Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Shankar Ramachandran T oday, I had been to a local Magistrates' Court in connection with our society matter. Being the Hon. Chairman of our society, I was there to defend. The old advice is a wise advice: Stay away from courts and hospitals … I would go to any extent to follow this advice … But, many times, sickness – yours or your loved ones’ – doesn’t seek your permission to come. Like, my father-in-law is in Jaslok Hospital for more than two weeks now; major part of it in ICU … He and my mother-in-law have been in and out of hospitals for quite many years … Now, how can my wife and I keep the hospital away? Similarly, I would never ever think of filing a court case on someone … I will explore all other means of settling the matter outside the court … For, once you are there, you have already got on a tiger’s back … It is difficult to get off! But, what if someone drags you there? I ncidentally, I bumped into two of my ...

Pic.: Anand Ashokan I met a young-man, this morning. His 2-year-old was sweetly dressed-up for his playschool, with a cute piggy-back. The young-man worked for a private bank while his wife worked for an ad agency. The little-one went to a well-known nursery, which charged an annual fee between one lakh and two lakh! “This one is our first child; he has to study till he turns twenty or twenty-two,” the young-man said to me, “Just imagine the kind of money we will have to spend on his education!” Yes, it was on one child, he was talking about! He wasn’t talking about the clothes, the toys, gadgets, cars, house, fun and entertainment, holidays, functions and celebrations, health care and hospitalization, care of the parents, weddings of sisters, education of siblings and so on.... “How will we be able to cope with this insane cost of living?” the young-man wondered. Yes, how could he... How could we? N o matter how much we all earn, unless we kno...