Gerald D'Cunha

“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” ―  Marcus Aurelius ,  Meditations T he ability to remain calm and composed in all situations in life is called ‘Equanimity’. Well, I have a long way to go before I can reach there! But, I am trying my best… Along my way to this place called ‘equanimity’, I have recognized some of my roadblocks… At times, I tend to take others’ problems on my shoulders… At times, I worry about ‘outside situations’ which are beyond my control – wars, earthquakes, plane crash, hurricanes, riots, gang rapes and gang wars, elections, political and religious discord… At times, I take praise to my head and abuse to my heart… I take them personally… At times, I fall prey to propaganda… It makes me take sides, become biased...

“Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them.” ―  Brodi Ashton ,  Everneath W e all have our heroes who inspire us immensely. We like to talk about them animatedly… how they made it to the top the hard way from their obscure backgrounds. I think, a deep admiration for our respective heroes – be it from the field of Films, Sports, TV, Radio, Business, Politics, Social Work, Religion or Education whatever – helps us to shape our personalities… It motivates us to achieve our own goals in life… The Law of Attraction is an age-old Law of success. It says, “What we deeply like and admire, we attract.” Thus, when we deeply like and admire our heroes, we attract their qualities in us. Ritesh* is a young man doing his first year degree college. He is obsessed with football… He started playing football as a kid and played at many levels. However, he does not see his future in football, even though he breathes football...

“W hat is easily available, often, not much valued,” said Kannan, in our Tai Chi class, this morning. Late, last evening, Girija ma’am, his wife, had sent me a message: “Gerry, the movie ‘The Walk’ is being aired on TV channel Star Movies, now.” When this movie, “The Walk’ was released two years ago, I had watched it in the theatre and, on following Sunday, I had raved about it in the Tai Chi class. Kannan, who is selective about movies, had watched it with his wife and was highly impressed. Girija ma’am knew about it, and, so, she had messaged me about the movie being shown on TV, last evening. “Sir, did you watch ‘The Walk’ on TV yesterday?” I asked Kannan, today. “I was out yesterday,” Kannan told me, “So, I could watch only the last part… But, what a movie it is!” Kannan went on to rave about it for the next ten minutes. “There are so many life lessons in that movie,” he said, “To me, it is not just about wire-walking… It’s about life!" I remembe...

“If the cherry trees had to wait for understanding, they'd never blossom.”  ―  Marty Rubin I will never advise anyone to lead a hippy-kind-of life:  Live carefree… Do whatever you like… Go wherever you wish to… Wear whatever you want to… Eat, sleep and love in whatever way you wish to. That life, no doubt, may seem very spontaneous and less burdensome. But, it won’t suit the world we live in… If we can’t fit in here, where else can we live? So, we need to balance our spontaneity with our sanity. Living  a life with too much planning and caution and living a life of absolute carefree-ness and sponateiity – yes, in my view, both are extremes… I will not advocate, therefore, anyone to resort to these two extremes. Caution and planning are good. Carefree-ness and spontaneity, too, are good. When we combine both of them in our life, life can be less stressful… more productive and happy. To help us worry less abou...

“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.” - Muhammad Ali T here cannot be several Creators of this Universe. It means, there cannot be several Gods… your God, his god and my God. It’s silly to even think that our prayers are made to different Gods – even though we call Him by different names… and worship in different ways. Yes, it’s really silly to even think that we all are different as far as God’s children are concerned. “Religions get lost as people do,”  said  Franz Kafka. When we are lost, how can we see and appreciate the beauty in our fellow-men’s religions? I just can’t understand how my religion can be better than my fellow-men’s… How my God can be superior to theirs.  Till I cannot see and appreciate the beauty in my fellow-men’s faith and  prayers, I cannot see in my own… I regularly play on my ...

T he other day, a friend of mine, who is a lecturer in a city college, was asked a tricky question in one of the interviews she had faced: “What is the most important social responsibility of a teacher?” My friend, later, asked me, “Sir, you have taught for four decades. What would have been your answer?” I remembered Manushi Chhillar. She had just won the hearts of not only the Miss World judges but of everyone around the world. The final question to her was: “Which profession, according to you, deserves the highest salary?” We all got floored by the utterly simple yet mind-blowing answer of Manushi: “I think a mother deserves the highest respect and when you talk about salary it’s not always about cash but I feel it’s the love and respect that you give to someone. My mother has always been the biggest inspiration in my life. All mothers sacrifice so much for their kids. So, I think it is the job of a mother that deserved the highest sa...

“I am sorry… Tried my best and I failed… Forgive me my ocean and my country.” With these words, Afroz Shah suspended the Varsova-beach-clean-up drive 110 weeks after he first started it… Alone, that was! But, has Afroz really failed? Not in my view.  To me, Afroz is a winner… an inspiration… a true hero. I have always believed in Afroz’s kind of initiative, his kind of ‘social change’. “Don’t ask what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country.” I was in ninth standard when I came across these inspiring words of JFK’s speech in our English text book. This was how Mahatma Gandhi, (Afroz’s inspiration) carried out his mighty movement of social change: “Be the change you wish to see in this world”… Yes, don’t wait for the authorities and others to do it. You do it… Start from you and others will join you. This was precisely how Mother Teresa went about carrying out her mammoth mission: “I alone cannot change the w...

L et’s accept it: Most of us spend a lot of time on social media – Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. So, it makes no difference at all for people like me, who do not watch TV or listen to radio as many around do. Young kids, who are hooked on to video games, and, we adults, who are hooked on to social media – honestly, I find no difference in our respective addictions. While we adults can get away by justifying our own addictions to social media, the little and young ones, who are at our mercy, can’t… at least majority of them. So, they have to go into hiding to play their games… We don’t have to. Everyone’s mind is weak, including mine. My justification, for spending some of my time on FB, is my passion for writing. I have been writing since I was a college boy… I would write notes in my dairies… hundreds of hundreds of them, every day. It was only in 2008, I started writing my daily notes directly in my blog. I wasn’t on FB for an...