Gerald D'Cunha

“Y ou are too naive,” this man told me today morning, “You don’t understand how politics works.” Why did he say that to me? Because I had wondered, while having our casual discussion about yesterday’s BMC voting: “ Arey yaar … I was thinking how would these candidates spend money for their campaign? Where will the cash come from? How will they go ‘digital’, survive without cash? Will they have to pay everyone involved in the campaign only through Paytm or by cheque etc, etc?” “Did you observe what the difference was during this campaign?” this person asked me, “Highest amount was spent during this campaign… Cash flew like water. Never before was a BMC election fought by the parties and their candidates so aggressively and on such a grand scale.” Yes, I had observed that. I have been in Mumbai for over thirty-seven years now. Never ever have I seen a corporation election fought so aggressively and on such a grand scale… And, yes, it has made me wonder: “W...

Pic.: Mini Milind Y ears ago, when I had decided to do something about my poor English, one of the things I did – and found it very useful – was telling a nice story in two tenses… Past and Present. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of people who were earnest to improve their English with the same method… Yes, write a nice story down in both the tenses… and tell it to someone. This monkey comes before me every time I am set to pick a fight with my fellow-being over the ‘stuff’ we find along the street called Life… THE MONKEY’S JUSTICE PAST: O ne day, two cats were wandering along a street. They saw a big chunk of cake and one of the cats swiftly grabbed it. “Give it here,” screamed the other cat, “I sighted it first.” “Maybe, my friend,” retorted the cat with the cake, “I grabbed it first.” The argument, soon, turned into a bitter fight… Just then, there appeared on the scene a monkey. “Why are you fighting my dear f...

P ic.: Anima D'Cunha "A man who lives on borrowed time lives on trespass-ground." - Anonymous I heard an elderly man telling someone this, yesterday: “You know I am living on borrowed time.” If I do not tell you who this elderly man is, you will surely have pity on him… You may feel like reaching out to him… show loads of compassion to him. What if I told you, that he is well off… highly qualified… but, has chosen to live a life of negative pursuit against several people around him… He is too full of himself… doesn’t like to concede, thinks he is always right and others around him are either ignorant or corrupt… Most of all, if I told you this: that, he is hellbent in taking vengeance just like Shylock from The Merchant of Venice…. Yes, if I gave you this background of the elderly man, and, then told you that I heard him saying to someone those words,  yesterday… “You know I am living on borrowed time”… Yes, would you be still co...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda M y grandfather - dad’s dad – was an extremely shy and private person. As a farmer,  he worked in our paddy fields, in the hot sun, all day long, which made his skin intensely dark-brown… and, yes, he wore on his body a piece of cloth just enough to cover what was necessary in a village like ours! The grandma, on the other side, was exactly opposite… She was fair and lovely… exuberant… loved singing and dancing… had lots and lots of friends…. She loved to attend all the events and functions that were happening around… The grandpa shied away from the crowd… Even with his olden-days’ bare-minimum-literacy, he was able to befriend books and magazines which were published in Konkani and Kannada… I saw him lying down on his bench, during his free times, and reading his favorite books (Konkani translation) by St. Augustine. He was, particularly, influenced by Thomas A. Kempis’ ‘Imitation of Christ’… He was fond of reciting the age-old proverbs and ...

Pic .: Sherry Haridas T here is a scene in the latest Hollywood movie, 'Captain Phillips'. A gang of Somali pirates have kidnapped Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) from his cargo ship - MV   Maersk Alabama , and are now heading towards Somalia with the objective of extracting millions of dollars in ransom. There are four heavily-armed pirates, all skinny and young - one of them barefoot and others who look starved and wretched. They have held Captain Phillips as a hostage in a fiber-glassed life-boat and are speeding towards their homeland, where their gang leaders are sheltered…    Abduwali Muse ( Barkhad Abdi ) is the leader of the four-member gang of pirates. He is arrogant, fearless and ruthlessly hell-bent on carrying out his mission. Before the gang abducts Captain Phillips from the vessel, they are offered thirty-thousand-dollars cash, which is there in ship’s safe, and leave the ship and its crew alone. But, Muse has no interest in such a sma...