YOU CANNOT STEP INTO THE SAME RIVER TWICE





When it comes to ‘packaging’ myself – I mean ‘branding and marketing’ – I am very bad. My FB display picture belongs to stone-age… “Why don’t you change it?” many tell me with good intention, “You have best photographer friends around you.”

“Jaisi shakal waisi photo,” I brush aside my friends’ suggestion, “Ki farak painda?”

On Sunday (11th June), we had the Dawn Club certification programme. Yesterday, I shared some ten pictures clicked during the occasion. One of them was mine – a solo. That was enough to open the floodgates of comments… the most interesting one is this: “Sir (Gerry) you look same.” Or, “You haven’t changed at all!”

It is then I realized how casually I have said the same to others, so often: “Hey, you haven’t changed at all!”

What a lie that is!

“You cannot step into the same river twice.” It is a profound quote from the philosopher Heraclitus. My friend, Dr. Deepak, used this on Sunday in his parting message to our young ones. They all had joined the P.D. course a month or two ago… Now, they had assembled to receive their certificates… In a span of one or two months, had they changed or were they same as they were while stepping into the ‘constantly-flowing river’ weeks ago? Dr. Deepak wanted to tell them, “My young friends, Life is like a river that constantly flows… You cannot step into the same river twice… Neither will you find the same river… nor will you find the same you…The River will change… You will change… Life experiences are in an endless flux… And, that’s how your life should be… A new you touched by a new river!”





So, what about the compliment on my photo – “Sir (Gerry) you are same” or “You haven’t changed at all”?

Deepak, yaar, please tell them what you told the bachhas on Sunday…


GERALD D’CUNHA


Pic.: Amol Kshirsagar

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