Gerald D'Cunha

  “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” Warsan Shire   W hen I was small, almost every young man and a girl from my native place, Mangalore, migrated to big Indian cities or to one of the Gulf countries. A handful of young ones migrated to the West, either to pursue studies and eventually to settle down there, or they went there in pursuance of work. Whatever the reason for one’s migration, one thing is clear: no one leaves home unless the situation he now finds himself/herself in is ‘bad’... I remember, while I was still a kid. Just outside our local, primary school, there used be tents raised by poor migrants from the interior places of   our own state (Karnataka). Imagine this: If we were looking for better pastures in some other cities, these poor migrants were finding better pastures here in our own village. And, this has been the migrants’ story all over the world. Cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad are flooded...

      I am reposting this ‘ten-year old’ Blog with fond memories of an amazing woman... our old neighbour, Mrs. Rohini Bhadekar... And, I am doing it with a reason... “Crippled things are always more beautiful… It's the flaw that brings out beauty.”   Holly Black ,  Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale   O ne of the biggest sources of stress for a householder woman is: Maid Management. Man, though takes this stress indirectly on his head, it is she who deals with this problem called – Maid Management – directly on a daily basis. My wife and I are not spared from this problem and its consequence: stress. They don’t stick… They make fuss… They are unreasonable in their demands… They don’t turn up on the day we need them the most… They speak rudely… They get influenced by other maids… Their work is shoddy… They are  ‘kaam-chors’ … They are not dependable and trustworthy… They should know who is their ‘Boss’… etc., etc… “Don’t look for perfection...

  “Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master.” Christian Lous Lange (Noble Peace Laureate)     T his man lives in our housing complex. And, I have been seeing him leaving for his small, retail shop every morning and returning late in the evening. This morning, we bumped into each other on our way to our respective work places. “Good morning Sir,” I greeted him, and asked, “How old is your shop?” “Forty years,” he replied. “And, how old are you?” I asked with a smile. “Seventy-three,” he said with an equally clean smile. “Wow! You were 33 when you stared it; and, you have maintained your daily routine of leaving for the shop and returning?” “Yes, I come home in the afternoon for lunch... Rest for an hour and go back to work only to come home late in the evening.” “What were you doing, before you started this shop?” I asked. “I worked in Dubai for thirteen years,” he said, “I went to Dubai for work when I was 20.” “That makes a maratho...

  “When you keep people waiting, they begin to think of all your flaws.” Kevin Kelly   M any years ago, just on the eve of one of my birthdays, a few of my die-hard well-wishers (all of them my ex-students) formed a WhatsApp group to send me birthday wishes. Expectedly, they baptized the group with the name – ‘HBD Gerry Sir’. The group has lived close to a dozen birthdays of mine, since then... One of the recent developments, as an offshoot of these group discussions, was a (turn-by-turn) get-to-gather at each group member’s place,   It started, some time back, with Shankar inviting us for a South Indian lunch at his beautiful complex. The next one was scheduled at Sudha’s Karjat holiday home. The dates somehow clashed and it got postponed. Meanwhile, Kiran and Ravi   invited all of us, along with our spouses and offsprings, to the North Indian (predominantly Delhi) delicacies at the popular restaurant at Andheri West – ‘Delhi Se’. ‘Delhi Se’ was born in ...

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” Ferdinand Foch W e keep talking about being passionate about the things we do in life. Like, when we meet someone after decades, and if he/she keeps still talking to us equally, or even more animated – possessed and consumed – manner, well, we can convincingly say, that the person is passionate about the thing he/she is talking about. Passion is blood-red... Once it sets in, it goes very deep into our soul. It’s, as Ferdinand Foch said, ‘the soul on fire’... Some say, it’s a kind of obsession, and many others say, it’s a kind of insanity, madness... Well, it’s a good madness... A thousand times better than walking on this planet with no fire in our souls... May, therefore, the souls continue to be on fire, like the burning bush of the Mount Horeb... (Justin & Uday with Shankar Mahadevan) J ustin and Uday were my students when they were doing their T.Y. B. Com. They were least interested in studies... Their...

  “I told her once I wasn’t good at anything. She told me, survival is a talent.” Susanna Kaysen   S ome days ago, a dear friend of mine and his wife called me. They wanted me to help their house help’s son in the Accountancy subject. “Our house help belongs to UP sate, who has been living with us for a very long time. An extremely sincere and caring woman, she has been taking care of our son (now a young man) since he was a little boy.” They continued, “Her own 16-year-old son, who lived with her husband in their village has left home and come here. The boy is fed up with the physical and mental abuse from his father. Because of the situation at home, he hasn’t prepared for the upcoming class X1 exams (which are scheduled to be held in the second week of February), particularly in Accountancy. Can something be done?” I have already completed the portion with my Class X1 students and revision classes are expected to go on for a week or so. When I checked with this bo...

  “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”   Mark Twain W hen American writer, essayist and humourist, Mark Twain, lived, he must’ve imagined, that a motor car, rail engine, telegram, a steam ship and some more technical innovations were a near possibilities. But, internet, mobile phones, zoom and its cousins, social media, YouTube, Uber and Olas, Swiggy and Zomatoes, Wefast (now Borzo) and its cousins, remotely-performed robotic surgeries, and, above all, the all-conquering AI – yes, the great Mark Twain, by any stretch of his wise, wild imagination, must’ve never thought, that they would soon be coming to ‘disrupt’ human life... Did I say, ‘disrupt’? Yes, I did... A week ago, my wife and I were to visit our elderly uncle and aunt who we lived in faraway suburbs. We had organized some delicious food to carry and have lunch together at their place. But, as we were about to book an Uber to proceed to their place, we received a c...

“When things are bad, it’s the best time to reinvent yourself.” George Lopez   R ecently, when Amitabh Bachchan ended his 17 th season of KBC, I went into a reflective mode: “What a man! What a man!”... Yes, I kept saying this to myself. I had first read a small article about this tall, awkward-looking newcomer in the Hindi filmdom in an unknown magazine in our school library. I must’ve been in my 8 th   standard, and Amitabh Bachchan must’ve just completed his first film, ‘Saat Hindustani’... Yes, Amitabh was just one of the ‘seven’ actors in this K. A. Abbas film. But, somehow, I fell in love with this lanky star and kept following his career path – almost every milestone, every crossroad – his ups, his   downs... his rise and fall, and again his phoenixlike rise... This, once awkward-looking man, when he concluded his latest KBC season, was an incredible magnet -   yes, even at 83! Now, why do I remember Amitabh Bachchan in my today’s Post? A n...