Solitary Soul

  EAT, SLEEP, WORK, REPEAT!!! Mario D’Couto              I recently watched M. Night Shyamalan’s 2021 movie “ Old” and if you have watched any of his  movies, such as “The Sixth Sense” , “The Village” and others, in as much as they are all thrillers, it’s like he is telling a story that is open to interpretation and allows the viewer to draw his or her own conclusion for himself or herself. While the movie ‘Old’ certainly had me at the edge of my seat, wondering what’s going to happen next, one character that struck me from the movie was a person named Chystal (played by Abbey Lee). Without disclosing too many details of the movie, if I could put it in a nutshell, it is about a group of people stranded on a beach which has the property of ageing people fast. Now if you have seen the movie, Chrystal is like this supermodel who is roaming around the beach in a bikini, taking selfies of herself only to later realize (as the movie progres...

  TRUE FREEDOM Mario D’Couto             Freedom is something that is basic to human living and without it, human life would not be  possible. Today being 15 th August is the day when India celebrates its independence day, a day when we remember all those great men and women who fought for the freedom of India. But are we truly free? This question has a universal appeal because in as much as many other countries too would be celebrating their own independence day at different times of the year, the understanding of human freedom in its truest sense is paramount if we ever want to make sense of our lives irrespective of where we may be from.             So what is freedom? Many would want to think that freedom is being able to do what one wants, whenever they want, however they want. To put it in one phrase, ‘without any restriction’ . But if such were the case, what difference woul...

  IS THERE A HOLINESS GENE? Mario D’Couto             We admire talented people, sport stars, athletes, musicians, artists, orators, entrepreneurs and other great people including the saints. As a Catholic, the lives of the saints can seem elusive. We often come across their heroic commitment to Christ, the sacrifices they endowed, the unwavering focus towards doing what is good, holy and right, even if it meant giving up their lives, that we can feel that it is somehow out of our reach, that perhaps we may never get to where they are. Yet, what if it were possible that God is calling us, you and me, in our own capacity, to pursue the path of holiness, with all our strengths and weaknesses towards Himself?   In this blogpost/reflection, we shall be taking a closer look into it.            Man is a mysterious union of body and spirit. The only creature that God wanted for His own sak...