Gerald D'Cunha

  “The word ‘Listen’ contains same letters as the word ‘Silent’” Alfred Brendel   D id you know that? That, the word ‘Listen’ contained same letters as the word ‘Silent’? Well, I did not know that. But, I know, that only when we are silent, we are able to listen. Robert A. Heinlein dramatically describes this phenomenon when he says, “It was darn quiet; you could hear your hair grow!” Outside, the Nature is full of sound… Inside, the mind is full of sound! Life, by its very nature, is restless… Noisy. It’s only when we pause, be still… and listen to the life outside and inside, that harmony comes. It’s peace… It was Bob Dylan who said, “Sometimes, silence can be like thunder.” What an irony! Bob Dylan’s songs and lyrics are known to take away the sound from the thunders! The poet-singer knows how the thunder and silence come together to make life! Last evening, I was listening to his legendary song – ‘Blowing in the Wind’ – but covered by another amazing singer...

  “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.” Mark Twain   I f some of us have travelled all around the world – experienced different cultures, cuisines and customs – there are two reasons for it. One: Our professions; two: our interests. I have met many people, who fire our imagination by telling us stories around the world. I have also met many people, who keep the stories to themselves, even though they have been around the world, many times… The storytellers are a distinct breed. I think, unless one is gifted with this talent, stories only remain in one’s head… Yes, whether one has been around the world, or just around his courtyard! Stories come from one’s imagination and that irresistible itch in one’s soul - to tell them! Meanwhile, should a person like me - who has never stepped out his country, and not been to too many places in his own country – feel inferior while interacting with those who have globetrotted? I don...

  “The emotion that can break your heart is, sometimes, the very one that heals it.” Nicholas Sparks   E very time I get overwhelmed, I cry. And, every time I cry, I feel good about myself. I believe, that there is no shame in my tears… I am not at all embarrassed about showing my tears, my fragile veneer. Yes, as long as my tears come from an honest space, I am at peace… I am healed! When I feel grateful, I cry… When I feel anxious and scared, I cry… When I feel joyous, I cry… When I accomplish something, I cry… When I fail, I cry… When people tell me, that I make difference in their lives, I cry… When I feel the touch of others, I cry… When people, who I trust, betray me, I cry… When people, who I love, leave me, I cry… When my child is born, on his every milestone, when he leaves… when he arrives, I cry… I cry on my every ‘prodigal-son experience’… on my every ‘Desert Experience’… When I stand before the vast ocean, behold the amazing hues of...

  “I may be going nowhere; but, what a ride?” Shaun Hick   I started an online Personality-development programme (of ten sessions) today. I just concluded the first session. As it was online, I wanted only ten participants in it, so that I could interact with each participant individually. They were all teenagers. But, I had encouraged two eager parents, too, to participate. From my years of experience, I know this very well: If you are clear about what exactly you want to convey to your participants, you, invariably, do. So, what was that I wanted to convey to this group through this 10-session progrmme? ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’! Could I achieve it without a roadmap, a plan? Yes, I had a roadmap in the form of a well-thought of PPT.   But, as we all know, a PPT is only a direction, a broad roadmap. As you keep going, there are scores of things that decide how the journey would be… You cannot plan every very word, line, example, story or w...

  “They come through you, but not from you; and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.” Kahlil Gibran in ‘The Prophet’   T here are some things we inherit from our fathers. If we wish to call them DNA or genes, let’s do. But, to blindly put it on our fathers is plain ignorance… It’s not fair! The saying, ‘Like father, like son’ – ‘As is the father, so is the son’ – has come from the Latin origin: “Qualis pater, talis filius”. But, I don’t think, that it is so either in Rome or anywhere else in the world! Between the father and the son, no doubt, there is blood connection. But, there is, also, that invisible, yet all-powerful, filter called ‘Our Choices’… Yes, just as the father made his own choices, the son makes his own. Period. My father was a born extrovert; I was a born touch-me-not! He, regaled strangers with his raw talent for singing (Konkani folksongs) at every available social venue; I desperately hid myself from everyone! He was an andhb...

  “Some only survive on your reaction. Let them starve.” Christine E. Szymanski   I t’s neither possible nor necessary to acknowledge each and every thing that comes our way; let alone react to them.   Yet, that’s exactly many of us seem to be doing… We try to stop on our way to see every passerby, every passing vehicle, every passing activity, every passing argument, fight or sight… and react. Every morning and every night, and through every day, we all receive a thousand things – good, bad and ugly – in our ‘inbox’, both digital and non-digital.   Do we have to stop to ‘read’, internalize, react or respond to each one of them? One of the fall outs of this crazy digital world is, that all kinds of people try to send us all kinds of stuff… It’s not possible to stop and acknowledge them or respond to them… There is, always, a choice to decide the privacy settings of our own choice; there is an option to click ‘Not interested’. Likewise, in life outside...

  “Through the dark, through the door, Through where no one’s been before, But it feels like home.” From the song ‘A Million Dreams’ (Movie ‘The Greatest Showman’) I f I told you this: “Stop searching… Stop setting goals… Be like a river… Everything changes… Everything returns…” how would you react? “Good for you”? And, how would I react, when 17-year-old Aaditya, my twelfth-standard student, called me in the middle of last night, on getting a jhatka, that he should become a commercial pilot, and asked: “Sir, what do you think?” “Beta , go to sleep”? Yes, I precisely told my boy that: “Beta , go to sleep now; will talk about it,  tomorrow morning.” Aaditya had asked me, if I knew anyone who had done this course. Of course, I knew a couple of them, including, both, commercial and   Airforce pilots. So, I could have pleased my boy saying, “Ye s beta , I know some of them; I can connect you to them.” Yes, I could have put my young student to sleep with...

  “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for life.” An old saying   I am believer in education… A great believer. But, to me, ‘education’ should be neither confined to the boundaries of schools and colleges, nor it should end when we come out of them. Just as the thirst and hunger of our bodies last a lifetime, so do the thirst and hunger of our hearts and minds… I said ‘hearts and minds’! I was the first graduate in our household. My parents barely been there; and grandparents, never! So, when I had a fortune of joining the first standard, at the age of six, it was a local church-school. The school had classes up to standard five. So, this school, always, had that badge - ‘Primary’. When I look back, I really smile… the medium was Kannada and the language we spoke inside was either, Kannada, Tulu or Konkani. English was foreign; only the rich kids spoke it! The school building was a humble building block… There were no de...

  “You may always dream; and, sometimes, they will even come true.” Martin Hurkens   L ast evening, my friend, Rekha, shared the inspiring story of Martin Hurkens. I don’t think many of you have heard about him. At least, I hadn’t, till I read his incredible story. The story tells us, that Martin worked for over thirty-five years as a baker. He was, always, passionate about singing and possessed a natural tenor-voice. He sang the popular songs as he went about his baking work and delighted his customers. Then came a day, when he lost his job and was left with nothing to fall back on for his livelihood. He had a family to fend; but he was too old to seek a new job. Faced with this challenge, he decided to hit the streets of his city in Holland and sing with all his heart… The onlookers dropped small coins in his hat. But, a new leap of faith had been taken… Martin’s destiny was on its way to unfold! His young daughter, without his knowledge, sent his entry form for th...