The freezing cold bath

This morning I was thinking of skipping my early morning run because I had an appointment at Apeldorn at 10:00 and I have a reputation of being late. 

On waking up it was clear that I had to finish my daily run. So I ended up going out at 6:30 AM in the morning for a job and came back at 07:30 AM to take a cold shower.

The cold shower is something I am pushing my body to experience, since it takes away the fear of the cold weather all the day round.

Tineke had kindly set up my breakfast culinary ready the night before. I really appreciate family Nagtegaal's love and care.

As I was eating my first bread, I casually checked the train timing and noticed that the train I was planning to board was cancelled. Then I rushed quickly to the station on the bicycle to catch the earlier train but I was late by a minute. In the end I ended by reaching 16 minutes late but this time alone it was not my fault.

 I love the Bible verse "The stone that the builder's rejected has become a chief corner stone" - a reference to Jesus Christ. Peter Zevenhuizen recycles clothes, plastic and makes beautiful bags from them. I love the concept of something that is supposed to be thrown away or rejected is now given a new life and is placed in a place of honor. It is the Lord's doing. This has been my vision to start projects for differently abled and give them a helping hand.

It was great to share our work and vision with each other and he is a 2 meter tall dutchman and I looked small in front of him.

On coming back, I decided to walk 12 km from Utrecht Centraal to Driebergen-Zeist. I ended the day at 10:30 PM having a great conversation with Willine and Willine, great friends who have visited me twice in India

Sunday away from home

Sundays are generally a day of fasting but not today. I had to decide between going to xrds, Amsterdam or attend the church in Bethel, Zeist. Finally I decided to go to xrds, Since Anneke would pick me up at Amsterdam Zuid and I could ride with her.

It was great to visit a couple of old friends and visit Johan Verboom. I gifted this 2025 promise verse bag in Dutch (Psalms 65:11) to Johan and asked him to find a mistake in the print. He couldn't and I mentioned the reference in Dutch was Psalms 65:12 😀

Johan Verboom was the preacher for the day and I have seen his dedication about 18 years back when he was the head of the  custodians - Strong and serving with a compassionate heart. To see him on the podium as a teaching pastor was an honor. He spoke on "Jesus - The good shepherd". The call was clear that we need to let go of the fear and anxious thoughts and cling on to Jesus who as a shepherd cares for the sheep.

Anneke prepared a good lunch and I had an excellent conversation about the future and the life ahead. Anneke got introduced to me during my accident recovery in the year 2010, as a member of the prayer group for the land Israel, she was interested in knowing the reason behind my name and pointed out that I had the same injuries as "Israel" from the Bible from Genesis 32

At 5:30 PM we visited the "Chanukah" festival at the Dam and then I took the train back to Zeist.

In the evening had a great conversation with Evangelist Rein vd glind and his wife Trudy until 10:00 PM.

It's time to hit bed early now and be ready for tomorrow morning's appointment at Appeldorn with Peter Zevenhuizen.

Looking back with gratitude

Day 3 also started with a morning meditation followed by a run in the cold weather of 1 degree celcius at 7 AM. I had a complete cold shower thereafter on reaching back.

I had an appointment with family Edwin and Renate slomp who live close to Arnhem in the province of Gelderland, bordering Germany.

We had lunch together and Renate took me to see their horse Hugur. 

Hugur is from Iceland and surprisingly when the other horses had warm clothes on, Hugur didn't need one since he is used to extremely cold weather conditions.

Gérard de Koning Hans picked me up in his Luxury BMW and we went together to Wijnand's house. 

Wijnand, Rosine, their children Joab and Noami, Tijm and his wife Lisanne and Sam, Christel and Hans christian - all of us had dinner together.

I treasure these friends who helped me practically and stood with me all along in my recovery post my accident in 2010. 

Focus consistently

At the end of Matthew 20, there were two blind men sitting by the eayside and when they heard that Jesus passed by they cries out saying "Have mercy on us O Lord"

The multitude around him rebuked them and asked them not to disturb Jesus but they were even more focussed in their approach and took one step further and cried even more asking for a healing touch and they were healed. The were not deterred by the people around Jesus and they weren't discouraged thinking that the people around Jesus would also represent Jesus. 

They were focussed consistently with their foucs on Jesus For healing their eyes and nothing else. It was a great encouragement to pursue a personal direct relationship with Jesus without any meditation.

In the meanwhile I landed safely even though there was a bit of delay in the arrival of my baggage and some confusion in the process. However I was glad to observe that I wasn't anxious at all even though I was asked to write a complaint of missing/delayed baggage. I was thankful to take the baggage along with me. 

I was picked up from the train station and arrived in Zeist by Ronald and was glad to meet Jaap and Lia and also Arjen, Ilsabe and their 2 year old son Eli on 26 December 

This morning I was awake at around 6 AM and went for a run between 7 AM and 8 AM. 

The meeting with Maarten was good and we went together to the park post lunch to do some exercises together. 

At 5:30 PM I reached Huis ter Heide where Shanu and Lennart live for dinner. 

Their beautiful children Jair and Yaron are a blessing. It is cold with the temperaturen dropping to 2-3 degrees and I need to bicycle back in the cold weather to my host family

26 December 2024

The flight was about to land in Frankfurt as early as 07:30 AM local time when I opened my Dutch bible for some early meditation.

The scripture from Matthew 20 was the parable about the kingdom of heaven compared to a landlord who hired workers early morning, afternoon and late evening for the same wages. Interestingly none of them had a job earlier but were given a job by the landlord. 

At the end of the parable, the workers, instead of being grateful to the landlord were furious with him because they started comparing their daily wages with others labourers. The workers employed in the evening were given the same salary as the people who worked since morning. 

The landlord eventually had to defend himself saying that just because their heart was evil because of ungratefulness and greed, it cannot override the fact that the landlord was good.

Serving the poor, marginalized,  down trodden or even people in need with good intentions can at times backfire but there is a call to serve for God and not for man.

Once I landed in Frankfurt, I took some office calls and then went to the forex exchange counter asking for an exchange of my big 100 euro bill into smaller notes.

The German on giving the change back to me replied - "I cannot refuse since you asked me so kindly".

I am about to board my flight to Amsterdam post which I will take a train to my host family.  Ronald and Tineke Nagtegaal will receive me at the train station at Driebergen Zeist at around 3 PM.

( I need to get used to eating lots of cheese in the morning for the next 9 days)

I had to take some pictures to give some color to this blog post 😀

The premium lounge

I hopped on my bicycle on a  rainy day at 7 AM in Chennai to go the visa appointment for my annual year-end visit to Netherlands. This time I was late for my visa appointment since they had changed the office and I wasn't aware of the change until I reached the existing location. 

On being redirected to the new location, I arrived there late. I was however allowed inside but using my delay on arrival as an excuse was asked to use the "premium lounge" route. When you take a "premium lounge" appointment route you don't wait in a queue and are given preferential treatment. 

I however refused the offer because it's not only about the extra money that I need to pay, it was since I was on my bicycle, I was sweating. I was also dirty due to the accumulated rainy mud on parts of my skin and clothes. Being an addicted bicyclist, I have been going around the city for using it as my mode of travel. 

 When I refused the premium lounge I was asked to wait a little longer in the waiting area. After waiting for a while I was let in. I noticed to my surprise that there was not any queue in the normal appointment counter since  VFS (company which mediates visa application) guys had almost convinced and sent everyone to the premium lounge except me. Once in, I finished my work and came back in 30 mins. 

The year gone by has been extremely busy with work at office, commuting to office on my bicycle, the differently abled bag making project taking shape very well and the sunday Hindi fellowships for migrant workers. 

It's just hardly a week left before I start my vacation but I am so grateful to my friends at Netherlands. The host family Nachtegaal with whom I stay, have their son's family staying with them this time around. However they still offered me a place to stay in their home without any hesitation. 

It's been close to 13 years since I moved to India from the Netherlands but the church and families in this small city Zeist love me still and I don't take this for granted at all. 

I have already made 7 appointments for my 10 day visit and it's only going to increase. The only time other than meeting friends and their families is when I go swimming in a 12 feet swimming pool. 

Well, I am also working on reading more dutch this time around so I can have good conversations. I adapt when I am there to the culture including eating lots of cheese and the sour karnemelk (milk) , adapting to the weather, making appointments for lunch/dinner, speaking and greeting wholeheartedly and riding my bicycle to their homes.

Before I even think seriously about my trip there are 2 Christmas programs which needs to be completed  - differently abled program on 20 Dec and Hindi program on 22 Dec. 

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength - Isaiah 40:29-31

The hypertrophy

There is a 20 minute high intensity work out routine from Chris Heria that helps me stay fit and fresh for the day. He talks about stretching your muscle to the breaking point until you reach hypertrophy which is the point of failure or until you are fatigue and cannot work out anymore. 

The best day of the week when I get up to my usual time of prayer and bible reading followed by a cup of black coffee is a sunday. The chris heria calisthenics work out routine is one thing I skip along with my breakfast and lunch.

One pastor who has been using our premises and who I have been helping set up a church in the locality asked me which church I was officially a member in - "I said nowhere".  I have been wanting to show people you can live a bit of a selfless life like Jesus Christ helping other people without expecting anything in return. 

The fellowship with the Hindi labourers on Sunday afternoons is something that brings joy to my heart. Dharmendra was blessed with a son and he brought us sweets. 

After the sunday afternoon gathering, I am out for about 30 minutes to share the gospel and many alcohol addicts hear about Jesus.  Sunday evenings, I am out on my bicycle to sell the jute bags to a shop who buys my bags.

It's been a tough weekend but God gives me the strength to sail through the rough times.

The practical needs of the differently abled community in the poor neighborhood overwhelms me. They called me up and requested me to give them jobs. I have been praying for wisdom on this before I start any projects for them. 

Kamatchi Rebecca, who used to work for us  got a swollen foot and asked me to take her to a multispeciality hospital last week. She has a tragic story where one of her legs was amputated below the knee and she has a prosthetic leg. The other good leg was swollen post a wound and she was in pain. I thought my task was over and that her mother would take over from there but when I enquired on Saturday, the nurse told me that her mother can't even follow simple instructions and hence cannot help. This meant that I needed to help her with doctor visits today and it was evident that the care received by a patient is proportional to his/her social status. 

It was extremely tough being in the government hospital meant for poor people where no one is treated with kindness. They other leg was also badly bruised and amidst talks to amputate the other leg I wanted to make sure there is an alternative way. The love and compassion of Christ compels me to do the right thing and be kind even when others are unkind. 

I was in the hospital from 7:30 AM until 01:15 PM. One consolation is when the housekeeping staff at the hospital came over and apologized to me for being rude after she had heard about some good things about me. I then started off home and stared work from 1:45 PM until 10:45 PM. I had hit hypertrophy when I was done.

Definitely my mom is not happy at home but the problem is that, there are very few people who take the slightest discomfort to go out and help, let alone think about hypertrophy. The only reason I go out of the way to help, is hoping that the recipient of the help reaches out to help others less fortunate than themselves. Sadly though, you don't see many paying it forward. 

I love it when Jesus washed his disciples feet and encouraged them to wash one another's feet in John 13

13. You call me teacher and Lord, and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. 

14: I, your Lord and teacher, have just washed your feet. You then, should wash one another's feet. 

Jesus used the attention of His divine action to point to the responsibility of serving one another. As for me, I will still serve and hope you too. 

40 years, Israel

Couple of days back, a gentleman with whom I was out of touch for more than a year called me and within seconds of the conversation asked me how old I was.

“39 years”, I replied to which he exclaimed in an exaggerated superlative tone “oh no, oh my world, you are old!”.

I exactly knew what was going in his mind when he made the remark.

One thing which we cannot control in life is the time which doesn’t pause as per our desires, but marches on consistently.

King Solomon writes the following in Ecclesiastes 3:

1  There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 

    a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 

    a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 

    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance

This being profound I like to always look back and pen down some of the times of being planted, healed and being built up. The other positives of laughing and dancing is something foreign to me but I do rejoice in sobriety.

Over the years, I have prioritized my time into strengthening myself and deepening into unconventional investments and there has never been a regret - investing in healthy faith, being with people in need and personal fitness which has blessed me with rich dividends. The joy of living a life - holy and clean has been a blessing and I am ever thankful for the grind in the early 20’s which helped me be disciplened all along in the 30’s.

People unknown to me personally refer to me as the bicyclist, as I enjoy riding approx 40 kilometres 2 or 3 times a week to work or the government office. The officers at the government office feel pity on me and even though they don’t treat me well often, they at least don’t ask for bribes since they feel sorry for me, thinking that I cant afford a motorised vehicle.

If asked to pick a specific memorable incident over the years, the search to help Amudha find her biological mother in 2022 stands out. She comes from a small village in Netherlands and had appeared in a dutch national documentary in the year 2019 where she had mentioned to the interviewer that she was possibly stolen as a Child from India and given for adoption. 

This was because the hospital where she was born was in the news in the year 2000 as they had caught some human traffickers red handed when they tried to steal babies and give them up for international adoption. The adoption home in Chennai, India was since closed and the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) , the top most official investigating agency in India. The founder unable to bear the stress of the investigation committed suicide and there was a roadblock to the investigation.

Back in the Netherlands, the dutch government had halted international adoptions after this documentary was aired. This was the circumstance when she called me up during covid late 2021 and asked me if I could help her to find her biological family. She had never seen me but had heard of me and contacted me via Facebook several times to check on the possibility of finding her parents . I did agree to help her against the advice  all of my well wishers, friends, pastors and my own family, who were unhappy with me going ahead with the search.The reason being she was travelling alone and I would be responsible for anything which happens to her in India.

Since I was working in the investment banking division of a multi national bank, there was a critical migration project planned when she landed. Even though I had already requested for a week of leave there was an indirect urge from my company to cancel the leave since it meant that I could not showcase my skills during an important phase of time a work. However I did prioritise this search against my own work even though I wasn’t sure if it would yield me any results. 

The night before the trip to Salem, Amudha's birth place in Tamil Nadu, I was awake until 2 AM, with my mom not comfortable with me travelling alone with her and hence she wanted to accompany me. Then being covid time , I did not want my mom to accompany me lest she could catch the virus. Finally we agreed the I would take her in the train to Salem.

The plan was to go to the Salem municipal office which maintains the citizens register and enquire with them about the possibility of her name being in the birth records  of the city and eventually try to get the parents details and address. This looked impossible since the adoption documents are often changed with a fabricated story, however we wanted to try to get some clue to help us with the search.

When we approached the officer in the Salem municipal office, he just acknowledged our request as a formality and told us he would get back after checking the records. I went back and explained to him about the situation after standing again in the queue but he seemed indifferent. We had apparently hit a roadblock after a couple of attempts. I lingered around for a while trying to get more information but eventually as the officers went out for lunch we decided to go get lunch ourselves. 

Once in the restaurant, Amudha took a couple of video's to add to her experience of her birth city and we decided that it was wise to go back to Chennai. It was 25 January 2022 and there was a republic day parade on 26 January 2022 in Chennai along the marina beach side, and this was something she wanted to experience in Chennai. The earliest train tickets I could find online was a train departing at 10:00 PM and it was just 02:00 PM in the city and moreover we had taken a tiring morning journey.

Amudha wanted to check if there was a hotel nearby where she could rest for a while and also use the toilets. I enquired about hotels nearby and each of them refused saying that there were no rooms. Deliberately, in the start of the conversation I mentioned to book 2 rooms until 6 PM since we have a train to catch at 10:00 PM to avoid any misunderstanding. However the jeering and the mocking laughter of the housekeeping staff and the hotel manager who would not even respond properly to the request broke me down. In a shame culture and being highly sensitive I could exactly figure out what they were thinking. 

They were thinking I was trying to illegitimately do something wrong, whereas I am trying to help a desperate girl whom I have never seen until a week back, like my own sister. 

Completely brokenhearted, I went back to the Salem municipal office and helped Amudha find a rest room. While I was back in the waiting area in tears. 

"Do I really need to do this?"

"I have a good job and I lead a noble and holy life but most of the times being falsely accused and misunderstood"

"What is the use of helping when it doesn't yield any result and you are just mocked? " all these thoughts were continuously flowing through in my mind.

When Amudha came back I made myself calm, composed myself and asked her if we could go to the Salem government hospital which was nearby and spend time there as we wait for the train.

Once in the Salem government hospital, we were strolling along various departments when I then asked for the direction to the maternity and child birth ward so that we can try to at least talk to someone. After some time we came across a department which registers new born children. There was this nice gentleman Mohan kumar who heard our story and directed us to a licensed stamp vendor office, near the Salem Municpal office who could help us with the birth records. 

Once in the stamp vendor office he helped me see the records until the point when I got to a place where the name of the mother and daughter were mentioned as Amudha and Amudha respectively. The stamp vendor guy now closed the page and he was not willing to help me further. He felt that he would be overruling the work of the Municipal officer who was supposed to help me and my plea was falling on deaf ears.  After continuously pleading with him for an hour I had to give up exactly at 06:00 PM since the gentlemen closed the shop partially and went to the mosque as the namaz siren was sounded. 

I hurried swiftly back to the hospital since I strongly felt there was a clue and I needed to get the address in the link. Amudha was taking pictures of women selling flowers and vegetables in the pavement but I had to quickly take her along to the hospital to meet Mohan. 

"Probably my mom looks like one of these flower vendors",  she whispered to me. 

Once back in the hospital, I saw Mohan again and pleaded with him if he could get me the address with the given date of birth and the one which had both Mother's and daughter's name as Amudha. He was sitting behind a veiled glass window and there was only one small opening, meant to receive or give a paper or money through your hand. He enquired with me the reason why the stamp vendor guy did not give and he felt that it was completely alright to give the address.

Since I had sat together with the stamp vendor for a while, I could see what was the exact page where the name appeared and I gave it to Mohan who quickly printed out the address for me  - I was elated and I remember giving Mohan a 500 rupee note, as a gift but he politely refused. There are good people who still exist and I would like to thank Mohan if I get an opportunity to visit Salem again. 

Having the address as a clue, we were supposed to go to a place in Dharmapuri and I had to rely on the local autorickshaws since Google Maps wasnt showing the correct location as it is a real remote village. 

I discussed with Amudha if we were ok to search in Dharmapuri. The place was approx 50 kilometres away  which would also mean that we could probably miss the 10:00 PM train in case we are late on the return journey. It was a huge risk to be taken since if we miss the train we will not get a hotel taking into account my earlier experience with the hotel management. Amudha agreed we take the risk and there we started on with the search. 

I negotiated with the autorickshaw driver for a deal of about 1500 rupees approx to visit the address and bring us back. Once we were in the autorickshaw towards Dharmapuri, it was a crazy nervous journey. Amudha was taking videos and I was praying with mixed feelings of going along a dark road in Salem and being responsible for someone who had trusted me and come from afar. 

After enquiring with several people we got to first address and learnt that there used to be this family who had vacated 10-15 years back. We were referred to a local politician, a councillor who on seeing Amudha said she resembles her mother. It was already a hair raising moment to hear that and further he mentioned that after the death of her dad, her mom relocated to another village. 

We quickly were given the phone number of a gentleman who was an ayurvedic doctor who knows the place where Amudha's mom currently was residing. 

The autorickshaw driver co-operated and after we had exchanged some phone numbers, we finally got in touch with an elderly gentleman who would guide us to the place where her family resides in Poosaripatti. 

It was a nail-biting moment as we came inside a big compound with two or three homes built inside, the calm night would soon be lit up with people who invited us inside. 

Once inside the house, there were a lot of hushed conversations going on in whispers and I wanted to be double sure that we are in the right place. As I was observing and talking with the people in the house, Amudha's sister Jennifer suddenly came in sobbing continuously. She had been told from when she was a kid that she had a younger sister given for adoption so she was overwhelmed to see her. Slowly her mom was called and she spoke some words on the phone with Amudha for the first time - what a time full of tears and joy it was. To confirm that we were on the right address, the family gave us a letter which was written several years back kept in draft which was written by a lawyer mentioning the parents intent to see Amudha. So the parents had voluntarily given their daughter for adoption and it was a closure to all the tears, fears and trauma over the 23 years she suffered not knowing who her mother was.

My work was done but Amudha was still not comfortable to be left alone, she wanted me to initially stay in a nearby room in the night. However after a couple of hours she gave me permission to leave. The mother was supposed to come and meet her the next morning. Apparently the relatives of Amudha's mother were doing really well except her mom who was looking after an elderly person as her job. 

As I bid goodbye, I knew I had missed the train since it was already 11:30 PM but I was happy that she was in safe hands and elated that taking the risk worked. The whole trip as I was travelling back to Chennai by a midnight bus was filled with emotions - I couldn't help but be in tears. I have gone through quite some stuff in life - many dramatic incidents but God was using all the experience  to be involved in a dramatic rescue search.

The trust that is what I long to maintain in life’s journey and also multiply the talents given to me and use for God’s glory as I go ahead with life until I hear - “Well done, thou good and faithful servants!”

Write up of the incident from the press (that the address of the location was received from a missionary is not true) :

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2022/jan/29/netherlands-woman-meets-biological-mom-after-23-years-2412732.html