Gerald D'Cunha

  “Religion is for those who’re afraid of going to hell; Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.” Vine Deloria Jr.   I do not know, if they still teach the fascinating stories from The Ramayana and The Mahabharata in pre-primary and primary schools, these days. Hope they do… The stories are so fascinating, that they have remained permanently etched in my mind even after sixty-plus years… Every time Deepavali comes, come back to my mind the inspiring stories of Rama’s sacrifice, Bharata’s love, devotion and righteousness, his mother Kaikeyi’s stubbornness and father Dasharatha’s atma sankat… Though the primary school I studied in (St. Peter’s ) was run by the local church authorities, the atmosphere out there was purely secular… I grew up among scores of non-Catholic friends – Hindus, Muslims and Jains… Brahmins and Harijans all. The stories from The Ramayana and Mahabharata enchanted all of us… Thus, as a grown-up man, today, I am quite aware of why De...

  “In the first thirty years of your life, you make your habits. For the last thirty years of your life, your habits make you.” Steve Jobs   M ost of our habits are our blind spots… We cant’s see them, while others can. I have many such habits – things I do mechanically, unknowingly, through sheer habits… They are so deeply-settled in me, that, unless I make a conscious, determined and persistent effort to unsettle them, they will never go away from my system. Often, our closest people in our lives - like, in my case, my wife or son – only can tell us as-it-is… Others, don’t like to offend us, you see. Well, in this Post, let me touch upon some harmless habits. I mean, even though they are unrequired, useless, their presence wouldn’t harm us or anyone else around us. At worst, they can make us smile, even laugh… It’s okay… It’s okay… They are like our good-old habits… If they they can make someone giggle, good… But, our nearest ones keep screaming, “Stop it,”… “Get...

  “Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” Freya Stark M y dear friend, Jayaprakash, and his wife, Shital, are both Chartered Accountants. Their son, Vedant pursues Chartered Accountancy and daughter, Shrushti, pursues Law. All of them are voracious readers, music lovers, while Shital and Shrushti are Bharat Natyam dancers. But, what I admire the most about these four is their insane love for travel… Every summer, this family explores one more part of the globe - often, a remote one, and often, a buzzing one. (On foreign lands, they rent a car and drive for days). On realizing how richly this family has been valuing travel around the world, I only end up consoling myself with Harun Yahya’s words: “I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth; then, I ask myself the same question.” Well, that’s my way of justifying my limitations, and, yes, concealing my envy of those who travel the way my...

“None can destroy iron, but its own rust can. Likewise, none can destroy a person,   but his own his own mindset can.” Ratan Naval Tata   F ollowing the demolition of Babri Masjid (on 6 th December, 1992), communal riots broke out in Mumbai (Bombay) and destroyed the delicate social fabric of brotherhood… Scores of lives were lost and crores of rupees, too… Communal clashes are clashes between two communities – who follow two different faiths. But, imagine, you and I burning down each other’s homes, killing each other’s families, looting, raping, lynching – imagine getting reduced to such levels, just because we are instigated against one another… It's the worst form of living… The darkest form of worship! The communal riots had left so many citizens, who truly loved the secular spirit of this city, deeply moved.   Mr. Ratan Tata, who was young and energetic then, wrote a moving piece in a leading English daily – visibly shaken and saddened. From my s...

  “The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future.” Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life – an Antidote to Chaos)   L ately, my wife and I have begun to have early dinner… mostly around 6 or 6.30 in the evening. Then, take a light breakfast around 9 or 10 in the morning. This  gives us a window or 13 – 16 hours. We have become used to it, now… Earlier, when the dinner used to be at 10 or 11 and retiring time used to be immediately after that, seeing my Jain friends completing their last meal before the sunset and taking their breakfast after the sunset – and the hospitals serving dinner to patients around 7 p. m. … yes, seeing all this, I used to wonder, “How can they follow such an eating habit… Dinner at 6 or 7…?” Even, for a blood test, when we were asked to keep a 12-hour fast, it felt like a mission impossible! Well, with age and sickness comes wisdom, too! My wife and I woke up to this ancient discipline of eating with a...

    “We are very good lawyers for our own mistakes, but very good judges for others’ mistakes.” Anonymous   F or most of us, judging others comes very easily; it comes very early, too. I have a long way to go before I can claim, that I judge others less and judge not too early. There is an anonymous saying: “If you awaken, you will have no interest in judging those who are still asleep.” The truth in my case is, that I am one of those who are still asleep… Awakening seems distant, as far as judging others early is concerned… I still judge others too early… And, I can see from where this old habit of mine comes: My prejudice, my insecurity, my impatience, my lack of empathy, my intolerance, my self-righteousness… ego. From where else can it come? The virtue of judging others not often and not too early, therefore, seems a distant goal to reach, for me… I remember sharing this Note in one of our books (‘Blind Spots’) published nearly thirty-five years ...