Catholic priest gives thanksgiving speech at mosque in flood-hit Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,SEP 2: In a sermon of a different kind, a Catholic priest addressed Muslim brothers in a mosque to express his gratitude for their selfless service in feeding the flood victims who had taken shelter at his church.
By offering the Christian priest the same platform where a 'Maulavi' (Muslim cleric) addresses the believers, the mosque authorities have showcased a rare model of togetherness in the post-flood state.
Fr Sanu Puthussery, belonging to the Syro-Malabar Church, had visited the Juma Masjid at Vechoor in Kottayam district during Jum'ah (Friday prayers) on August 31 and delivered a thanksgiving speech at the Masjid prayer hall.
As the deadliest floods had lashed the state two weeks ago, over 580 persons had sought refuge at St Antony's Church at Achinakom where Fr Puthussery is serving as the priest.
Though the Church authorities had opened their hall for the hapless people, they found some shortage of food and water to feed them the next day.
"I straightaway went to the Masjid, appraised the Maulavi about our difficulty and requested his help. After the day's prayers, Muslim brothers came to the church with a large quantity of food and water as per his direction," Fr Puthussery told PTI.
"I cannot express my gratitude to them in words. That much help and support they had extended during the time of difficulties," he said.
They had continued to bring essential articles to the relief camp at the church.
Besides food and water, essential medicines were also brought by the youths attached to the Masjid, he said.
"I went to the Masjid to meet the Maulavi and other authorities and thank them personally. But they invited me to their prayer hall and offered me their platform to speak. It was a rare gesture of togetherness," the priest said.
It was a different experience for over 250 believers, who were at the Masjid to attend Friday prayers.
In his around 10-minute speech, the Catholic priest had said though the floods snatched away many valuables from people, it also washed away the walls of differences among them.
"Pope Francis has said build bridges, not walls. The devastating floods have now given us an opportunity to destroy the walls and build the bridges of togetherness," the priest added.
Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
