Meet India's most respected Christians

As the Christmas is just around, the festive mood is visible all around. Churches and Christian homes would be lit from Bandra in Mumbai to Civil Lines in Delhi and soon across India as well. This is a perfect time when we celebrate the life and times of some of the most respectable names from the Christian community that is making its presence felt in their respect fields.

Veteran SC advocate

Let's start with veteran Supreme Court Advocate Harish Salve. He grew in a multi-religious family with a liberal secularism at his home. He did his schooling in Nagpur. He completed his Chartered Accountancy from ICAI and LLB from Nagpur University. The former Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde was his classmate in school. Before he became a lawyer, Salve practised Chartered Accountancy in taxation. He learnt the legal field under the watchful eyes of legendary Nani Palkhivala. Salve has also worked with former Attorney General, Soli Sorabjee, from 1980–1986. In 2013, Salve was admitted to the English Bar and subsequently joined the Blackstone Chambers.

Harish Salve frequently represents large corporations like Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. He has appeared in the Krishna Godavari Basin gas dispute case against the latter's brother, Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Limited.Other clients include the Tata Group, ITC Limited, whom he has represented on various matters.

Tennis legend

In this august list, the name of tennis legend Leander Adrian Paes has to be there. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men's doubles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. He holds a career Grand Slam in men's doubles and mixed doubles, and achieved the rare men's/mixed double at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships. His mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2010 made him the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three decades.

He won a bronze medal for India in men's singles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016, making him the first Indian and the only tennis player to compete in seven Olympic Games. He is a former Davis Cup team captain, and holds the record for the most Davis Cup doubles wins with 43 victories. Paes announced his retirement from professional tennis in 2020, before postponing his final season to 2021 following the rescheduling of the Tokyo Olympics.

Bond with the best

Ruskin Bond is an eminent contemporary Indian writer of British descent. He prolifically authored inspiring children's books and was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award to honour his work of literature. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, was published in 1956, and it received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels, including 64 books for children. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie.

Face of all religion prayer

Media shy Soloman George is a peace activist and permanent face of all religion prayer for the last around two decades on Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October and on Martyrs' Day on 30 January at the Rajghat and later Tees January Marg.

George Soloman has also participated in all faith prayer umpteen numbers of times in various places. He recites from Bible during the prayer. "Very honestly, it gives great joy and happiness when you take part in all faith prayers. It gives a strong message that we all have to live together to make India as a truly a secular country. Gandhi ji's came to know about Christian religion while he was in South Africa. There he met Christian missionary Joseph Doke, who wrote his first biography, and CF Andrews, a teacher in Delhi's St Stephen's college,"informs George Solomon, who is a priest in one of the Churches of Delhi.

8-times National Award winner

The man with a golden voice Kattassery Joseph Yesudas better known as Yesudas sings classical, devotional and film songs with great flair. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian Music and also as a cultural icon of Kerala. Yesudas is estimated to have recorded more than 50,000 songs in various Indian languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Marathi as well as Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian, in a career spanning six decades. He holds the record for singing 11 songs in different languages in a single day. He looks like a seer. Some of his favourite songs in Hindi include Gori Tera Gaon Bada Pyara...Janeman Janeman Tere Do Nayan...Chand Jaise Mukhde Pe...

Yesudas won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer record eight times, the Filmfare Awards South five times, and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer forty-three times, including awards given by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal.

Missile Woman

Tessy Thomas is a scientist and Director General of Aeronautical Systems and the former Project Director for Agni-IV missile in Defence Research and Development Organisation. She is the first ever woman scientist to head a missile project in India. Tessy Thomas was born in Alappuzha, Kerala, to a Syrian Christian family.

She was named after Mother Teresa (Tessy being a derivative of Teresa or Tressia). Tessy Thomas studied in St. Michael's Higher Secondary School and St. Joseph's Girl's Higher Secondary School in Alleppey (Alappzuha). She also has an M Tech in Guided Missile from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune (now known as the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology).

She also pursued MBA in Operations Management and Ph.D. in guidance missile under DRDO. She joined DRDO in 1988, where she worked on the design and developments of the new generation ballistic missile, Agni. She was appointed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam for the Agni Project.

In addition, Tessy was the associate project director of the 3,000 km range Agni-III missile project. She was the project director for mission Agni IV which was successfully tested in 2011. Later, she was appointed as the project director of the 5,000 km range Agni-V in 2009, which was successfully tested on 19 April 2012. In 2018, she became the Director-General, Aeronautical Systems of DRDO.

Generous with his time

Monodeep Daniel is a Priest, Theologian, Educationalist and author of numerous books. When not lecturing, writing, or studying Biblical Greek, he can be found at the Brotherhood House or St. Stephen's College in Delhi. Generous with his time and knowledge, Fr. Monodies is an intellectual and spiritual blessing to all those he comes in contact with.

According to him, The Delhi Brotherhood Society had established St Stephen's Hospital, one of Delhi's most respected medical institutions and St Stephen's College. The Brothers were also key figures in pioneering the unification of several churches (Anglican, Presbyterian and Baptist) into the Church of North India, the denomination to which the Brotherhood now belongs. CF Andrews, the famous Indian Independence Activist and close friend of Gandhi, came to India to serve the Brotherhood, and remained a lifelong friend of the Brotherhood even after he left to pursue India's independence full time.

Biggest lenders against gold

And in God's owns country - Kerala isn't just popular for its palm-lined beaches, placid backwaters and lush greenery, but also for its billionaire tycoons who have built a successful business empire over time. The Muthoot brothers are the biggest lenders against gold in India, with 5,400 branches across the country.

1st Anglo-Indian of Scottish origin

Roger Binny is another famous Christian of India. He is the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India. Binny was part of the team India that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup and the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. Binny is the first Anglo-Indian of Scottish origin who played cricket for team India.

(The author is Delhi-based senior journalist and writer. He is author of Gandhi's Delhi which has brought to the forth many hidden facts about Mahatma Gandhi)