Gerald D'Cunha

  “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan   E ight days ago, (on August 20) Judge Frank Caprio passed away after a gritty battle with pancreatic cancer. He has been my inspiration as he was for millions of people around the world. Judge Caprio was just a judge in the Municipal Court of Providence, Rhode Island, in America, where he served for nearly four decades. Yes, his heart of gold – blessed with compassion, empathy and healing humour   - made him a household legend… He did it in his courtroom by dispensing justice to very ordinary people who appeared before him for some routine traffic violations like over speeding, wrong parking etc. I n this fast and furious, seemingly heartless world, most of us had never come across anything like this in a courtroom. So, when we saw the way Judge Frank Caprio communicated with people who presented themselves before him, it was hard for us to believe, th...

“There is no hope unmingled with fear, no fear unmingled with hope.” Baruch Spinoza   A n Irish proverb says, “Hope is the physician of each misery.” While, on the surface, it appears true, it’s also true, that when we hope for the best, we do not cease to fear the worst… Hope is hope when fear still stares at us, and scares us… Despite our worst fears, if we still hope for the best, it means, that we are living with gratitude and fortitude… The outcome is, certainly, not in our control… Hoping with gratitude and fortitude, always is. A wonderful woman, the mother of one of my students, battled brain cancer for a couple of years. The woman, a school teacher, was such a gentle and dignified soul… The one-who-wouldn’t-even-hurt-a-fly, kind. Yes, seeing this gentle soul go through the painful ordeal was heart-wrenching… Many of us asked: “Lord, why her? Why bad things happen to good people?” There is no answer to this question, I am sure… We can only interpret it with ...

I n last one week, I came across two identical situations… In one of them, an ex-student of mine, who I had not met ever since he passed out T.Y B.Com some fifteen years ago, had come to meet me. The purpose was: he wanted me to teach one of his neighbours’ son. Apparently, the neighbour’s family had been going through a tough time financially. “Sir, I want this boy to be a graduate. I have decided to take care of his fees.” In the second one, the Good Samaritan was a mother of one of my ex-students. This woman had brought along a newly-married woman from her community. Apparently, the young woman had to leave her college, get married to a Mumbai man (with no enough schooling). My student’s mother was very concerned about the young woman… “Sir, I want her to complete her graduation, learn to speak in English, so that she can raise a good family… I have decided to take care of her expenditure on studies.” What option do such gestures leave me with? The least, I, a...