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Dear Friends,
As we pass through this hour of crisis at our alma mater it is time we join hands and work together for redeeming the college from the clutches of power mongers and boot lickers. While our seniors are engaged in legal and administrative battle to bring back sanity into the campus, let us start renewing our solidarity towards the noble cause.
I humbly remind everyone of you the Candle Lighting ceremony we all had towards the end of our study in our college. I urge you to sit back and remember that evening when you and I walked the corridors of our great Main Hall reminiscing the past and dreaming about the future. Like you and I, millions of our friends have crossed those corridors to be the torch bearers of this world. I remind you the oath we all took on that day. I remind you the promise every one of you made on that day. You and I promised that we will shine like those candles. We promised that we will be the light whenever and wherever there is darkness. My friends, I gently remind you now that the darkness has encompassed the very same campus where we promised to be torchbearers.
Friends, we are what we are today, because of our great institution. Our college taught us to be religious, but not religious fanatics. Our college taught us to be rebels, but at no point it taught us to be violent. Our college taught us to think and to be free. You might belong to any religion, but our college taught us to be a human being first before we were affiliated to any religion. Today I see the power mongers who try to usurp power at the college are those who never formed part the great tradition of our college. They never studied in our college, even if some of them had studied; they never learnt anything from our tradition. They can never understand what we stand for. We, the great tradition of American college, stand for FREEDOM. We stand for Religious, emotional, cultural and economic freedom.
Friends, let me urge you where ever you are and whichever religion you belong to, to pray for these power mongers. Please pray for them for their health. Please pray for them for their families. Please also pray for them to realize and repent for what they are doing. Please pray for them so that they realize that their lust for money, power and position compromises the 125 years of tradition this college. Please pray for them to realize their mistakes so that our children and children’s children can enjoy the liberal education we received in this institution.
I sincerely hope and pray that when the reverend bishop stands in the pulpit to preach the gospel, the vision of Jesus whipping the power mongers out of the Jerusalem church appear before him. I hope and pray that the bishop and his illegal occupants and their boot-lickers when they go to church on a Sunday they realize that they have set a bad example of Christianity. I pray to god that the visions of the great Missionaries starting from Rev. Zumbro to Rev. Paul Love appear before them to remind them what the American College stands for.
May I urge all of you who are reading our posts to please write a line or two to show your solidarity so that the morale of our soldiers on the ground is boosted? May I urge whoever you are and whatever you are doing to please come forward and join hand with us in fighting the darker forces? Along with your monitory contribution we need your voice to carry our fight forward.
JOHN PAUL ANBU
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6 comments:
Anbu
i was not as lucky as you were. i am not an alumnus. but i enjoyed the CANDLE LIGHT CEREMONY in all the years, 1970-2003. i missed them only those times when serious sickness kept me off once or twice.
everytime when all the lights would be put off other than the one at the dais and then the slow spread of light from there to the end of the autidorium ... reliving every moment of it will definitely choke every student's heart.
you have done a great thing of bringing back of those moments to all our alumni. thanks.
what great evenings were those. i always made it a point to be with the students after the ceremony sharing the feelings of my boys.
i wish the ususal ceremony of this year also takes place in the same spirit and mood. we should keep that flame high with pride ALWAYS.
Dear Anbu anna,
It was so fabulous and wonderful to read your mind provoking thoughts and a powerful step to move forward. It would really touch everyone's heart.
I also appreciate Prof. Sam George's untiring spirit in bringing all alumni who Love one of the best places they had in their life The American College in one umbrella at the right time.
This Great College has produced so powerful people in the field of arts and science like directors of the movie, civil servants of the society, great teaching staff, researchers, software engineers. I believe everyone would come forward to stop the arrogance of these modern thieves.
Lets salute the people those who are on the spot to fight against those Goondas act. I would like to pay my deep respect for those. I also pray for the peace in The American College.
Venmathi Maran
RMANATHAN writees ...
I will forever remain proud of the fact that I studied at The American College and those three years were the best part of my education and personality development. I cannot post any value on the social consciousness and responsibility I learnt there. John's post brought vivid memories of the time around the severing of the umbilical cord. Those are very personal moments the alumni will keep very close to their hearts. Well said that we are what we are due to the good fortune of having been associated with The American College. It was the most liberal institution at that time offering quality education and inculcating values at the same time without batting an eyelid. Great teachers made all of these possible and they also waved off any praise bestowed on them saying they were simply doing what they were supposed to do.
I have had the good fortune of staying in touch with the "aasaans" and forever will remain indebted to the institution and the teachers. It is indeed sad that people who are kept in high esteem because of their status, sometimes do not deserve such respect. This is an opportunity an "elite" group of people have chosen to demonstrate that they do not deserve to be respected. And, it is in this form, we all have a chance to rally around the institution and the people who represent its spirit and provide all the necessary support to ensure that the institution that we gained from continues to deliver those gains for many more generations to come.
The happenings have come as a complete shock and sheer agony they impose on all of us is all avoidable.
I still remember the last day of the academic session I spent on campus. It was pouring very heavily and some of us from our class where getting ourselves thoroughly wet and feeling boisterous. Dharumi very quietly caught that moment in camera and we realized how happy he felt about us celebrating that moment in our life. We need to ensure that this tradition is not insulted and halted by ruthless and insensitive elements.
Let us all come together and support in all ways possible to keep the institution going.
With a very heavy heart
Ram
84Zoo15
i appeal to csi members that do not give offerings in their churches..are we giving our offerings to be spent for mr.christopher..and red.rev.pravin togadia??..think well..dont follow this gooda bishop..i belong to csi...i have decided to do so...
Wilson.(97phy series.)
i am struck dumb with no words to vent my anguish over the flight of my college in the hands of evil. i pray the lord deliver my college from the hands of evil. when i die let me die knowing the college lives on - delivered from the hands of evil - for many more generations to come, so that one could inhale that lovely spirit the american college stood for, all these past years.
gp reuben
ministry of health, oman
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