Gerald D'Cunha

  “Man starts all over again every day, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.” Emil Cioran S omeone has said, “Every day may not be a good day; but, there is something good in every day.” This morning, this statement came back to me with a fresh meaning. I had gone off to bed quite early, last night… at 9, to be precise. Surprisingly, I slept well and slept long only to be woken up at about 7.10, this morning! My first reaction on opening my eyes was, “Oh my God! I am late!” I was late from my usual standards. I had to reach my work place at 8, when my first batch of students was expected. I had to hurry up… Do everything with a frantic speed… Shave, shower, tea, breakfast, packing up my tiffin… everything. Meanwhile, my wife was getting ready to leave home to join her Yoga session at 7.30 (in our own complex). Thus, I had to deal with my situation myself… “I am late,” my wife heard me complain. “Don’t say ‘I am late today’, say ‘I slept well last night’… S...

  “There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” G.K. Chesterton   “I am a human, not a stone.” I keep reminding it to myself, whenever I feel bored. Like everyone else, I, too, had invested so many years of my energy and time pursuing things dear to my heart. And, suddenly, like everyone else, I, too, felt disoriented and helpless during these uncertain months of   pandemic… But then, is my situation as bad as so many around me? I am 63. What about those kids, young ones and the middle-aged? What about the very elderly and the sick? It’s easy to say “I am bored” or “Life is boring”… Very easy. But, what benefit does it serve? Boredom is a natural state. As I said, if I am not a stone, I would experience it, now and then. But, if I complain about being bored, endlessly – and whether during the pandemic or normal times -   then, I say, that it’s sheer lack of zest for life… Life is unpredictable. If we just accept this truth with o...

“There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because, goodness, by its very nature, is modest and retiring.” Evelyn Beatrice Hall T o me, it’s nearly four months inside my house. I hadn’t just stepped out of door. Just yesterday, early in the morning, I stepped out, along with my wife, to take a few breaths of fresh air, and, yes, a few walking steps… It felt as though I was learning to walk again, and breathe again! But, I was sternly instructed by my wife and son, not to touch anything, including my own nose and mouth (which, anyway, were hidden behind my mask), not to sit anywhere. And, as soon as we were home, went all my clothes into the washing machine… and, after my heart settled down, went I for a bath! “What a horrible way to live!” that’s my honest reaction, “I was angry and frustrated for a while!” M any of you may be thinking, that I am a very positive, very zestful person. You’re wrong! I experience eve...

“When you are scared, you stay as you are.” Stephen Richards T he other day, while talking on the phone, a woman asked me this question: “How do you keep yourself positive, always?” “Who told you that?” I replied, “If alone you knew how negative I feel right now!” Then, I added three emojis – a gentle smile, a crazy laugh and a warm heart! I sincerely wanted to tell the woman this: “My friend, I am just like you… I experience every emotion under the Sun and the Stars… Sometimes, I feel like an eagle, and, sometimes, I also feel like a frightened dove. I do think, sometimes, that I have all the answers in Life, and, I sometimes, I also think, that I am clueless about everything!” The woman on the other end wasn’t convinced at all. She seems to have convinced herself, that there are some people in this world who ‘always’ keep themselves positive. So, she said, “Your Posts give me a feeling, that you are a real positive person.” ...

Pic .: Shoba N Krishnan “Happiness is simply a habit of looking on the brighter side of everything.”   ―   Richelle E. Goodrich T he Parsis call an egg ‘eedu. They love it. Like them, I, too, love eedu however it is cooked and served…  Tamota par eedu… Papeta par eedu…Wafer par eedu… Bheeda par eedu. But, for some weird reasons, I don’t’ like when eedu is cooked with its ‘sunny-side up’! Yes, the sunny-side up! My aunt used to call it ‘bull’s eye’ and my friend used to call it ‘toad in the hole’. It is the easiest and the fasted of all the egg dishes. Even making a boiled egg takes a much longer time, though easy. But, to make a bull’s eye, you just need to break an egg in the pan, with little oil and on a slow flame… that’s all. You don’t even have to turn it over… The moment you turn it over, you lose the bull’s eye… It is no more the sunny-side up… Never mind, I want the eedu to be fried from both sides! A...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty I had first come across the famous quote - ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade’, in Dale Carnegie’s classic – ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.’ He had credited it to Julius Rosenwald. Obviously, lemons are bitter and sour and lemonade is sweet. So, the line reminds us:  When life gives you bitterness and sourness, please don’t complain. Instead, learn to make a sweet recipe out it. As a young-struggler in his twenties – jobless and worried – I had found a lot of solace in the line… It had filled me with hope and courage. Dale Carnegie, also, had introduced me to one of the most inspiring essays ever written – ‘A Message to Garcia’ by Elbert Hubbard.  Many say, that it was Hubbard who had first penned the line - “When life gives you lemons…” in the obituary to his dwarf-actor-friend, Marshall P. Wilder. He had written: "He was a walking refutation of that dogmatic statement,   Mens sana in ...

      “Your sad story won’t sell,” I told the young-ones in my training session, today, “Poor Me is, in deed, a poor hero.” Poor Me is a victim. A loser. And, a victim doesn’t attract, nor inspires… People already have enough sadness, enough pain, enough worries in them… Now, why would they add more of it by listening to yours? Once, they will… Twice, they may… Thrice, they won’t. “All the world loves a winner, and has no time to spare for a loser.” I had come across this line in Napoleon Hill’s inspirational classic – ‘Think & Grow Rich’ – when I myself was caught up in the web of self-pity and blame. I was an anxiety-stricken young-man, then, filled with self-pity and ‘Poor Me’ mindset. The book caught hold of my neck and shook me hard. “Enough of crying,” it yelled, “get up and do… dream… achieve!” Our condition in life changes only when we get hold of ourselves… When we take responsibility for our pro...