Naked I Came



  Naked I Came

  By

  Ian Kumar

  Text Copyright @ by Ian Kumar

  All rights reserved.

  This is the work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorised duplication is prohibited. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the permission in writing from author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.

 

  To those who fall on the way-side,

  a prey to their vices/carnality…

  …And to a son who missed his father

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Seema and Mahima for their invaluable input

  &

  to a dear friend for valuable assistance

  Contents

  Adolescence 7

  Jaipur 9

  College 13

  Adult Pathways 19

  On a Roller Coaster 25

  Adios 29

  Ivan 37

  Brother Eric 40

  Sushmita 46

  Family 50

  The Goodwins 57

  The Call 60

  Toddar Mall 63

  Walk of Faith 67

  Sunita Chandra 70

  Raghunath Massey 74

  Assembly Hall 80

  Deepak Rastogi 84

  The First Glance 87

  Spirit & Flesh 93

  Convention 100

  Samantha Solomon 105

  Food Eaten in Secret 110

  Propinquity 116

  Strategising the Exit 121

  Showdown 125

  How Can They? 136

  Au Revoir 142

  Transition 147

  Across the Continents 152

  An Opening 153

  Quandary 156

  New Horizons 157

  The Bubble 164

  Fate 170

  Trap Dance 176

  Earned the Wages 179

  Tsunami 186

  Consequences 188

  The three R’s that Lead to the Fourth 190

  Flee 195

  Friends 199

  Alas 202

  Prologue

  Naked I Came is the story of Justin, a young man who was transitioning from his adolescence years to adulthood and beyond. Growing in age and experience, he experiments as any normal person would, when sexual awareness unfolds before him at various stages of life in the land of India. After completing college education, he secures a much-coveted job in a bank and successfully scales to middle management level in the protocol of the bank. Well settled in life, he feels a nudge from God to join a church as a full-time pastor. Soon he is propelled from an ordinary person into a person who is revered by the congregants of his church.

  Life brings him to another turn when after several years in the church, Justin, now a married man, gets involved in an extramarital affair with one of his congregants.

  Principles of Bible come into play…

  Justin rejects God and plans to settle in the land of America to start life afresh with his inamorata. God catches him again, and this time, the end-results are beyond Justin’s comprehension. The consequences of sin overtake Justin like a tsunami! Separation from his sons torments him constantly.

  This is a narration of how ministers of solo churches even solo mega churches risk their entire ministry, life and career when they succumb to temptations and become an easy prey to the lustful desires of the flesh. Alas…Even after repentance, they fall repeatedly.

  Is repentance good enough to stop one from sinning further?

  What is ‘The mystery of three Rs’ that leads to the fourth?

  Ian Kumar, much influenced by the style of Ernest Hemingway and King James Version of the Bible, has his own peculiar way of bringing alive the narratives. His explicit narration of the facts of life, graphic at times, will bring the reader face-to-face with the realities of life.

  This book elicits the happenings that often beset even the most committed leaders at the helm of affairs, who may be at the apex of churches, organisations, institutions, etc. This book is not against ‘the system’, but it is an attempt to caution ‘the resilient yet the ignorant’ who may otherwise be trapped in the vices of this world and may end up in oblivion.