was eight, I moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil (from Cuiaba, Brazil) where I began to play soccer (football). I have always loved to play soccer.
I played on the Junior Team for Sao Paulo in 2000. We were in the middle of the Paulista Junior Championships when I received a yellow card. I was suspended for the following game, so I took advantage of the free weekend to visit my grandparents, who lived in Caldas Novas at the time.
My brother, my parents, my grandparents and I went to a water park. As I was coming down one of the slides into the pool, I hit my head on the bottom of the pool and my neck snapped. I fractured the sixth vertebra in my neck. At the time, I had no idea what happened.
I returned to Sao Paulo to train on Monday, as well as on Tuesday, all the while with a broken neck. On Tuesday, I called the coach and the physical trainer and told them that I couldn’t bear the pain any longer. They sent me to see a doctor at the hospital where they took another x-ray. It was in this x-ray that the fracture in the sixth vertebra was shown.
Everyone, including the doctors, told me I was very lucky that nothing more serious happened. They told me that I could have become paralyzed and lost my ability to walk and to play soccer. I believe it was not luck. I believe God was protecting me during that time from anything more serious.
Many people think that I became a Christian after the accident, but that is not true. My parents are Christians and they raised me with biblical values. The accident happened in October of 2000 while I was playing in the “base” position on the Sao Paulo junior team. Throughout November and December, I had to wear a cervical collar and could not play.
I began to play again in January of 2001, and after about 10 or 15 days, I was called to play for the Sao Paulo professional team. Because of this, I believe God had a purpose in that accident. It is something that happened just before I had the great blessing of starring as a professional in Sao Paulo and initiating my career as a professional soccer player.
As I said before, my parents always taught me the Bible and its values, and also about Jesus Christ and faith. I did not have a specific conversion experience, but little by little, I stopped simply hearing people talk about the Jesus my parents taught me [about], and there came a time when I wanted to live my own experiences with God. One of these experiences with God was when I was baptized at the age of 12. This was a very important step in my walk with Jesus and soon after many things began to happen in my life where I could experience God in a real way.
I need Jesus every day of my life. Jesus tells me in the Bible that without Him I can’t do anything. I have the gift and capacity today to play soccer because God gave it to me. The day He wants me to do something else, I will do that something else and this is why I need Jesus in my life every day.
I am successful in my financial life and in my professional life, but all this has come from God and is a gift of grace from Him for my life. All that I have, I thank Him for.
The difference Jesus makes in my life is that I know I will always have victory, I will always have joy, and I will always have success. This is independent of the situations I face or will face. This brings me great peace.
I usually tell the people who ask, that the Bible is like the user’s manual that comes when you buy a product. It has everything we need in it. It makes me happy to read the Bible every day, to study it and to be in fellowship with God and learn more and more about Jesus.
I will win many matches and I will lose many matches, but I know that in all of them, God has a plan. This is why I try to understand the plan of God for me in each moment so that I can have peace during times of pressure.
Everyone wants to be a winner, but for me, the true meaning of winning is having Jesus in my life. It is a life of prayer, a life of intimacy and a lifelong friendship, knowing that God is our Father. I can say that I am a winner and I am victorious because Jesus lives in my life. No, I will never stop following Him”
~ Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, commonly known as Kaká.
Gaurav Shroff testifies: Gregorian music led me to Christ
July 5, 2010 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, Testimonies
Written by Nirmala Carvalho for Mumbai (AsiaNews). Here is the story of conversion of a young Gujarati Hindu, who went from fascination with sacred music to discover the love of Christ on the Cross. Now he wants to become a priest and missionary.
Towering at 6 ft 3 in (191 cm), Gaurav literally looks down on people. This young Gujarati convert was captivated by Christian music of the Renaissance era, and choral music awakened in him a quest for beauty.
Gaurav Shroff was born on 30 December 1972 at Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi (“I joke with my parents that ‘Holy Family’ should have been a clue to my future!”). His early childhood was spent in Bethesda, MD (a suburb of Washington DC), when his father was working for the World Bank. The family returned to India when he was around 6 years old, and he attended St Xavier’s Loyola Hall, a school in Ahmedabad where he joined the school choir. His only knowledge of Christians was that they did not speak Gujarati or Hindi fluently and that they buried the dead, something that intrigued him.
Describing his own religious upbringing, Gaurav said, “My father worked at the World Bank and later was the editor of the Economic Times. My mother was the first woman district collector of Gujarat. While there was an emphasis was on traditional Indian values, they espoused secular humanist ideals and values. However, it was from my grandmother that I learned the ancient stories of the Hindu religion—the epics of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita.”
“It was aesthetics,” Gaurav said. “The beauty of sacred music held me spellbound at my first ever experience of the Eucharist at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai on 15 August, Indian Independence Day and the Feast of the Assumption. The sublime music of the Mass undoubtedly assured me of God’s presence; the Gregorian chants elevated my spirits, creating in me a sense of awe for the Sacred. I was instinctively drawn by the aesthetic beauty of the Eucharist and this experience filled my heart with immense joy.”
This young man, an idealistic, Westernized 18-year-old upper caste Hindu, who was trained in Hindustani classical music, began studying Church history, in an attempt to understand “what could have inspired the genius of great musicians to compose some of the greatest classical works in honour of the Divine and place their art at the service of the liturgy.”
Gaurav spent hours poring over books at St Xavier’s Library, teaching himself Latin from the pre-Vatican II Missals to learn and understand the Latin Gregorian chants: the Credo, the Gloria, the other parts of the Mass.
So fascinated was he by the sacred music of the Eucharist, that he attended Midnight Mass the same year at Holy Name Cathedral, accompanied by his father. As he became increasingly interested in the solemn liturgies, his friends invited him to the Easter Triduum the following year, with the simple directive not to receive Holy Communion.
Therefore, in 1991, Gaurav went for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Holy Name Cathedral. “Nothing had prepared me for the ‘Washing of the Feet’. I watched with amazement as Archbishop Simon Pimenta disrobed and knelt down, washing the feet of 12 men. I had never witnessed such humility in a spiritual leader.” He began reflecting on the nature of these priests, this servant leadership, which was an alien concept.
At the Good Friday service, since his friends had only barred him from communion, he went for the Veneration of the Cross. “As I knelt down and kissed the Cross, I vividly remember the clear voice in my heart saying to me: ‘I died for you,’ and I began to weep unashamedly, and though I did not understand what it meant, I was certain, that the Crucified Christ loved me. Then it wasn’t about music anymore, I wanted to learn more about this Jesus. Either Jesus was completely crazy or he was God.”
He began reading everything about the Catholic faith, the Bible and regularly went for Sunday Mass. In 1993, Gaurav went to a Jesuit retreat praying alone at night before the Blessed Sacrament. “I strongly felt the presence of the Divine, the deep love of God for me, and in the darkness, I was illuminated: My life belonged to Jesus, to know him, to love him and to serve him. This was my mission and vocation. I felt called to be a priest.”
“I also had a very serious talk with my family about my decision to become Catholic and be baptised. ‘As long as you do not sever family ties and do not go aggressively proselytizing, you have our Blessings!’ was my father’s response.”
On August 15 1994, the Feast of the Assumption, Gaurav was baptised at St Peter’s Church, Bandra, surrounded by 20 friends, Hindus, Catholics, and Muslims.
Two weeks after his baptism, Gaurav arrived in the United States into an intellectual climate that bred suspicion of the Catholic Church. “God was always faithful, and under the protection of His Blessed Mother, I persevered in the Faith.”
“The next four years of my life were the time that God allowed me to see my reality; but even in crises, the calling to the priesthood hauntingly persisted. So, in order to attempt to discern God’s plan in my life, in 1998, I started a second Masters in Religious Studies, also at the University of South Carolina, and received an MA in Religious Studies, with a concentration in New Testament, in 2001.”
That same year, he started work full time at the St. Thomas More Catholic Student Center at the University of South Carolina as the Associate Campus Minister, where he was responsible for the faith formation of the small University parish. His zeal for evangelisation led him in 2006 to the novitiate of the Paulist Fathers (an American religious order), which took him to Washington, DC.
“In 2006, my father was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer. I always had a close relationship with him, and this was devastating. This was just before I entered the novitiate, and I got to spend a few months with him before I left for Washington. God’s generosity knows no bounds and I was able to be in India for the last two weeks of his life.”
In 2007, he discerned that God was calling him to the diocesan priesthood and so he moved back to the South, and applied to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. After some pastoral work in the diocese, he was sent to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 2008.
Currently, he is finishing the first of four years of Theological Studies at the seminary, and “God willing, I will be ordained to the diaconate in 2012 and the priesthood in 2013, for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.”
“The intervention of God at the foot of the cross in 1991 changed the course of my life forever. Evangelisation and the vocation of the laity will be the central passion of my ministry as a diocesan priest. I see my future role as someone who leads, sanctifies, teaches the laity, not as passive recipients”, I shall be “someone who calls out their gifts, talents, charisms, so that the Christ’s lay faithful can be equipped to bring the Gospel to the world, and share in the Church’s mission.”
“I hope, through my calling, to proclaim the Love of Christ Crucified to the people and to bring our people to connect with Jesus Christ, to get to know Him in a deep, intimate relationship,” for “he is the source of all love and happiness.”
A Physical & a Spiritual Healing!
March 16, 2010 by Ann Marie Lee
Filed under Testimonies
“Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds!” (Ps. 96)
We must always keep praising the Lord for all he is doing in our lives and trust his providential care. When we look to the past, as did those in Old Testament scriptures, it is to remember all the marvels He has done for his people. When we look to the future, it is to trust that He is shaping and preparing the way for His will to be done in us and will provide all things. When we spend much time in prayer, service and worship before the Lord He does provide for all our needs.
An incident in my life showed me that this continual thanks, praise and worship is justified even in our sickness and confusion. Jesus is planning to heal and bless us all the time.
I had a very severe problem of not being able to sleep. For more than a month I would be up in the night almost every hour restless, unable to lie still until 3:00am. It was a case of restless leg syndrome. After getting only 4 hours of sleep it would be time to go to work. I was exhausted and depressed with this problem. I sought spiritual counsel and healing by prayer with many holy priests.
There was another problem in my life which irritated me. My employer had hired me for a position for which he did not need to provide any medical benefits. Without medical insurance in the US one visit to the doctor costs over $100.00.
Further treatment and medicines will also be very costly. I resented this injustice and complained to my fellow employees about it all the time. Thus, I refused to go to the doctor with this cost and accompanying resentment. I resolved to solve my problems myself, with prayer or by practicing a healthy lifestyle. After getting prayers from several priests and examining my conscience still, the sleeplessness continued. One nun told me to go to the doctor…still, I delayed.
Then one day, out of the blue, I was given over $300.00 from a benefactor who stated that God told him to give me this money. I was helping out in the service of the Lord at the Divine Retreat Center in New Jersey. In prayer, I asked the Lord why this money was given to me when I had enough money already to pay for my expenses.
Then the thought came that I should use it to go to the doctor. What was amazing was that this was just what my healing required; the doctor was very kind, she took a blood test and came up with the solution as due to thyroid and lack of iron. These two deficiencies were the cause of the sleep disorder. The medicine and vitamins were not costly at all. I am completely cured through God’s grace and the physician.
There was also a spiritual healing. No longer do I ever complain about lack of medical insurance since the Lord provided even money to force me to go to the doctor and provide for this need. He is my Provider, not my employer. “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.” (Ps. 23:1) My stubbornness and pride were also conquered; the doctor is provided by the Lord and is also to be seen when he so wills it.
“My son, when you are sick do not neglect yourself: but pray to the Lord and he shall heal you. Turn away from sin…and cleanse your heart from all offense….then give place to the physician. For the Lord created her and let her not depart from you, for the physician’s works are necessary…For there is a time when you must fall into their hands…” (Sirach 38:9-13)
What a wonderful spiritual and physical healing the Lord has done in my life! Thank you Jesus for your providential care.
My Story ~ Ramchandran Vydianathan
February 3, 2010 by Muriella D'Silva
Filed under People of God, Testimonies
Praise the Lord, Praise you Jesus, and Praise you Abba. Dear Friends, I would like to share my encounter with our Lord Jesus in my Life My name is Ramchandran Vydianathan. I was born in a Hindu/Brahmin family in Kerala. After my graduation, I was sent to Bombay to take up a job. This is where I met my wife Bernadette.
For a period of four years, i.e., from December 1983 to December 1987, I worked in Saudi Arabia. In the year 1987 I returned back to Bombay. We got married in the church in 1990. Initially, my family did not approve of this marriage, however since I was most loved by my mother she finally agreed. I was blessed with a good job in Dubai in September that year and my wife joined me six months later. We used to attend mass once a week either on a Friday or Sunday. But I still remained a Hindu.
Detention
In the month of February 1995 at 11 p.m., while we were returning from our vacation, I was stopped at Dubai Airport by an immigration official. On asking the officer what it was all about, I was told that there was a case against me and they could not give me any further details. My wife quickly put a Rosary and a novena book of our Lady in my pocket. I was put into a vehicle at the airport and taken to the Immigration Lock-up at Bur Dubai Police Station. I was able to meet her only the next morning after she obtained information about my whereabouts. Through her I informed my company about my detention. This happened during the Ramadan season.
After a couple of days, I was shifted to a police lock-up at Al Mulla Plaza. I was detained in an underground cell. My wife managed to contact me there too and told me not to be afraid and to pray to Lord Jesus. I began to recite the Rosary and say the novena prayers in the prison. It was a prayer said in desperation; and Jesus as usual was faithful and responded to my prayer. Immediately help started pouring in. My wife used to come to meet me daily and she somehow managed to give me a small Bible.
Testimony of Stephen James Taluja - Young Sikh to Catholic Missionary
November 11, 2009 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, Testimonies
Son of a family of devout Sikhs, Stephen James Taluja is now a member of the U.S Maryknoll missionary institute. He tells AsiaNews about his childhood, his encounter with Christ, the Mighty God in the weakness of the cross, his “days of torment” for misunderstandings with his father following his conversion. Until the day of his ordination in which he saw with his own eyes what it “God is faithful” means.
From devout Sikh to Catholic priest. This is the story of Jaideep Singh, who recently became a Maryknoll missionary, a societies of apostolic life founded in the United States in the early 1900s. Today he is Fr. Stephen James Taluja.
Born in 1981, the youngest child of an important Indian Sikh family, the only male eagerly awaited by his parents after three daughters. Fr. Stephen talks to AsiaNews about his unique and personal story that revolves around his discovery that Christ is the Mighty God “in weakness” and the certainty that “God is faithful.”
“My mother was a very devout woman who introduced me to the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib educated us at home in the prayer and recitation of the hymns of the sacred scriptures. My father accompanied me to the Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, and he raised me in the faith of the almighty. My parents instilled in us children love for God and a sense of service to the community”.
The young Jaideep studied at St Stephen’s School in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab. Harold Carver, dean and founder of the institute remembers the young Sikh who “excelled in sports and played in the under 19 national soccer team of the state, loved music and sang in the school choir”.
Because of the quality of his singing the little Jaideep was invited to sing at midnight Mass on Easter Eve in the local church of St. Sebastian. He was 13 years old and attending the 7th class. It was the first time he had set foot in a Catholic church making the unusual occasion even more special for the young Sikh. Today, he says: “In that night I have vivid memories of the crucifix hanging on the wall and all the people on their knees praying. I did not understand how people could pray to a weak and dying God. For me, God had to emanate strength and power. And that God was just the opposite. ” Fr. Stephen remembers “the charm of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, common prayer and the unveiling of a totally new way for me.” He left the Mass with the image of “the cross and crucified Lord” in his head as well as “emerging questions about the meaning of life.”
After that night Jadeep began a long journey. “My mother had noticed that there was something new in me and caught my initial interest in Christianity, but did not say anything.” Jaideep turned to the rector Carver, putting his questions to him. Which become more insistent, even after the events in the family life of the boy.
The sudden death of his mother made even more urgent the need to understand the meaning of life and death. Fr. Stephen speaks today of the “darkness of soul” recalling that time. “I wondered where God was in all that was happening to me, what was the meaning of life.” The patient company of Harold Carver marks the “days of torment” of the young Sikh who recalls: “At some point I began to see the connection between life and death, realizing that Jesus died and rose was the model for us.”
The memory of that period, in which anguish was followed by the emergence of faith, is for Fr Stephen motive for “pride and gratitude”. “My family had planted in my soul the seed of religion, dean Carver the seed of Catholicism and of a life spent in witness of the Gospel.”
Jaideep decides to speak with his father about becoming a Christian. “All hell broke loose. He was annoyed, angry and offended. He called my sisters to ask them for information about my new faith”. The young priest now says: “They were really heavy and unsettling days for the whole family … thus began my personal participation in the passion and crucifixion of Christ.”
On March 1, 1999 Jaideep was baptized and chose the name of his school Stephen James. “I became a Catholic in secret and for 3-4 years my family knew nothing. I did not want to hurt them even more, because my father loved me so much and yet did not understand my choices”.
The year after Stephen leaves for the United States to study computer science. He lives in New York. To earn some money he works at night at a gas station. Every morning he goes to Mass in the parish named after St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Shrub Oak. Even there, he sings in the choir and one day the director Patti Copeland introduced Stephen to the Maryknoll missionaries. The young man remembers: “Their stories of aid to the poor around the world were impressed on my young 20 year old mind”.
“For some time I felt emerge in me the innate desire to communicate with God, to devote all of myself to contemplation.” Stephen believes the roots of this impulse lie in the education he received in his home: “Being Indian, and having received from my mother and
our culture a deep sense of divinity I was fascinated by the mystical life in the early days of New York and I had thought of becoming a Trappist monk”.
In 2001, the young Indian was invited to an Easter spiritual retreat and he realises he is being called to consecrated life. Stephen enters the seminary, but does not say nothing yet to his father and sisters, “worried about the pain and stress that the decision might cause to my family.”
“It was a period of anxiety in my life,” says the boy. “I knew that my father and members of my family were mocked, scorned and humiliated for my decision to become Catholic.” Sikh culture attaches great importance to the one male in the family circle. “You have the responsibility to carry on the name of your race, to take care of parents when they grow old - said Stephen - all this and I could no longer do so because of the decision I had taken.”
The days of priestly formation pass accompanied by the torture of hurting his loved ones and especially his father. “But God is faithful,” says the young man. “I suffered, but I knew that God would give my father a reward far greater than I could hope for.” Stephen studied at St. Xavier University in Chicago, attended the Maryknoll’s Language Institute in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and for two years lived and worked in the mission of Aymara, on the Peruvian High Planes.
On 30 May 2009 he was ordained to the priesthood. Stephen’s three sisters arrive in New York: Anu, Manpreet and Jaipreet, who live in Europe and America. U.S. authorities will not grant a visa to the father. “But it was one of the happiest days of my life,” says the young priest. “My dad wanted to be with me and through my sisters gave me his blessing and the sign of his support for my choice. He wanted me to know that he was proud of me and he had reconciled with my vocation. “
On becoming a priest of the Maryknoll missionaries, the young priest began a new life and on the day of his ordination, officiated by sgr. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, he received messages of congratulations from hitherto unknown people who had learned of his story through friends or other missionaries. “They wrote that they prayed for me, as I became a priest during this Year for Priests - says Fr Stephen - and I felt honoured and privileged to be a Catholic priest, blessed by the prayers of so many people around the world. All this has made all the stronger in my desire to be a holy priest and a missionary who serves God by serving his people”
–
Written by Nirmala Carvalho for AsiaNews, used with permission.
Fred Beretta, passenger of Flight 1549, testifies
February 21, 2009 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, Testimonies
US Airways Flight 1549 was a commercial passenger flight from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. After striking a flock of Canada Geese, the plane faced an immediate loss of thrust from both engines and subsequently ended up landing in the Hudson River adjacent to Manhattan on January 15, 2009.
Miraculously, all 155 people on board the flight survived.
The time the plane landed in the Hudson was during the 3 o’clock hour (at about 3:31 pm), which Christ told St. Faustina is “the hour of great mercy.” It was during this hour that His heart was pierced by a lance, and blood and water gushed forth as a fountain of mercy for the world. “In this hour,” He told her, “I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion.” (Diary of Saint Faustina, #1182, 1320.)
(Fred on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” shortly after the Miraculous Crash Landing)
Fred Beretta, was aboard Flight 1549 and following the miraculous landing, he sent the following email to Vinny Flynn who is the author of “Seven Secrets of the Eucharist”.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Subject: Passenger of Flight 1549
Vinny,
I sincerely hope this email finds its way to you. I was a passenger on flight 1549 and my name is Fred Berretta. You might have caught a glimpse of me or heard me on CNN or Fox the night of the crash. I interviewed with Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer and Bill O’Reilly and discussed the crash that night.
He healed my eyes! ~ Muriella’s testimony
November 12, 2005 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, TestimoniesFrom the age of 11 -21, i used to wear spectacles. Then at 21, I just felt bored & tired of wearing them & so I stopped - also, rather shamefacedly I confess, some vanity was involved). And so for the past 7 -8 years I moved about and managed without them.
Recently, very often in prayer, I felt urged by The Lord to get my eyes checked. Finally on Friday November 26, 2004, my mum and Ii went off to the optician, who looked ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED when she checked my eyes and recommended I see a specialist.
Since it was not too late, we went immediately. When the specialist checked my eyes however, he announced that I have just TEN PERCENT VISION. In America that would mean that I am legally blind!
Even the specialist was amazed that I was moving about, living an absolutely normal life with no accidents or anything of the sort. I didn’t want to make him keel over, so didnt mention that off and on I also drove my family car!
I went to every God, but only Christ Saves ~ T. D. Joseph’s testimony
May 12, 2005 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, TestimoniesWealth
The year was 1993. I was a businessman, involved in R & D in the Film Industry, who had not only had major losses in my business, but also owed great amounts of money in loans. Though I Catholic by birth, I was not religious and had not even seen a church for over 15 years. To get myself out of my debts I tried everything. I even went to Muslim Babas and Hindu Shrines. But I did not go to the True Living God as I did not know who He was.
One night, I got up from my sleep at around three am and started saying the rosary. I was crying as I said the rosary because in addition to my huge business losses and the loans to repay, I was the only provider for my wife and three children, all of whom were in college where tuition costs are high.
“Holy communion turned into Flesh” ~ Gijo’s testimony
October 12, 2003 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, TestimoniesI was born in Kerela, but my parents eventually settled in Madras so I completed all my studies from there. I have an elder brother and a younger sister. I now work in Saudi Arabia.
When young, I was very active in church activities. I was an altar boy, I helped the priests and nuns in various different ways; organizing & planning church functions, doing decorations in the church etc. I also played the guitar for the church choir. I had some faith in God but it was very limited.
In 1992, I attended a retreat in Potta, Kerela (India) and I had an experience on the 4th day of the retreat during the Holy Spirit special prayer time. While I was praising the God my right hand started shivering and I experienced a powerful force which I subsequently only learned was due to the Power of Holy Spirit. This was my very first personal experience of God in my life.
My Road to Christ ~ Dr. Ezekiel’s testimony
August 12, 2003 by Melody Laila
Filed under People of God, TestimoniesI was born and brought up in a Hindu backward class community and named Sanjay. My father was a highly educated, esteemed and a dedicated person towards social upliftment in vast contrast to most politicians. He expired in 1981 after struggling with cancer for a few years leaving behind my mother and three children.
My mother though illiterate was very hardworking, determined and loving, going out of her way to help others and unable to say no to anyone when it came to helping. Her desire to see us educated and excel in the society gave her a reason to live. She worked hard and brought us up giving us the best in her capacity. As the eldest amongst her siblings, she also shouldered the responsibility of educating, getting her younger brothers and sisters married and settling them with jobs. All the family pressures, ups and downs, fears and insecurities were borne by her alone. As a young girl, she grew up in one of the remote villages of Osmanabad district in Maharashtra (India) in a thatched house and in her teenage years, managed to build a firm stone walled house in the town and then in the later years, during my medical education bought a flat in Pune, a city of educational institutions, for our ease.
