Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Chetna Shetty I had scored very bad marks in tenth-standard and twelfth-standard board-exams. It was only F.Y.B’Com onwards – when Prof. Raman came to teach us, and I intensely desired to become a teacher like him – that my exams performance began to improve. Still, I would say, it was way below the accepted standards of the day. I was teaching plenty of students during my final-year B.Com. Many of my students scored much higher than I did! But, then, I knew that I would do in life nothing else but teaching... whether with good marks or bad. Luckily, I do not remember anyone asking me, all through my three-decades-plus teaching career, “How much did you get?” Everyone has been interested in how good I am now: how well I taught, how good I am in my integrity, commitment and passion... how good I am as a motivator... as a friend, philosopher and guide to my students... Yes, even though most of the parents want my students to score high marks in exams, ne...

Pic: Umang Pahwa A mbition is ambition! Whether your ambition is to do well in your exam, job, business or profession... Whether you are an Ambani, Subrata Roy or Baba Ramdev... Whether you are an Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar or Srinivasan... Yes, ambition is ambition! It is a very powerful force that propels you to each and every kind of accomplishment in life. Money, fame, power and, even, sainthood... all come from it. As kids, we loved to possess every attractive toy our eyes would fall on. And, as grown-ups, we are no different. So, it is the ambition in us that gives us – the eternal kids – our every ‘toy’ in life! When a goal is single-mindedly pursued, with robust faith and dogged determination, it becomes our ambition. Nothing in life is achieved without ambition. Nothing. So, if there is no other road to reach to our goals, except through our ambitions, then ambition, in life, is good. It is greed that is not good... It is the crooked in...

“Everything in this world is created twice; Once, in human mind, and, once, outside.” Two days ago, I was talking to some people. One of them had just walked into his dream house. “I have been dreaming about it ever since I was a young boy,” this man shared, “I don’t remember a single day, during these fifteen years, when I haven’t dreamt about it.” “That is what the Law of Attraction all about,” another person said, “What we deeply like, admire and desire, we attract… Our in-most becomes our out-most.” I have always loved this famous line from Emerson, “Our in-most becomes our out-most.” So, I added an often-heard quote which was close to that: “Everything in this world is created twice; Once, in human mind, and, once, outside.” Sometimes, even the too-familiar words hit us with fresh meaning. Our discussion assumed a very profound dimension, there on. Our friend was a young boy when he had first seen the picture of his dre...

So, today, I am writing about another Armstrong. And, for another reason.  I had turned 11 in the same month, July 1969, when Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon. I was in fifth standard studying in a local school…  And, I still remember how I was coming back home, all jumping with my friends… Hey, we were given a holiday! The reason? Man had landed on the Moon! And, Neil Armstrong was this man! No Television sets, dear… still we kids knew how a man had landed on the Moon! My dad was a huge fan of J.F.Kennedy. He kept telling us that it was President Kennedy’s dream to send Man to the Moon, before the decade ended, and bring him safely home.  President Kennedy did not live to see his own dream come true… “He is watching it from right up there, sitting on his rocking chair!” our dad would beam as he dramatized. We kids simply believed in what our dad would tell us! “A small ...

  It is over twenty-two years since THE DAWN CLUB was founded. In every PD course we have conducted - yes, every year since then - we have asked our youngsters to reflect, write or speak on the topic: ‘What Success means to me.” Also, in every book that we have published, over all these years, we have, directly or indirectly, touched upon this subject. Two days ago, during our morning session, I, once again, asked the young ones to reflect on this subject. They were asked to share with us just one or two aspects. Yes, just one, two, or at the most three, ideas on: What Success, personally, meant to each one of them. “My young friends, please remember,” I said to them, “I want you to share with us, ‘Your’ ideas – what Success really, really means to ‘you’ – yes, at ‘this’ point of your life. Don’t bother about what it means to anyone else… Or, what will others think about what you think.” I wasn’t surprised on hearing what I did! Each one of them had...

Today, the SSC results are out in Maharashtra. I have received so many messages from either the students or their parents telling me proudly about the results. None of them has scored below 85%. Today, when some one says he or she has scored 89% 0r 93%, not many eyebrows go up. It is great news… but that news is so common, today. This post is not inspired by these ‘achievers’, but by a ‘loser’. Just a stone throw away from my classes, this family lives. The young man has scored a Glorious 45%! And, understandably, the young man’s father, a simple office assistant, has gone crazy. “He has shattered my hopes,” the distressed father goes about telling. Their neighbour’s son has scored 92%... and our young man is not even half way this ladder! “It’s okay; he will surely do well in life,” I consoled the father. “Do well? With 45%?” the look almost scared me to death. Did I simply do a lip service to this heart-broken man, or did I really mean what I said? About thirty-five years ag...