Gerald D'Cunha

I think, forgiveness does not necessarily need two people – the forgiver and the forgiven. One person is enough… and, that can be either of the two. Yes, if I seek forgiveness from you and you forgive me, it is an ideal situation. But, in real life, there are no ‘ideal’ situations. The only ideal is: if there is no forgiveness, there is no peace… and, if there is no peace, Life is miserable. A hell! I was talking to a young man a while ago, who was angry at his father. It seems, last night, a small argument lead to a physical brawl between the father and the son. And, the young man was not in a position to accept this behavior from his father. As I knew the father too very well, I got father’s version as well… Even he said the same thing, “I am not prepared to accept my son’s behaviour.” So, what now? Is it a dead-end? Is there hope or no hope? There is hope… Because, there are no dead-ends in life. For a sensible and teachable human being, all dead-en...

“Slow down... Life is crossing the road.” ―  Debasish Mridha R ight now, my body, mind and heart – all three yearn to rest. “Enough of aggression,” I hear them remind me, “Slow down… Keep your tools down… Just yield.” Almost four to five hours in the morning, today, I found myself in an aggressive mode – aggressive in the sense: I was result oriented, my words were piercing, patience was on the edge… and I could feel I was getting the work done from my students. Yes, there was that immediate sense of achievement… But, when it was all over, I could also feel the vacuum… the energy was all depleted… all my students gone and I was left alone, here, to wonder: If there was another way of going about it… A way where my energy would be conserved, words not as pricing as they were and patience not as edgy as it was… So, now, when I have dropped my tools and aggression and able to reflect, yes, I do feel, that there certainly was anoth...

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.”  ―  Hannah Whitall Smith M y problems and my suffering are always mine… They are ‘big’… till I see someone else’s problems and suffering and realize how ‘small’ mine are. When I am stuck in my own ‘selfish’ world of self-pity and blame, I can never see how small my problems and suffering are… It is all about I, me and myself. Acceptance, I know, is the key to end my suffering. But, acceptance doesn’t come to me easily. When it does, it, invariably, comes via the long route called – ‘resistance’… Yes, when I am grief-stricken, I cry and keep asking ‘Why me?’... I throw resistance… I remain a victim. I have come to realize, that the state of acceptance is a state of grace…  Only prayerful and grateful hearts are blessed with this state. Life has problems and I am not alone in this… There are mill...

I n today’s Bombay Times, there are these quotes from two of our Bollywood ladies. I am sharing them here: “When you are patriotic, it comes out in the most subtle ways. So, you don’t have to wait for that one particular day to celebrate it. You can do it all year long. Wearing your patriotism on your sleeve isn’t as important as truly feeling the emotion in your heart.” -          Alia Bhatt -            “One should not be forced to exhibit any sort of patriotism, it has to be organic. We can do a lot of things to show our love for our country, but let’s start from keeping it clean. Treat it like your homes, even when we step out of our houses, we must do that.” -          Vidya Balan -            Today, as we celebrate the 69 th Republic Day of our beloved nation, we have to ...

“It is hard to befool a fool who has already been fooled so many times”  ―  Munia Khan I did not intend to write a word on the controversy surrounding Sanjay Leela Bansali’s film ‘Padmavati’, which, now has been renamed as ‘Padmavat’. Having seen in the past many, many such controversies – be it relating to a movie, play, book, song, painting or even a tweet – I knew from the day one, that it was a deliberate act, stage-managed by many self-interested parties… where the main objective is to divert the attention of the masses from the most worrisome issues plaguing the nation… Yes, from my past experience, I knew it… that, Bansali and his film just happened to be there in the crossfire… Just as the school bus ferrying tender children and the innocent people and their hard-earned property happened to be there… I don’t watch the TV debates about ‘Padmavat’… When I do, I get a disgusting feeling in stomach! I find the anchors, spoke...

I have not done any research on it… But, I am sure, more than ninety percent of songs in all the countries and languages of this world are about romantic Love. Yes, all happy, sad and insane songs are written and sung based on romantic Love… either as a winner or a loser in it! It means the feeling of romantic love is universal! The story of a boy and a girl falling in love is a very, very old story about growing up in Life. It dates back to the earliest days of civilized society. All of us have gone through this phase of ‘attraction’. Some of us, who have been conservative and cautious, chose not to commit…while some of us, who have been more open and bold, chose to commit. So, whenever I see around me a young boy and girl in love, I feel happy for them. Many of them are able to handle it sensibly and many mess it up. Yes, it is not easy, at that age, to have a smooth ride, all the way… The road is, often, bumpy… A lot of heat gets generated along the way. ...

“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.” - Winston Churchill T hrough a sheer co-incidence, there are three Hollywood movies being shown presently in Mumbai – ‘The Post’, ‘The Darkest Hour’ and ‘12 Strong’. I wanted to watch all three of them, and ended up watching two of them - ‘The Post’ and ‘The Darkest Hour’. Why was I keen to watch all these movies? Because, they are stories about one’s courage of convictions… taking tough decisions when everyone around you is crippled with doubt and fear… It’s about human greatness as described in Craig D. Lounsbrough’s words: “The greatest men stand on their values and pray on their knees.”  ‘T he Post’ (Directed by Steven Spielberg) is the powerful story depicting one such moment in the life of  Katharine Graham (Played by Meryl Streep), the first female publisher of a major American newspaper -- The Washington Post and her editor, Ben Bradlee (T...

“People don't choose their calling, it chooses them.” -  Richard Leider W hy do so many people run the Marathon? I have been asking this question for several years.  Yesterday was the 15 th edition of the Mumbai Marathon (Tata Mumbai Marathon). About 44,407 men and women – young and old – took part in it… And, why? Each one has his or her own reason. And, that reason, invariably, is compelling. No one runs the Marathon for a skin-deep reason… There is something very personal and bigger that calls a man and a woman to run the Marathon… A dear friend of mine, who lives in America, had posted a very vibrant picture of her after her Marathon participation in her state in America. She is in her forties and has college-going children. Last few years have been very traumatic for her with some major family problems. She had been sharing some of these problems with me and we were constantly in touch with each other. However, I did not hear from her f...