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Dear Dad,
How are you? I got your letter and photo. You look very young. When Jerry, Jeffy and Joby came, please send a T-shirt and a blue Jeans with them.
Now I have got the Sunday school text book of Std. 2. I write notes in a notebook. From school I collected my 3rd grade books. In my English text book I found the story “The Good Samaritan” (The story Jesus Christ told his apostles). But I knew the story before because I read it from your fifth grade Sunday School text book. I have read many other Bible stories. I read some other books. Everybody says I am a reader like you. The stories of Jesus Christ are very wonderful.
In my social studies book, there are lessons about Veluthambi Dalava, Sree Narayana Guru, Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Gandhi, Sree Buddha and some other important people. There are books of English grammar and Malayalam Grammar, but both are small books. But the Grammar book that Dad wrote is very thick. In English Grammar I read about noun, pronoun, adverbs, adjectives and other things. In Malayalam Grammar I learn about ……..
I will write more later.
With love and kisses,
Your mon,
Vineet | 
WITH ETHIOPIAN BISHOP
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The Life of Vineeth John
Vineeth John, the only child of John and Lissy Kunnathu, was born in Gondar, Ethiopia on April 3, 1985. He spent his childhood there and at the age of seven moved to India, before eventually settling in Houston, TX when he was ten. He departed from this life on May 6, 2008 at the age of 23.
Vineeth was active in many facets of life and was very successful at the many things he did. He was active in church as an altar boy and as a Sunday school student. His passions involved acting and film; more specifically mimicry, mono-act, and creating short films.
Vineeth has always excelled during his academic career. He graduated with honors from Jersey Village High School in 2003 and was granted a full scholarship to the University of Texas in Dallas, where he graduated in 2007 with a Bachelors degree in Business Management. Vineeth was most recently participating as an intern for Zeon Global Energy Inc, working in their renewable energy process division.
VINEETH BORN IN ETHIOPIA
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VINEETH GOT BAPTISED IN INDIA
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| VINEETH - IN HIS OWN WORDS | [Written by Vineeth John in 2003 at the age of 18 years]
I spent the first seven years of my life in Ethiopia. After that, I went to live in Kerala, India. Here, I was admitted into the second grade and was immediately presented with a problem. Although I was able to speak the native tongue, Malayalam, with some fluency, I couldn’t write. The curriculum was unforgiving. It consisted, among other things, of having to memorize and recite at least two poems a week. Exams were conducted every two months. Even if I was able to hold my own in English, math, and science, the inability to write in my native tongue was enough to ruin my academic prospects.
I had to be brought up to speed. My mother quickly hired a tutor, and I devoted two hours a day to learning the language. Malayalam bore little relation to English and Amharic, the language spoken in Ethiopia. Hence, I had to start from scratch. It was hard, but I worked at it. Within two months, I was able to follow the lessons with ease.
In retrospect, it was at first a very shocking ordeal. At a moment’s notice, the status quo had changed. The skills I possessed, the abilities at my disposal, were deemed insufficient even to get by. All my visions of the future that I’d taken for granted were compromised. Nevertheless, some time and effort was all it took. Order was restored, and life could resume its natural course. When similar crises presented themselves in the future, I would be able to approach them calmly.
Furthermore, learning a third language in eight years endowed me with a penchant for writing and a solid understanding of the mechanics of language. I’ve always been fascinated by the ability of mere words to reach the depths of the human soul and evoke the deepest emotions. I’ve even tried my hand at creative writing.
The whole ordeal also gave me confidence to venture bravely into unexplored intellectual territory. I knew it was only a matter of time and effort before I could master something. Years later, when learning computer science, a field of study radically different from any I had previously encountered and requiring a whole new set of skills, I was able to approach the task with the knowledge of having met a similar challenge years before. In time, I came to find computer science fascinating and took three courses of it in high school. At the moment, Calculus BC has become a crisis of sorts. Much more difficult than previous math courses, it caught me unawares and initially made for some unsightly report cards. But with effort, I was able to raise my grade significantly. Calculus isn’t so tough.
No doubt the future will hold in store many more crises. But, as the saying goes, I will meet them as opportunities.
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[Vineeth’s Letter to Dad in 1994 at the age of 9]
{]nbs¸« UmUn¡v,
]dbm³ H¯ncn hntij§fpïv. Rm³ a½nbpsS IqsS CubnS¡v Hcp hnt\mZbm{X t]mbn. tImfPnð \nómWv t]mbXv. F\n¡p Iptd Iq«pImsc In«n. AhÀ FtómSv ]m«p ]mSm³ ]dªp. Rm³ 2 lnµn¸m«pIfpw, 2 aebmfw ]m«pIfpw, Hcp CwKvfojp ]m«pw ]mSn.
BZyw Kpcphmbqcneqw Nmapïn t£{X¯nepw t]mbn. efnXmalð tdmUneqsSbmWv t]mtIïXv. Cu tdmUv efnXmalð sIm«mc¯nte¡pÅXmWv. ssakqÀ cmPmhnsâ cïmw `mcybnepmb ]p{XnbmWv sshPb´name. \nba{]Imcw sshPb´name¡mWv Cu sIm«mcw \ðInbncn¡póXv. CónsXmcp ss^hvkvämÀ tlm«emWv.
ASp¯Xmbn R§Ä ssakqdnte¡p t]mbn. ssakqdnse BÀ«vKmedn, ]mekv, cmPmhnsâ dknU³jyð ayqknbw, XS¦ð]mfbw, Sn¸pkpð¯ms\ sImñm³ {ian¨t¸mÄ Hfn¨ Øew, sImó Øew, PUw IsïSp¯ Øew Fóo Øe§Ä kµÀin¨p. hrµmh³ KmÀU³ HcÛpXamWv. CXns\¡pdns¨ñmw UmUn hcpt¼mÄ hniZambn ]dbmw.
Rm³ Hcp tlm_n XpS§n: {KÙtiJcWw. Cóse XpS§nbtXbpÅp. kväm¼p tiJcWhpw Fsâ hnt\mZamWv. UmUn F\n¡v Ipd¨v kväm¼p Ab¨pXcWw. UmUn Fgp¯nð ]Xnhmbn H«n¡pó kväm¼p amäpIbpw thWw.
UmUn¡p kpJamtWm? UmUn Fóp hcpw? Fgp¯v ChnsS \nÀ¯s«.
kvt\l]qÀhw,
hn\oXv | 
ALTAR BOY
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