46 The Sabbath Miracle

Keeping the Sabbath in India is a challenge- Colleges work on Saturdays and inevitably College and University exams fall on Saturdays! And also the Corporate world at least in the 70s had a six-day working week with only Sundays as the weekly off.

Therefore, in 1971, when I was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I realized that there would be major challenges and difficulties ahead of me both at the University level as well as for my career, if I wanted to work in the Corporate world. Nevertheless, I forged ahead having complete faith in God working out the solutions for me and helping me to cross the bridges as they came along. Already God had successfully lifted me from my depression and healed me hence I knew that the same God would work miracles in my future life too!

My Father had a colleague at the Bank who in turn knew the Principal of Burhani College in Mazgaon and with his introduction, I was able to get admission for my Inter-Arts in the College and was also exempted from attending classes on Saturdays. But unfortunately, at the University level when the examination schedule was announced one of my subjects fell on a Saturday! It was a huge disappointment for me, but I was determined to keep the Sabbath holy hence I decided not to appear for that particular exam. I had to redo the examinations in October of that year and fortunately the exams did not fall on a Saturday and finally cleared my Inter-Arts but in the process I had already lost by now 3 years of my college career.

I was keen to move out of Burhani College and rejoin a College in South Bombay, but with my
Sabbath issue looming large, I was in a fix as to which College should I attend where I could get an exemption from attending classes on Saturdays! But with God all things are possible, and it soon came to pass that I happened to meet Ms Esther Kurien who was the Head of the English Department of Wilson College which had a history of over 100 years and had a stunning location facing the Arabian Sea at Chowpatty. Ms Kurien was very understanding and volunteered to give me Saturdays off at the College level but warned me that for the University examination, she would not be able to help in any way managing the examination schedule.

Then another miracle happened at the same time- we mentioned my Sabbath problem to Dr Sukumaran who was a Seventh-day Adventist himself and happened to be visiting Mumbai at that time. Dr Sukumaran who had received his PhD from the Bombay University knew many people in the University and one of them was Dr Iyer who was the Vice Principal of the Ruparel College. Dr Sukumaran gave me an introduction to him and therefore my father and I duly paid him a visit at his Matunga home. Weexplained to him our unique problem and to our utter surprise, he was very sympathetic and promised to help me. He explained that he luckily happened to be a Member of the Bombay University Senate and because of this position he was also in charge of the entire examination schedule of the Bombay University.

So as per his advice, I gave Dr Iyer the 8 Subjects for which I had to appear and he in turn ensured that none of these Subjects would be scheduled on a Saturday! This was the great Sabbath Miracle and in course of time, I finally finished my B.A. and became a Graduate in 1976!