“Silicon City” – I visited Bangalore for about 10 days in February.  The day after returning I phoned Chiltern Railways to buy a ticket, and was efficiently served by someone with an Indian voice.  I wondered if he was in Bangalore.

Our hosts told us of the rapid development of call centres and IT companies just in the last 3 or 4 years.  On the backs of buses are frequent adverts for call-centre training and learning to speak English with appropriate accents.  The IT, electronics and finance companies have new multi-storey, glass-fronted office blocks.  Roads are being widened around the traffic to serve commuters and to reach the new international airport due to be opened in March.  While some housing areas are being built with basic infrastructure, many of the people coming to Bangalore to seek ancillary work set up home under blue tarpaulins, closely packed on waste ground.

We were a group of six people from United Reformed Church Thames North Synod visiting as part of the link between this synod and the Karnataka Central Diocese of the Church of South India.  The church is doing and always has done a lot of work with the poorest of people.

• We saw the CSI Hospital, started over 100 years ago in a settlement near the railway to serve mainly Muslim women.  It is now a training hospital, with general medical services as well as specialisms in kidney dialysis, mammography and care for the elderly.  But, as at each stage in its history, it is considering how to respond to changes in the society.
• We saw a school for children with learning difficulties, working with parents to build on the abilities the children did have and so enable them to make a productive contribution to their communities. 
• We saw tailoring, embroidery, weaving, spice-drying, carpentry and electrical projects helping people to start their own businesses or find work in the city or surrounding areas. 

These centres provide meals and encourage participants to form friendships and give support to each other, in an environment of Christian faith and values, amongst people of different religions and languages which are all respected.  One of the centres, which has youngsters who were found sleeping on railways or amongst unemployed people where the mines have closed, is called the ‘New Life Centre’, and a new life is certainly what we could see they were enjoying.

The church in Bangalore also runs big schools which provide education up to international university standard, and from the high fees paid the schools contribute to the other projects around the city.  What a diversity to experience and appreciate!

Bernie

 

 

I refuse to use a mobile phone, but that’s just me.  I believe that nothing is so important that I need to be instantly contactable. 

A few weeks ago when I went on a Bible study weekend with a group of youngsters, one group of four young men had transformed the room they were staying in within ten minutes of arriving.  They had brought posters for the walls, guitars with amplifiers, mp3 players with docking stations, endless changes of clothes and Christmas fairy lights!  They asked me if I had an extension lead with multi-sockets since they needed at least seven sockets to work everything they had brought.   They also had mobile phones which they seemed to use to telephone the people in the room next door!  I found myself thinking ‘what a materialistic world we live in’.  And yet, if I am honest, if I were a teenager today I am sure I would want all the latest technology and gismos that are on offer.  Indeed, I use the internet extensively, I send e-mails every day and I listen to music on my iPod.

There is nothing wrong with wanting things, whatever those things might be.  It is when material possessions try to replace love that we can get into real trouble, for it is love in a family that makes it work.  And when that love is based on God’s love for us then it cannot fail.  If material things are given to a child to ‘buy’ their obedience or compliance then it does soon fail.  The child demands more and feels rejected when more is not forthcoming.  This leads to arguments and possible family breakdown.

But to get back to the youngsters I went away with; they proved to be charming, thoughtful, well aware of modern day issues and respectful of each other and ready and willing to hear God’s word.  Throughout the weekend they worked very hard on all the Bible study they were asked to do and produced reports on what they had learnt.  On the Saturday night ninety-five 16 to 19 year olds enjoyed a ceilidh, dancing Scottish reels and hornpipes with great energy and joy and without the need to drink alcohol.

We often read in the newspapers about teenaged knife attacks, gun crime or about binge drinking.  What we rarely hear is that 95 teenagers went away on a Bible study weekend and had a good time.  Well, you read it here!

Revd Ken Tombs