Gerald D'Cunha

  “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too; they live inside us… And, sometimes, they win.” Stephen King   T ill this date, I do not know what a ‘Halloween Day’ is all about. While growing up, back home, we would hear about something called ‘All Souls’ Day’. On this day, we went to church, visited graveyard and prayed for the souls of every near, dear and far-off departed ones… That’s all I remember doing as a child… That’s about it. And, here, in this big city, and, particularly after the exposure to social media and YouTube, I started hearing about this fancy-dress event called ‘Halloween’. Interestingly, not only little kids took part in this fancy-dress event, the young and the old alike, the schooled and the unschooled alike – yes all of them dressed in these crazy, scary, weird costumes with the hope, that they could entertain the world around them…  make them  happy and scared. Whatever one hopes to do, like every other festival in this world...

  “You can’t do a good job if your job is all you do.” Katie Thurmes   W hen we are obsessed with our professional work - work like crazy – we are called ‘workaholics’. Obviously, it is an addiction just as alcohol or any other addiction are. This addiction is self-induced, it comes from our choice… On the other hand, when we are compelled to work in a similar manner due to the condition at our work places – a ruthless boss or work ethics – then, we cannot call ourselves ‘workaholics’… we are bonded labourers, forced into slavery… In this Post, I wish to deal with the ‘workaholism’ – the self-induced slavery to work. Work is very, very important, and, I am an advocate of hard work, long work and smart work – all. But, I know, work is not ‘all’… It is not ‘Life’… It is only a segment of life. Most of us know, by now, that when work becomes our entire life, life becomes endangered… When work goes, Life goes… So, many of us, learn it the hard way… I did. I, too, s...

  “The goal is for your midlife crisis to turn into a midlife discovery.” Joan Anderson   “T ime and tide wait for no man.” Woman also knows, that this old message applies to her, as well. A couple of days ago, Ratna* had excitedly shared how happy she was to tell me, that her second son (Class 10) had been selected for an important stage event in his school… I had taught Ratna, some thirty-two years ago, while she was in her TY B.Com. She is a dear friend, now. Besides being a bright student, she was also a talented trained-singer. After completing ICWA, she worked for a big company for some years as a Costing professional. She had married to her college sweetheart, who was busy establishing himself as a Chartered Accountant. Eventually, they moved abroad, gave birth to two sons… Ratna’s life began to revolve around her husband and two little sons… Meanwhile, Costing and Singing sat quietly on the backburner… “O nly mud settles in life,” my dear friend Dr. De...

  “I am not the same having seen the Moon shine on the other side of the world.” Mary Anne Radmacher   M y mom was 45 when I left my hometown, Mangalore, for better prospects. I was 20… and, it was 1980. I was a lot excited, even though equally anxious. In those days, for young boys and girls from small towns and villages, migrating to bigger cities like Bombay was very natural. The Gulf boom was already underway, and migration to Western countries, too, was quite there. But, for someone like me, it was Bombay that was in store. I came here and lived with my uncle’s family (my dad’s younger brother) for seven-long years. That humble household was to become my launching pad… It couldn’t have been a better one! Leaving one’s nest is never easy experience, for both parents and their children. Parents know, that their young ones are leaving the nests forever… The young ones end up raising their own nests in faraway cities and countries… as I did here, and my brothers d...

  “I said to you, ‘Hold my hand, nothing bad will happen’.” (Lines from ‘Sea Prayer’ by Khaled Hosseini)   I did not know who Khaled Hosseini was until I was gifted with his beautiful novel – ‘The Kite Runner’ - by my young son. It was some ten years ago. Khaled Husseini’s stories come from the helpless plight of refugees from the war-torn areas like Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq and such. He himself was born in Kabul (Afghanistan) and ended up as a refugee in the US… But, importantly, Khaled Husseini ended up as a sensitive storyteller of the contemporary world. His stories don’t leave us the same… I mean, they help us become better humans; yes, a lot more sensitive to the cruelty of war and destruction… Rightly, this gentle soul has been appointed by the United Nations as its Goodwill Ambassador for the cause of refugees… It is a tough task – a mission impossible – in these most insensitive times that we live in… Do we listen to the voices of men and women...

  “There are two great days in a person’s life: the day we are born, and the day we discover why.” Willian Barclay   O ne of the nicest feelings in life – I suppose, in everyone’s life – is when we receive wishes on our birthdays… Most of us wait for them… I do. Yes, I do. And, I need not describe as to how it feels when our near and dear ones forget to wish us on our birthdays! All of us have been on both sides of this seesaw, and know how do those moments feel like! The topic for today’s blog has come from one such familiar moment “G ood morning Guru.” It was Shripad from Coimbatore, “Aaj kya hai?” “Arre baap re! Sorry Raja… So sorry… ‘Happy Birthday' to you,” I wished Shripad. This has been a tradition for more than 15 years, ever since Shripad and his family went back from Mumbai to settle down in Chennai. Presently, they have moved to Coimbatore. Shripad, the only child of his parents, was born with certain physical and mental disabilities. He was b...

  “Lord, we don’t need another mountain, there are mountains and hillsides enough to climb; there are oceans and rivers enough to cross, enough to last till the end of time.” (From the song ‘What the World Needs now’ written by Hal David and composed by Bart Bacharach)     F or several years, during our Public Speaking sessions, I used to ask young kids to speak on the topic – ‘What Success Means to Me?’. This was before the Google surfaced… and, the idea of AI was out of anybody’s imagination. Well, I say this, because, our young kids had to rely upon their own mind to tell what Success really meant to them… Means, what they thought, not what Google or AI thought. Maybe, some of them sought help from their parents or teachers… That’s about it. But, they all did speak on the topic – ‘What Success Means to Me?’. Now, after several years, these kids are grown-up to be ‘successful’ men and women… They are busy with their lives - family, business, profession o...

“Even a mirror will not show you yourself if you do not wish to see.” Roger Zelazny   W hen I look back and try to trace the exact time when I started taking responsibility for my self-growth, I can see it clearly… It was when I started valuing myself. Till that time, I behaved as though someone else – my parents, teachers, God or my Fate – were responsible for my growth and success in life… Strange it may sound; but, it is true. Many of us simply grow in age; but, we stay mentally dwarf… The sooner we begin to minimize the dependency and take charge for our growth and success, the longer, stronger and wiser we grow in life… “It’s not about your studies;” I found myself drilling into my young students’ skulls, this morning, “it’s about how much you value yourselves.” Certainly, the point seemed to have been made… They were stunned by what they had just heard. But, then, I wasn’t sure, if they had grasped the meaning of those words… After all, every one of them had...