Gerald D'Cunha

“When admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers.” Sanober Khan   M y wife had just returned home, late last evening, after making a presentation. One of her seniors, who she always admired, had done the major part of the presentation. “She is too good,” my wife said as she walked into the house, “I wish I could do presentations like her.” I had just finished watching the following video from AGT (America’s Got Talent) … and I had watched it, back-to-back, thrice…  T he goose bumps were still there on my body… The spell hadn’t left me, yet… Inspired, I had, instantaneously, decided to create a blog around it…The quote had been already typed: “When admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers.” Sanober Khan   “Come here,” I called my wife, “read this.” You see, even in my wildest dreams, I will not be able to sing in my own house, leave alone like Putri Ariani, and leave alone on a gigantic s...

  “Don’t be so humble; you are not that great.” Unknown   T he workshop I enjoy doing the most is on ‘Self-Confidence and Communication Skills’. And, I love doing it for the youngsters the most… Towards the end of this workshop, I run this slide… “Every chaiwala cannot become a Narender Modi… Every railway T.C. cannot be a M.S. Dhoni.”   This slide comes after a heavy dose of “You can do it… A chaiwala can become a Prime Minister, and a Ticket Collector can become a M.S. Dhoni.” Before the young ones go home day-dreaming, I remind them, “Sweethearts, there is a zameen-aasman ka farq between ‘I can’ and ‘I will’… “If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride them.” So, it goes without saying, that the launching pad of every rocket has to be firmly planted on the ground… Every man who becomes a success – a star or a superstar – has his roots here on ground. That’s such a comforting feeling, and that brings hope and inspiration for all of us, here on gr...

“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.” Mary Anne Radmacher A fter her fall in mid-2021, my Mom’s health began to sink. A year ago, just after her 87 th birthday, we thought, she wouldn’t make it. That was the time, I started putting together a book about her. I did not have to think hard for the title… I named the book – ‘The Good Shepherd & Her Lost Sheep’. In one of His parables, Jesus tells about a shepherd. This shepherd has hundred sheep and loses one of them... He leaves all the ninety-nine and goes looking for the one which is lost… When he finds the lost sheep, he rejoices, crying – ‘I found my lost sheep’… Our Mom had five sons, and each one of them was ‘lost’ at one time or the other, and in one way or the other. Our Mom was our good shepherd… She had to go looking for each of her ‘lost sheep’… and, like the good shepherd in Jesus’ parable, our Mom’s joy knew no bounds! In the first section of this book, I shared many stories...

  “Thank God, I found the ‘Good’ in goodbye.” Beyonce Knowles   T he plastic bucket-chair, on which I am presently sitting and typing this Post, was bought by me more than three decades ago. I had bought four such chairs, and all four are still sturdy. The friend, from whose shop I had bought those chairs, continues to be my friend… and, his chairs, too, continue to be my loyal companions. To me, what is a chair for, except for sitting on them and typing my posts, the way I am doing now? Even if I replace this chair with a sophisticated chair, say worth 25 K, will it make any difference to my writing work, my stories, my simple joy? I realized it long ago, that the kind of chair I was using had no relevance to the kind of stories I was writing. So, I continue to use the same-old bucket chairs… They are still going strong, just as my storytelling mind does… Our possessions are all there for our temporary use… When we let them possess us, use us – comes the danger… t...

  “There is a fellow by the name Rowan who will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.” Elbert Hubbard in his essay -  ‘A Message to Garcia’   D uring my initial days in this big city (Bombay, now Mumbai), I had picked many inspirational books on the city’s footpaths… Napolean Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and ‘The Law of Success’, Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’, Norman Vincent Peale’s ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ and many more had come to me from the footpaths… like at 5 bucks or 10 bucks. But, to tell you the truth (and it was inscribed on the front cover of ‘Think and Grow Rich’), each book was ‘worth a million dollar’ to me… I was hungry, not only in my stomach… I was hungry in my heart, too… As a pleasant bonus, Dale Carnegie had included three famous essays at the end of his book, ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’. ‘As a Man thinketh’ by James Allan, ‘Acres of Diamond’ by Russell Co...

  “Keep a little fire burning, however small, however hidden.” Cormac McCarthy   B eing a Catholic, I grew up celebrating Mother Mary’s birthday on September 8… We called it ‘the Feast of Nativity’. Coming September 8, the legendary singer, Asha Bhosleji, will celebrate her 90 th birthday in her authentic style - with a  Broadway-style  concert in Dubai! After this concert, we will start saying, “She is 90-Plus”! Age is only a number… Yes, it is all in our mind. Mind stays young, body stays young… Mind feels old, body feels old. Ashaji’s zest for life is infectious… It inspires the young generation, the girls in particular… I had taught Dhiraj during 1989-90. Two days ago, almost 34 years later, he called me, out of the blue. He wanted me to teach his daughter, Vriddhi (Podar College, Class X1). “Sir, she has been a 90-plus girl throughout,” Dhiraj sounded modest, “You will be happy to know, that my wife and I did not have to coax her or motivate he...

  “With freedom, books, flowers and the Moon, who could not be happy?” Oscar Wilde   O scar Wilde was not an astronaut… He wrote beautiful plays, prose and poetry. And, when he lived on this planet, neither Man nor Machine had landed on the Moon. So, the Moon, always, remained a beauty at a distance… always inspiring and captivating. And, for people like me – despite many Moon-missions by Man and machines – the Moon remains a celestial beauty… We like the mystery, the myth and, even, the superstitions around it… Dumb? Well, so be it… Some dumb things in life are so beautiful, you see! I did not know, till last evening, that even the Moon had a dark side to it, and, we Indians were the first in History to do a soft-landing on this dark side of the Moon. And, like everyone else did, I, too, felt elated and screamed – “Hey we did it!”   Of course, I did not care to ask what’s the dark side of the Moon all about, nor did I care to ask what soft-landing signifi...

  “Be patient when you have nothing; be polite when you have everything.” Amit Kalantri   Y esterday, I had been to one of the Passport Seva Kendras for the third renewal of my passport. As most of you agree, the process of obtaining a new passport or getting it renewed, or any other issue relating to our passports, has not only been made extremely simplified, but has been made into a friendly and courteous experience. Well, many of us may not find the same experience when it comes to the police verification, in some police stations. I am not painting the experience with one straight brush, though… But, by and large, we feel good as citizens… We come home, respected, valued and, above all, happy… Someone at the top must have seriously taken note of the old manner in which citizens had to go through the same process. I remember going to the Passport office at Worli some twenty years ago to make my first passport… I came home a lot hassled and angry. The staff and th...