Gerald D'Cunha

L ast evening my friend and co-trainer, Anupam and I were on our way home after the daily training session. We have been holding these training sessions for the degree-college students in a suburban college. The management is very keen that these young kids should possess in them some fine soft-skills so that they succeed when they move from the campus to the corporate. My subject has, always, been ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’. It’s something I needed the most when I was these students' age… and, I know how significant it is and, importently, I know how I went about building up my own self-confidence and honing my own communication skills. So, it’s something I impart straight from my soul, and I have been sensing the instant connect of hearts. "One of the ways of building up your self-confidence is by becoming aware of your talents, skills, strengths and weaknesses,” I keep reminding the young kids, “It’s one of the legs of the stool cal...

“What happened was the best thing that could happen.” -           Byron Katie       E very time I react to what happens in my life – that is, to the situations in my life – I know, that I do it due to my lack of understanding. Yes, I react in my ignorance. The more I understand, the less I react… to all kinds of situations in life. Broadly, all situations in life can be clubbed into two groups: those which make us happy and those which make us sad. Most of us get carried away by both of these… We lose our equanimity. Wisdom comes through understanding… Through seeing the transient nature of things… The illusion and delusion! What looks like a lucky situation may bring with it a misfortune, and what looks like a misfortune may bring with it a fortune. Hence, it is sensible to keep our equanimity and greet every situation with a smile… wisely and gracefully. A story that helps me...

“Make sure your worst enemy doesn't live between your own two ears.” -             Laird Hamilton P resently, I have been visiting a suburban college in Mumbai (along with our team) to conduct a soft-skill programmes.. The students of this college belong to various streams, including B.Sc I.T, B.M.S, B.Com, Banking and Insurance etc. And, students from F.Y, S.Y and T.Y all attend the programme. The unique feature of this student-mix is that they all hail from absolutely ordinary families. The Trustees of this college, too, hail from extremely ordinary families and they are seriously interested in providing fine education to these eager young boys and girls. Before our team started off with the programme, the Principal madam, who is passionate and committed about her mission, gave us a simple brief: “Most of our students belong to the first generation… They will be the first graduate...

I have observed an interesting thing during our Personality Development programme (summer). A few parents, particularly the mothers, of our little ones or young ones end up learning more from the programme than their children do. I, always, encourage the enthusiastic parents to feel free to sit for our sessions whenever they are free or like. A couple of them end up sitting for the entire two-month programme and enjoy it more than their children do. On the Certification Day, I, often, surprise these ‘deserving’ parents with a specially-worded certificate. When they come forward to collect it, they go speechless. They cry! Whose learning was it, anyway? Did they actually come for thier kids or for themselves? It has, always remained a mystery to me! For last two summers, a mother of young *Sam wanted to enroll her son for our programme. She was extremely keen. But, Sam, who studied in 9 th standard at that time, was not. Sam’s dad and mom were working p...

T o me, the greatest educator is the one who inculcates in me the value of living in harmony with others… What a value that is! What an education! When I look back at my life of six decades, I truly feel, that one ability to grow up harmoniously with people of all faiths, class and character, has been my greatest education. Despite the extreme polarization we all get to witness, time and again, around us, and despite the seeds of hatred that are being sown all around us regularly, a significantly large section of people has chosen to live in this very world in peace and harmony rather than being obsessed with the illusion of living in ‘another world’ with a grander kind of life… What is the use of hating my neighbour now, here on this very land, and still consumed by the desire of living with ‘like-minded neighbours’ when we move to another land? To me, whoever undermines the importance of living in harmony here and now and sells me a pipe-dream about ...

“Risk, then, is not just part of life. It is life. The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place. ” -       Nick Vujicic A ‘Certificate of Learning Disability’ (LD) can do more harm to a student than good. Well, that’s my take. As a Commerce teacher, I get to deal with college students. When parents of some of these students tell me that their young ones have been ‘certified’ to be ‘slow learners’, I literally choose to be deaf. This modern vocabulary has crippled more young boys and girls than illiteracy and poverty have done to them. For whatever reason, and under whatever circumstances, the Certificate of Learning Disability (LD) may have been given to your child, my take is this: ‘Let it not be a permanent label or a chain of confinement for your child’. The old story about the 'Baby-elephant Syndrome’ perfectly fits in, here… When a baby elephant is born, it is tied w...

I am a massive fan of Cristiano Ronaldo. But, I feel, I am not a blind one in that. Only ‘stars’ – legends, icons, heroes – yes, only those who have made name, fame and achieved something significant in life deserve to be admired with loads of fanfare… I have my idols, and one of them, certainly, is Cristiano Ronaldo. Along with phenomenal fame and success comes social responsibility to these idols. Mercifully, many of these idols quietly do their bit to the society at large and for the causes dear to their hearts, in particular. Cristiano Ronaldo’s charity work has been talked about a lot. Most of it revolves around the children affected by terminal diseases like cancer or those affected by wars, as in Syria. Today, a friend of mine sent me this video… I am not sharing this video, here, because I am a huge fan of Cristiano. Even if I wasn’t his fan, I would have saluted him for doing this noble work. To be honest, Cristiano and legends and ce...