Gerald D'Cunha

  “When you are crazy, you learn to keep quiet.” Philip K. Dick   W e cannot survive without breathing. But, you see, breathing happens without our interference. God has been so kind, so generous and, I would say, so forgiving, that He has extended this mercy to each soul, in each corner of this world… A homeless man and a man who lives in a mansion, both, are equally privileged when it comes to this mercy from God. Breathing is just there… It’s happening. So, if you, I and everyone has taken it for granted, it shouldn’t surprise us at all.   Everything that God has given us ‘free’ in life… are we not taking it for granted? That’s why, whenever we pause to observe our breath… or whenever   we battle for each breath, yes, that’s when we realize what a precious gift each breath has been! A conscious pause, therefore, is crucial to make us connect to our breath, and, thereby, to the benevolent Creator Who makes the breathing happen... “I need to write ev...

  “Someone is sitting in the shade today, because someone planted a tree long time ago.” Warren Buffet   I have used the above statement by Warren Buffet several times, before, in my blogs. The obvious reference, most of us tend to derive, is, that the Investment Genius is referring to money - wealth, savings and investments. May be, that’s correct. But, every time, I have used it in my blogs, my own reference point has kept changing. Undoubtedly, money and wealth, when invested wisely with a foresight,   grow like giant trees and end up providing shade – besides fruits and manure – to generations to come. So, if we assume, that Mr. Warren Buffet was encouraging us to raise money-plants, our assumption wont’ be wrong… After all, money doesn’t grow on trees. But, it does grow like trees! The shade is the comfort each generation has been provided with by the generations before. I have seen by father’s   father… He almost lived like a tribal man… I am neith...

  “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worry and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” Roy T. Bennett   G loom is contagious. So is happiness! These nearly-two years of Pandemic have taken all of us through this roller coaster of happiness and gloom. None has been spared. None. But, then, we all have relied on our respective coping mechanism. Getting into gloom may have seemed easy… Rather, automatic. Most of us have found ourselves simply slipping into the gloom – feeling overwhelmed by anxiety and worry about our future. From there, fortunately, many of us have bounced back. But, some of us have remained stuck, and some of us have, unfortunately, perished! I believe, this has been the familiar scenario during these unusual times. It’s tough to stay optimistic and motivated when gloom surrounds us from all sides. The more the mind focuses on ‘what we have lost’ and ‘what may happen’… yes, the more pessimistic and dejected we become. A person like me,...

  “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; that is an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo   T he one thing, that has brought mankind, from the stone age to this age of Artificial Intelligence, is the elixir called ‘Ideas’. Just look back at last two decades or so… Imagine the lightning speed with which our lives have changed in relation to information technology and social media! Nothing seems to come out in this world with a fairly-long shelf life… Everything becomes obsolete, outdated… so fast. And the reason? That powerful little-spark in man’s mind – that elixir of every change – called ‘Ideas’! So, as I said, if man has evolved from the stone age to this age of AI, it’s only because of the swiftly-popping ideas. Life would have been stagnant and stale had it not been for the burst of ideas in human mind!   “T houghts are things!” When I first read this expression in Napoleon Hill’s book ‘Think and Grow Rich’, I sat back and grasped this wisdo...

  “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Abraham Lincoln   E lbert Hubbard, who wrote the inspiring essay ‘A Message to Garcia’, had said:   “I believe, that the best way to prepare for a Future Life is to be kind, live one day at a time, and do the work you can do best, doing it as well as you can.” There is great depth in this simple-sounding statement. Let me dissect it, in this Post… Are we all not concerned and busy with preparation for a Future Life? Every human activity – individual or collective –   invariably revolves around this goal – ‘Future Life’. Perhaps, we do not like to admit it openly, or wish to give a different spin to it. But, I firmly believe, that we all are concerned and busy preparing for a Future Life… Based on this assumption – and reality – I wish to delve into the fragments of Elbert Hubbard’s statement. He says, “I believe, that the best way to prepare for a Future Life… Is to be kind : Kind...

  “Do not get upset with people or situations. Both are powerless without your reaction.” Unknown source   J ust as how we have no control over how some life-situations unfold in our lives, we, also, have no control on how some people behave towards us. Often, we spend a lot of our time and energy fighting these people. What they think about us, say about us and do towards us – yes,   this thought keeps us constantly restless, draining our energy… keeping us anxious, sad, angry and depressed. So, just as we learn to deal with difficult life-situations in our lives, we, also, have to learn to deal with these difficult people in our lives. It is difficult, yes. But, it is possible. It is, also, imperative for our personal well-being. S ome days ago, seeing me getting worked up over a certain person’s prolonged vicious-behavious towards me, a well-wisher of mine said this: “Do not internalize that man’s behaviour towards you. Your non-reaction will frustrate him…...

  “ The sign of true love is not a diamond; it’s a cross.” Anonymous   O ur shoulders are not broad enough to carry the problems of the world. Forget the ‘world’, we cannot even carry the problems of a handful around us. Yet, we happily and readily carry on our shoulders the problems of ‘a chosen few’… Don’t we? I have done that, and I still do that. Similarly, there are a few Jesus Christs around me, who readily, happily   and, unconditionally, carry my cross on their shoulders... That’s how Love, always, has been… and will be. I will, always, find strength and grace to carry on my shoulders the burdens of a chosen few… and, I will, always, find some chosen few to carry my burden on theirs… Some days ago, a dear one pressed into my hand a beautiful note when he sensed the weight of some of my burden. The note read: “The sign of true love is not a diamond; it is a cross.” O nly yesterday, another friend of mine spent almost half a day, sidelining all his p...

  “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” Pema Chodron I n my hometown, Mangalore, there is a famous bakery  by the name ‘Cochin Bakery’. They have several outlets in the city and some fantastic delicacies. The one many people like is their ghee cake… It’s a simple, delicious cake that goes extremely well with the evening tea… I simply love it. So, while returning from Mangalore, some days ago, I had picked a couple of packets of this favourite cake of mine just to pass on to some close ones. One of my dear ones sent this message to me the next day: “I had the ghee cake you had sent over yesterday and I have absolutely loved it. Thank you for sending it over. I just have one request: if it’s possible for you, and if you do have another, could you please send it over , too? I did not get to eat much of the previous cake that was sent.” And, I absolutely love this kind of honesty and childlike attitude in life. The dear one, who sent this...

  “Whatever you fight, you strengthen; Whatever you resist, persists.” Eckhart Tolle   B ad things should not happen to me… Unpleasant experiences should not come my way… Life should be smooth, predictable. Am I alone in this kind of thinking? I am sure, I am not. Most of us know, that Life is not always smooth and predictable… We do experience bad things and have to deal with unpleasant experiences. Yet, we desperately fight and resist the unpleasant situations in our lives. While fight we should and resist we should, it’s wise to understand the difference between ‘Life and the Life-situations’. Eckhart Tolle, in his book, ‘The Power of Now’, beautifully explains the difference between Life and Life-situations. As the ‘Serenity Prayer’ does, he, too, encourages us to recognize the situations which we are able to change – fight and resist till we succeed, and the situations which we are not able to change… let go (our fight and resistance) and simply accept. ...

  “We are very good lawyers for our own mistakes, but very good judges for mistakes of others.” Anonymous     S ome days ago, while I was in my hometown, one of our relatives sent a personal WhatsApp message to me. The message contained only six simple words. Incidentally, when the message arrived, there were six of us in the room. When I first read the message, I derived a certain meaning out of it. I read it again and derived a different meaning… I read it a couple of times more, and, each time, the meaning I was deriving kept changing. I was curious, if others around me would get a similar experience… Every one’s interpretation was different, every time they read it! I thought in my mind, that the proverbial elephant had come to our room… and we were the six blind men trying to touch a part of the elephant and arrive at our own conclusions: Elephant was like a rope… Like a wall… Like a tree-trunk… Like a fan and so on. There had to be a wise man to tell the...

“Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses. It has only a sharp tongue and a pointing finger.” Toba Beta   T his morning, Rameeta*, who lives in New Delhi, called me up. “Gerry Sir, where have the teaching ideals gone?” she sounded quite upset. “What happened, Rameeta,” I prodded. “My daughter had enrolled to learn Kuchipudi dance under a well-known classical dance-teacher. Just eight sessions… Two of them got cancelled… When I checked with the teacher, if there would be compensatory sessions for the lost ones, she turned wild and gave me a mouthful… Even though, she was unreasonably arrogant and mean, I kept my calm for my daughter’s sake… But, I have been disturbed ever since… Thought I would share with you, just to feel a bit lighter.” Rameeta was my committed, hard-working and zestful student more than twenty-five years ago. She hailed from a very humble household; and despite the financial constraints, she and her brother both completed their Chartered Acc...