My Jain-Marwari vegetarian and teetotaler neighbours (whose patriarchal head was seen many times at the local bar drinking beer and having chicken by my dad) have organised a bhajan (worship) service today below our building. They’ve invited all their relatives and friends from far and near and have even set up a dinner banquet for all. My problem is that this bhajan service is being done now at this hour (10:11 pm, as I speak) and with loudspeakers. The railway station which is five minutes away can probably hear them.

A while ago the guy singing the lead vocals started with a bhajan to the tune of the famous Bollywood number Yamla Pagla Deewana (that too entirely off-tune). Oh well, at least it isn’t to the tune of Bhaag DK Bose.

This same guy also said earlier “Bhagwan ko bulane ke liye sirf bhav ki zarurat hain.” (You just need feeling to call God.) Pray, tell me, why do you need a loudspeaker then?

The problem with the world is that the people with good music taste will never play their music on a loudspeaker in public places. Those with bad music choices will.

On February 17, 2011, I gave the following talk/speech, or whatever you want to call it, in my Public Speaking class at Xavier Institute of Communications. Exactly a year later, I reproduce it here.

Good evening everyone. I’ll start off by asking a few questions. How many of you would say that you have made today’s day, February 17, count? Be significant? (waits for response). How many of you think that in the remaining four hourssomething might happen that could make today’s day one of importance? (waits for response).

Okay. I’m Runcil Rebello and I’m here to speak about why one should strive to make each day count and I will do that by using today’s day, 17^th February as an example. It is not every day that something happens when we can usually be proud of ourselves. It is, obviously, not always possible for such things to occur; but how many of us even try? Through the next few minutes I will list some events that occurred on this date that have been moments of pride for the people involved, perhaps we can take some inspiration from them.

I shall start off with the birthdays. You may ask who’s proud of a birth. Of course, the parents, and more so if the children involved happen to be these personalities.

American basketball player Michael Jordan was born today in 1963 while Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who starred in (500) Days Of Summer and Inception was born today in 1981. Billie Joe Armstrong, the frontman of Green Day was born today as well. It must have been a moment to remember for their parents surely, and especially for them to see what their children have become today. Happy Birthday.

By the way, it is Paris Hilton’s birthday as well today, but I thought I could skip that.

I spoke earlier of how, at times, we do not even try to make our days memorable. I now talk of the people of the country of Kosovo. For years, they strived to gain independence and carve an identity for themselves as a separate nation. They managed to do that after a lot of trouble and sacrifices only on this day in 2008. February 17 is also a grand day for the Volkswagen Beetle which exceeded sales over that of the Ford Model-T for the first time in 1972. And, perhaps, proving by his act, in 1996, that humans were indeed superior to computers, Garry Kasparov created history, and made February 17 count, when he defeated the supercomputer Deep Blue in a chess game.

There are a few people who make even the day of their death count. Now I do not mean this in a funny way but some people, even in their passing away, leave a huge void. A void that, sometimes, can’t be filled.

Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, the father of the armed struggle for Indian independence, passed away in 1845. He was an instrumental figure in the early fights for Indian independence. More recently, Conchita Cintron, a Chilean torera (a female bullfighter), perhaps the most famous one in the world, passed away in 2009, leaving a gulf that possibly no one could fill. We are proud of them in their death too.

To end my talk, I shall ask you to recount yesterday’s ‘job or passion’ talk organised for us in which one speaker talked about how we should make each day accountable and do something every day as this life is short, and how we shouldn’t regret, later on, that we weren’t able to accomplish tasks that we would’ve loved doing. I know that February 17^th will be a memorable day for me because of this speech I gave today. Irrespective of whether it is well-received or not, I enjoyed talking about this. I hope you too have taken something from it. Thank you.

Sometimes people lay all their faith in you, even when you don’t trust yourself. They expect so much of you. You ask yourself, “What have I done to earn this faith?” And there’s rarely an answer. But it’s better that way.

Some questions do not need answers. Sometimes, faith needs to be rewarded.