New Kid in School

June 16-19, 2013

I couldn't wait until a week from my last post, so please forgive me for writing a bit earlier than expected.

I’ve been here at St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary in Kottayam and I absolutely love it.

While packing my suitcase before leaving America, I thought it would be nice to get the seminarians a gift. I wanted to give them a gift that would help them greatly on their path to priesthood; a gift that would elevate their souls higher than ever before; a gift that was 100% purely America.

I tried thinking of different potential gifts.

A picture of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City?

A picture of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in D.C.?

I ♥ NY shirts for everybody?

Nope. I thought of something better.

This is Bro. Sibin holding the seminary's newest gift from America –a 100% American NBA official Spalding basketball (though probably made in China). They actually nicknamed this ball the “Chicago ball”, not because of Chicago Bulls (if they did I’d correct them with a better NBA team like the Knicks), but because of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago.

Bro. Sibin is actually the only Syro-Malankara seminarian out of the 250+ seminarians here. I told him that his Malankara brothers and sisters in the US have an annual basketball tournament called “Malankara Maddness”. I also told him that SyroMalabar churches usually win it every year . . .

The seminarians here are really awesome; nothing but nice things to say about them. When I first got here, all of them, one by one, would come up to me and welcome me to the seminary saying, “Hearty welcome brother”. They continuously ask me if I need anything and in what ways they can help me out. During meals, it’s almost as if they fight over who gets to serve me and fill my glass with water. They’re all so joyful and smile whenever I pass by. One seminarian even offered to wash my clothes for me…by hand. They really exemplify what authentic Malayali hospitality is all about.

A few days back, I made the mistake of asking one of the seminarians what the weather would be tomorrow. He gave me a confused look because I guess “checking the weather” isn’t a common practice here . . .

. . . especially during monsoon season. Fail.

My first exposure of attending one of their classes what quite the experience. I wasn’t exactly sure which room I was walking into, but when the second year philosophy students saw me walk into their class, they immediately stood up and made room for me so I could sit down…in the front row.

I wasn’t exactly sure what they were up to, but I just complied with whatever they had me do. There were five minutes until class started so all of them circled around me and started asking me if I knew how to speak in Malayalam. I started saying small phrases like “Suhkam anno? (are you well?)” and “Ente peru Kevin (my name is Kevin)” and they all suddenly burst out into applause as if I had just rode a unicycle across a tightrope. They asked me to keep speaking, but just before I was going to say another small phrase, the professor walks in and everyone sits down immediately while the whole class is trying to control their laughter. I wasn’t quite sure what was so funny, but just as the professor walked in, he looks me straight in the eyes. . . (kind of like this . . .)

(ok..I’m exaggerating), but then he said something funny in Malayalam, which resulted in the entire class breaking out in laughter. Those sneaky seminarians, putting me in the front row for a reason, knowing that the professor would make fun of the American-Malayalee in a Malayalam class.

But anyways, the class was Malayalam, and so I was interested in seeing how useful my Malayalam reading capabilities from Gurukalam and from my aunt during my one-on-one Malayalam lessons with her would be.

ha. ha. ha.

This is what I was expecting...

This is what I got . . .

Imagine giving a four year old Shakespeare's Macbeth to read. Yeah, that was me in this class. It was a Malayalam literature class and so the seminarians were reading and analyzing hardcore works of literature in Malayalam. 

My favorite class so far was Indian philosophy. Fr. Vinod always tells me and Rajeev how we’re missing out big time in the US seminaries by not having any philosophical formation in Indian philosophy. I’ve always thought that Western philosophy was sufficient for us, but after sitting in this class, I realized how much of an important branch of philosophy we’re not being exposed to. So much of Indian philosophy deals with Hinduism itself and how that influenced the culture in India where St. Thomas Christianity was rooted.

One of the main topics he spoke about during class was the caste system. My only knowledge of the caste system comes from what I learned teacher back home while taking World History as a freshman I high school and from reading The God of Small Things by Arundathi Roy. So to get a real informative lesson on the caste system from a person with a doctorate in Indian philosophy was nice.

He told me that the caste system was a part of the Hindu culture which divided society in four castes, based on birth. The upper most caste was the Brahmins. They were considered the most knowledgable, had access to education, and were in charge of teaching people about religion. Below the Brahmins were the Kshatriya, who were the military class in charge of safeguarding the country. Below the Kshatriya were the Vaishya, who made up the business class and were in charge of economic interaction and exchange. And below the Vaishya were the Shudras, also known as the untouchables.

These divisions were made by Hindus of the upper class and they made laws and regulations to keep the untouchables oppressed. In centuries past, untouchables were in charge of doing tasks that were seen as unclean, such as bodily waste removal. They were not even allowed to stand in front of a Brahmin for the fear that an untouchable might make contact with a Brahmin and make him unclean as well.

Unfortunately, this mentality of associating different members of society with a social class determined by birth not only affected Hinduism, but spread throughout the Indian culture, even the affecting the way Christianity was lived out in India. 

On a happier note, enjoy this picture of the seminarians checking their “Newsfeed” 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

From eternity and forever, Amen.