Dedication

This blog is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Arul Baliah.

I first met Arul some years ago in Church in Gurgaon. He was a part of the same church as me when he was in Gurgaon before he moved to Bangalore.  Arul and I went on to become great friends in spite of all that we differed on.  Our common interests were I guess Christian literature and music. He was extremely fond of Francis Schaeffer and I preferred more contemporary writers like Ravi Zachariah and Philip Yancey.   He was a great fan of Bono and U2 while I liked Mark Knopfler and his band Dire Straits. So we spent a lot of time whenever we met up discussing theology, philosophy and music.   I had just begun playing bass guitar and Arul felt that I should stick to rhythm and lead.

Arul was extremely radical in his thoughts and loved provoking people into thinking out of the box if you like.  Though many people who had met him and talked to him may have perhaps wondered about his personal beliefs from what he spoke sometimes, I am sure a lot of us who knew him a little closer would agree that in his own radical way, Arul did love The Lord Jesus Christ.

For some reason, Arul always told me I should start writing. While he was at Gurgaon he had often heard me preach at the Gurgaon Christian Fellowship Church.  And every time he would tell me after the Service that I should write.  After he left for Bangalore we still stayed in touch through email and sometimes on phone.  Sometime back when he wrote to me he again reminded me that it was time I got into writing.  So I jokingly wrote back that the first book I wrote I would dedicate to him. He replied just three words “Do it now”.  That was the last mail I got from Arul.  After that I spoke to him may be once or twice on phone.  On the 9^th of October 2011 after the Sunday Worship Service I got an SMS from a friend informing me that Arul had passed away the previous day.  I have now finally just begun writing my first blog and I wish Arul was here to read it…