Why Is India Still Dirty?

March 23, 2026March 24, 2026 selvam Current Activity, Varia

If you have lived outside India for many decades, as in my case, landing again on Indian soil can be striking. The airports are modern, efficient, and impressive. Wow, Bharat Mata ki Jai!

As you drive outside the airport, however, two things hit you hard even as you admire the expanding infrastructure. They hit you very hard, undeniably hard: noise and dirt. India is noisy. India is still dirty.

The discomfort turns into embarrassment when travelling with foreign guests. The shame hits an epic-peak when the guest happens to be a German, as I realised in February 2026. We travelled from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari to Chennai to Delhi.

Kanyakumari district is simply dirty. One could blame it on the tourists. But cities such as Chennai and Delhi present a more complex […]

Elan – The Secret of Life

June 2, 2021June 2, 2021 selvam Current Activity, Religious Life

Spirituality and Personal Energy
Sahaya G. Selvam

This reflection has a simple thesis: the secret of affective maturity consists in the ability to maintain an equilibrium of inner energy level. One might call this inner state: serenity, peace, and equanimity; however, it is not a passive serenity but an energised vitality. Using insights from contemporary psychology and the classical Christian spirituality, I will explore the dynamics of our inner energy. I will point out the relationship between spirituality and stable energy levels, and the adverse impact of energy-swings on spirituality and affective maturity.
What is personal energy? Physics defines energy as the quantitative capacity of a body to work on another. There are different types of energy such as heat, light, sound, gravity, etc.
In the human being, ‘personal energy’ is the inner state that […]

My contribution to Sunday Nation, Kenya

April 12, 2020October 25, 2020 selvam Articles/Chapters, Varia

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26 April 2020
Covid-19 tests self-learning skills of students today

Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the status quo of the contemporary society on several fronts. Its impact has been felt across almost every aspect of life, including healthcare services, economics, entertainment industry and sports, work and family life, and in religious and educational practices. Amidst these global disruptions, the winners have been the contemporary twins, Information Technology (IT) and internet.

On the education front, the immediate focus has been on providing an emergency response, to keep the learning going remotely via the internet. If our investment of resources right now just targets a stop gap measure, we might miss an opportunity to make a systemic change to education. Covid-19 has thrust us by force, as it were, into how education ought to be […]

Epiphany Video

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 selvam Current Activity, Varia

Salesian Mission and the HIV prevention programme in South & East Africa

November 11, 2015January 21, 2016 selvam Reading Room

Salesian Mission and the HIV prevention programme in South & East Africa:
The Background: It is true that there was an “Life Choices: Abstinence and Being Faithful Programme” run by the Salesians in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. It is important to note that while in South Africa it was run only in Cape Town – in one community, in Kenya and Tanzania, it was run in all the institutions of Salesians of Don Bosco and some of the institutions of the Salesian Sisters. It is also true that the five year project (2005 to 2010) was funded by USAID and PEPFAR. The Salesian Mission at Washington had applied for the funding on behalf of the Salesians in the three countries and had acted as the office for monitoring and evaluation of the project.
The current web-news concerns the allegations by means of a journalistic report made by Lepanto Institute and re-reported by […]