“How did you both meet?”

“How did you both meet?” is one of the most frequently asked questions of my life.

And no, I am not at all tired of answering this question. Fact is, I feel quite proud to narrate the beautiful incident of our first meeting.

Well, we met on 4th March, 1999 (my parents wedding anniversary) and what a chaotic day it was –both literally and figuratively.  

I was a freelance journalist then and regularly wrote for a youth magazine called UPBEAT. My latest assignment was to interview MM Kreem, a music director from down south, who had launched his first Hindi music album – Coffee Aur Kreem through Plus Music (doesn’t exist anymore, sadly). My editor had fixed my interview with him for 12 noon at Sun N Sand hotel, Juhu. 

Those days I used to live in Vasai and the reason I call that day in 1999 chaotic because I couldn’t reach for this interview at the above mentioned venue on time. That day there was a “rail roko andolan” by the people of Bhayander because of chronic water problem. The angry residents of Bhayander were all over the railway tracks and weren’t allowing any local trains to pass by. This display of anger was supposed to go on till evening. 

Mobile phones were carried only by few head honchos during those times and I definitely did not have one. Our landline at home was out of service because of which I had to go to a STD booth to make calls. I called up my editor to explain her the situation. After listening to the entire conversation, she decided to give the assignment to someone else. And I just couldn’t let this happen. So I told her that I would call up the PR lady at Plus Music and reschedule my meeting with the artist. I remember making 4-5 phone calls until this message could be passed on to her. She gave me a 5 pm appointment at their office at Saki Naka, Andheri East. I wasn’t sure whether I could keep this appointment too as the strike was still on.

Later in the day, I came to know through reliable sources, that the local trains had finally started plying. I made a rush for this appointment at 5 pm. I had to reach Plus Music anyhow at 5 pm. I have always believed in punctuality. 

I finally managed to reach Plus Music a little after 5 pm but the auto rickshaw driver didn’t have change money for the Rs.100 note that I gave him. So I made him wait and went inside the office to ask for the change. At the reception, I saw a ‘gentleman’ – I asked the change from him. After telling him who I was and for what purpose I had come, the gentleman asked me to go and meet the PR lady first. He, in turn, volunteered to pay the waiting driver outside. Later on when I saw this gentleman coming to the place where I was sitting with the PR lady. I offered to pay back the change money he had paid but he refused to take it. Somehow I persuaded him to take the money. 

Many months later the gentleman confessed to me that it was the only money he had that day. If I had to keep it, he would have been doomed for the day. 

Well, that was the beginning of a love story for that gentleman. No points for guessing, this gentleman happens to be our very own Jason Alexander Cardozo. And every year on this day he tells me that it was love at first sight for him. My name, Jubilee Mukherjee, in the PR list, had already intrigued him and he was waiting to see who this Jubilee Mukherjee was. Now that he had seen her, he wanted to know her. For this, he had given me his business card while I was leaving – just “to be in touch” with him “whenever required”. But I hadn’t bothered to give a second look at his card until June 1999. (That's another story altogether. I will share that on 19th June) 

Twenty two years down the line, I not only keep the change but the big notes as well. And I am sure he is not doomed…and this is how we met for the first time!!!

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus

(329 – 25 January, 389)

Feast Day: 2 January

“Remember God more often than you breathe.”

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop of Constantinople, opponent of Arianism, wrote major theological treatises as well as letters and poetry, called the “Christian Demosthenes” and, in the East, “The Theologian”.

A Doctor of the Church, Saint Gregory was born at Arianzus, in Asia Minor and died at the same place. He was son — one of three children — of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (329-374), in the southwest of Cappadocia, and of Nonna, a daughter of Christian parents. A phenomenally wealthy man, he went to school in Athens with his friend Saint Basil and Julian.

Also known as the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, Saint Gregory of Nazianus’ defences of the doctrine of the Trinity (God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) made him one of the noted preacher on the Trinity. When it seemed that orthodox Christianity had been restored in the city, Saint Gregory retired to live the rest of his days as a hermit.

Saint Gregory is a saint in both Eastern and Western Christianity. In the Roman Catholic Church he is numbered among the Doctors of the Church. One of the Cappadocian fathers and the Three Hierarchs of the Eastern Church, he was a bishop at Constantinople for a short time. Known in the Orthodox Church as “the Theologian”, his many writings include the forty-five “Orations”.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus stands as the founding father of the Byzantine religious synthesis. He lived an illustrious life as an orator, poet, priest, and bishop. As a Greek poet and prose writer, some of his most popular books are On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius, On God and Man: The Theological Poetry of Gregory of Nazianzen, Festal Orations: Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: Three Poems and Funeral Orations by Saint Gregory Nazianzen.

Following his death, Saint Gregory was buried at Nazianzus. His relics were transferred to Constantinople in 950, into the church of the Holy Apostles.

Saint Basil the Great

(329 - 1 January, 379)

Feast Day: 2 January

“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.”

Saint Basil, (Latin Basilius), one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church and Bishop of Caesarea in Asia Minor, refuted Arian errors, wrote treatises, homilies, and monastic rules, called “Father of Monasticism of the East”.

He was one of ten children of Saint Basil the Elder and Saint Emmelia. Among Saint Basil’s siblings, four are venerated as saints: Macrina the Younger, Naucratius, Peter of Sebaste and Gregory of Nyssa. Saint Basil’s early years were spent at Neocaesarea in Pontus, imbibing the principles of the Orthodox faith from his mother.

He came from a wealthy and pious family and defended the Roman Catholic Church against the heresies of the 4th century.

Saint Basil is the Father of Eastern monasticism—as Saint Benedict is for western monasticism. His rules for monasticism and his ascetic writings influenced Ukrainian monasticism and inspired the formation of the Basilian monastic Order, named in his honour. The Rule of St. Basil places great emphasis on love of God and of neighbour. He established the ‘new city’ of Basilieas to care for the elderly, sick and poor.

He is one of the three Cappadocian Fathers and the first of the three Holy Hierarchs of the Eastern Church.

Saint Basil the Great is the patron saint for both hospital administrators and reformers. He is also the patron saint of Cappadocia, Basillian Monks, education, exorcism and liturgists.

His book on the Holy Spirit, written to Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, against the Pneumatomachi is one of his greatest works of writings.