Gerald D'Cunha

  “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” John Wooden, basketball player and coach   I just returned from my younger brother Vivek’s house. His daughter Riya’s Class-12 Board-exams have started. She has taken Science. Like all her counterparts, Riya, too, knows the importance of ‘percentage’… That, if she doesn’t score ‘high’, she will not be able to get into what she wants to. She knows, that she has to work hard – burn the candle from both ends… But, I know my brother Vivek and his wife, Hemangi… They are neither helicopter parents, nor marks-maniacs . “Science was your choice… So, make the most of that choice.” … This is what the prevailing philosophy at home is. Thus, Riya is reasonably good… reasonably motivated… reasonably tensed. Not ‘High on anything’… Not at all. Today, when I went into her little gupha – her study room that is – I saw her walls packed with photos, paper-cuttings, timetables, reminders, quotes, pictures of her hero...

  “Things which matter most should never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” Johann Wolfgan von Goethe   E arly in the morning, a couple of days ago, my eyes fell on this book recommended on a digital-marketing site:     I loved the title – ‘FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS’. It seemed, as though the author had written the book exclusively for me! So, instantly, I remembered a dear friend and a well-wisher, and wanted to share how I was feeling. I texted to him: “Good morning … The title of this book reminded me of you… Thanks for helping me to get out of that ‘s..thole’!” One can imagine how ‘dirty’ that word was… I did not say that ‘world’ … ‘that place’. By the way, which place am I talking about? In life, any place can be a ‘s..thole’ when staying there only makes life unpleasant, dirty, destructive… You see, we all make choices in life only as per our given level of awareness. So, you and I will never get into any s..thole with our eyes...

  “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” Maya Angelou   I did not know who this singer, by the name Justh, was, nor did I know about his song – ‘CHOR’. It was early this morning, that I learnt about the song and the singer, both. It was while looking for a meaningful song to use for the picture story of our 2023 summer-program. My ex-student, Satnam, who is a creative young man, helps me every year to make a catchy story out of some 100-odd pictures shot during our summer certification-programme (Personality Development programme conducted by The Dawn Club Centre of Excellence). Like any other creative young one, Satnam is ‘busy with doing nothing’ – which means, he is flooded with a million dreams in his head (Here, I am using a paradox). Hence, I don’t push myself to get him do our ‘honorary’ work… I understand such headspace… which, to the world looks so weird, so often. The writers...

“The apple tree never asks the beech how it shall grow , nor the lion how he shall take his prey.” William Blake   C hetna, my dear friend and an old student (some twenty-five years ago), has been living in America for several years. She is a passionate and relentless mountains hiker. She and dozens of her fellow-hikers hike a new mountain every day! And she, also, shares those colourful pictures and videos on FB and Insta everyday… Just watching those pictures, often, makes my head go dizzy! But then, mountains don’t stop calling Chetna and her fellow- hikers… My friend is not tired of the mountains! (Chetna and her fellow-hikers on one of the mountains)   Today, Chetna had messaged me: “I always feel, that I am notorious for over sharing my hiking stories.” I responded: “Chetna, I think, ‘over sharing’ and ‘under sharing’ are subjective terms. Like, in my case, I share my simple writings every day. Some may call it ‘over sharing’. But then, if writing a...

  “A man doesn’t begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes, that he is no longer indispensable.” Richard E. Byrd H as the thought – ‘I am indispensable’ – come in me? Oh, yes, yes… Quite often, for quite long. I am sure, I am not alone, or in a minority, in this. ‘I am indispensable’ is a self-destructive thought. It does come, and it is but natural. But, today, I can only reflect on this phenomenon and say: None of us, here, is indispensable. All that we have, here – from our physical body to the body of our work… with all our fame, name, wealth, power and glory - yes, everything comes to us only with a ‘shelf life’… We fade… Just the way everything else does around us! So, how will I greet this thought, if - and when - it returns, today? REFLECTION: Whatever ‘I have’ now has come from God’s grace. Let me feel grateful when it is there, and graceful when it goes. The wisdom, that it has come to me ‘just to stay for a while’ will keep me at peace… Thus, beyond a shadow of doub...

  “Relax… Nothing’s missing.” Maxime Legace   T he other day, my son said this: “Dad, I do not know if it’s your quote, but I find sense in it: ‘Wherever you go, you carry yourself’.” My quote? Come on boy! I am too small a man for ‘inventing’ such a profound wisdom. But, I am big enough to realize how age-old and ageless that wisdom is!  I have been telling everyone, that it’s a Zen quote. But, by Zen, if we mean wisdom, let Heavens take the credit… We humans, here, are too small beings to claim the copyright for such a priceless wisdom… REFLECTION: If we are unable to find success and happiness right here, right now, right with whatever we have… then, no matter where we will go, when we will go, and what we will have, success and happiness will only be illusive! GERALD D’CUNHA Pic’s: Pixels: 1.  Duong Nhan                        2.  Oleksandr P         ...

  “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.” Rumi   I n one of our summer sessions on Personality Development, I asked our young participants to come up on stage and speak extempore on this topic: ‘Five (at least three) ways in which I can build my self-confidence other than public speaking’… The outcome was really interesting. Many of them had joined the programme hoping to build their self-confidence through public speaking. In other words, their idea of a self-confident individual was limited to a confident public speaker… So, to think of five (or at least three) other ways of building his/her self-confidence, other than public speaking, meant - ‘What else?’ And, yes, there were many others who came up and share their views… By taking more and more responsibility towards self… By making a promise and keeping it… by giving a commitment and honouring it… by being punctual… by being less reactive and feeling less he...