Solitary Soul

  THE VALUE OF SILENCE Mario D’Couto             As someone who has been working in the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry, interacting with customers is my daily bread and butter and yet while work can take its toll as in the case of back – to – back calls with no space to breath, when the time for avail does come, a lot of my colleagues get into chit – chatter and gossip just as a means to avoid boredom. This is not to say that having conversations or speaking with others is a bad thing. We should interact with others and make time for it since it helps to break the monotony and builds social connections. Yet what is equally important is the content of our conversations. Perhaps a good way to evaluate our conversation is to ask ourselves, is the conversation with the other constructive or destructive? Does it build or destroy? If all our conversation is going to be about one’s activities over the weekend or gossiping about someone,...

  RETHINKING EDUCATION Mario D’Couto “A jack of all trades is a master of none but often times better than a master of one”     There used to be a time when it was alright to study and get good grades and you would be assured of a decent career. Today, the situation is different. Especially in India (and also in some other parts of the world), where unemployment seems to be already creeping in where engineering graduates are unable to find the desired career they studied for and people being laid off because of A.I. taking over jobs, the question that comes up is whether is it worth investing all the money in the current education system. Now before you raise your reservations, my hope is that through this blogpost/reflection, I may be able to sow a seed of thought to rethink how we view education. The purpose of this blogpost/reflection is not to discard what has been handed down regarding education but to take it a step further, so as to enable the current g...

  OUR LADY’S ROLE IN THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE Mario D’Couto It is quite often the case that the words “war” and “warfare” are used interchangeably although there is a subtle difference. While war refers to the state of an armed conflict characterized by a specific and often prolonged confrontation between two or more opposing groups or nations, warfare on the other hand is the engagement and activities of war, including the theory, tactics and methods used to conduct it. In simple words, think of war as the conflict itself for instance the Vietnam War and warfare as the way it is fought like the guerilla warfare for example and so with that being said, this blogpost/reflection is towards an understanding of Our Lady’s role in the spiritual warfare and why She plays an important role. On the very outset, we need to understand who the enemy is. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers,...