Gerald D'Cunha

Vivek Anand is one of my favorite students. He is a well-brought-up young-man and, he has been studying, all along, in one of the finest schools around… He is very focused, highly self-disciplined and very proud of the family he belongs to. He comes about extremely confident… yet, very humble and respectful. Yes, I am proud Vivek is my student! This morning, Vivek was in my class some ten minutes before others. So, while we were having our general discussion, he excitedly said, “Sir, I wanted to tell you this; I had been for the open-air mass on Christmas night with my close friend… I really felt good.” Vivek has been a very regular follower of my daily blog-posts. Hence, I told him that I would be writing, today, on the subject: “ A time to rejoice in the good that we see”. I told Vivek that it was, incidentally, inspired from Cliff Richard’s famous Christmas-song – ‘Mistletoe and Wine' (It is Christmas Time). “I would love to read ...

If  not the World, the year is coming to an end tomorrow… The World has survived, so far… We all have! M ullah Nasrudin had a prized goat. Many of his friends wanted him to kill this goat and invite them for a dinner. But, Mullah being a miser, wouldn’t do that… Finally, the friends hatched a plan to bring around Nasrudin. “Nasrudin, have you heard the news?” they asked him with serious faces. “What news?” Nasrudin wanted to know. “So bad Mullah!” the friends exclaimed, “Listen, the World is going to end tomorrow!” “Is it?” Nasrudin seemed seriously shocked. “Yes, that’s true,” the friends cried in a chorus, “What’s the use of keeping such a big goat when you know that the World would end tomorrow? Let’s have our last supper tonight!” Mullah immediately agreed.  When night fell, Nasrudin’s friends began to drop in, one by one. Mullah had killed his prized goat and prepared a great meal for his friends. They all had a sumptuous dinn...

In the one of the greatest Hindi movies, ‘Deewar’, Vijay Verma – Amitabh Bachchan – is born to very honest and simple parents. He has a younger brother, Ravi Verma – Shashi Kapoor. Now, you know how our mothers in Hindi movies are…! Vijay is born to such a mother… an incredibly ‘holy’ mother… and, of course, to a father, who worked killingly hard for his two little-children, came home tired… but to a very loving home. But, this upright worker, a representative of the workers’ union, is now damned as a traitor, humiliated, shamed and threatened… and, he is unable to face the trauma of shame, fear and humiliation… so much so, he leaves the town…and, later, dies a lonely death in a local train! By now, the two sons have become adults… and well-known in their fields: Ravi Verma has become an upright police officer… while, the elder one, Vijay Verma, has become a Mafia Lord! When their father is harassed and humiliated as a traitor by the worke...

I seriously think: when we choose our friends, we, also, choose our ‘climate’! Yes, our friends – the company that we keep – create our climate! And, you know how important the climate is for our well-being! So many parents come to me to discuss about the progress of their young-ones. Many find it difficult to accept that their young-children – who were all along doing so well – now, are sliding down miserably. “No, this was not the case before,” they cry… “We fail to understand, why he/she lies,”… “We don’t know, what has happened to him/her!”… “We don’t know where he/she goes bunking   college/classes!”… “We are scared, what may happen!”… And, then, invariably they have some friend to blame! “It is because of him/her…” “So many times, we have told our son/daughter to keep off from ‘that’ one!”… “They have spoilt our son/daughter!”… These parents are right. They are wrong, too. ...

   In every sphere of life, our goal is to progress. And, for any sort of progress, there are only two barricades: external and internal. The external hurdles are tough to handle. Many a times, they are beyond our control. So, we try our best to overcome them… and, when we realize that they are beyond our control, we let go our futile struggle… we accept the situation, change our route and move on… That, too, is progress… Imagine what would happen, if we do not realize the futility of our struggles and keep breaking our heads against the hard wall… Imagine, if we keep flogging a dead horse hoping that it would come to life… We would stagnate; in fact, we would slide down in life! Outside hurdles are tough to deal with… But, not all of them… Not until we attempt to for a reasonably long period of time. The internal hurdles are our own creations… We create them through our ignorance, attitudes and personalit...

What we ‘have’ – our achievements, success, wealth, health, name, fame… everything that we have in life… is only ‘given’ to us… Yes, just as a gift… What we have… is our privilege… a blessing… a grace! Even if we have worked extremely hard to achieve what we ‘have’ in life, it is still only that: a blessing, a gift, a privilege. We need to stretch our two open-and-empty hands towards the heavens and pray: “Our Father in Heaven… give us our daily bread!” And, if we go down on our knees and do that… it is still better! There are these two expressions: “I deserve” and “I am entitled for”. While the first expression is incredibly empowering one… the second one is equally imprisoning one! A deep feeling of deserving something in life is fundamental to our healthy self-esteem and a life of healthy well-being. This feeling stems from our innate trust in ourselves and the Universe… It is not a feelin...

Any thing that can bring some simple joy into our hearts… has been our religion. We worship what makes us happy! Whether I am a Christian or a Hindu, and whether I am a Muslim or a Sikh… that’s not the religion I am talking about… I am talking about a religion which brings simple joy into our hearts… very simple joy… A young couple from the interior North has come, lately, to live next door. Last night, our door-bell rang. The young-man said shyly, “Sir, my wife wants to see the Christmas-tree… She loves the way it is decorated.” My heart sank! There wasn’t a Christmas-tree at our place. “Come, please sit,” I made them comfortable, hiding my own discomfort. We spoke about the lovely things about the Christmas-tree, the Crib, the Star and the mid-night Mass (which, these days gets over before it is mid-night due to security regulations!)… The young-lady’s face lit up! She was new to our big city… The young-man asked me, if they could attend the mid-night Mass. ...

H onestly, I did not know that… this English phrase – ‘Zero Tolerance’ - ever existed! Thanks to the current Delhi protests against gang-rape, the phrase has become a viral… and, suddenly, I find myself infected by it! But, frankly, I am not able to understand what it means! L ast night, my wife and I were travelling by our BEST A.C. bus. There was a crazy traffic. At one spot, the bus couldn't move an inch for nearly twenty minutes! There were hundreds of vehicles… including so many luxury cars… and, everyone seemed to have lost his patience… Even though they knew it did not help, they were honking, shouting, abusing… and blaming all and sundry. Yes, notably, the Government and the Police! But, inside our Mumbai A.C. buses – if you are not in a hurry – it is sheer bliss! Both, my wife and I… we were just chilled! I was watching from the window a very interesting sight… just outside, at one corner… Believe me, it was all in the open! About seven...

A lady called me up, last evening. A known person had asked her to talk to me. She told me that she was a housewife, and came from an affluent business family. She always had a dream of starting a school for the ‘special children’, and thanks to the support and encouragement of her in-laws, she had now fulfilled her dream. “Sir, the reason I have called you is,” this lady said from the other end, “that I need to improve my communication skills… You know, when I meet doctors, psychologists, school principals and parents, I experience discomfort… I need to build my self-confidence.” “If you have identified your problem, you have already solved it half,” this is an old wisdom. This lady knew why she needed to improve her communication skills. So, I knew she had the right reasons to pursue her desire to communicate well… Her dream was to run efficiently her school for ‘special children’. The desire to improve her communication skills was just a ‘nee...