Gerald D'Cunha

  “Good-old fashioned ways keep hearts sweet, head sane and hands busy.” Lousia May Alcott I haven’t checked, if people still ask this, while talking to their relatives: “What is cooked, today?” – “Kya banaya aaj?” And, on a birthday or anniversary day, if they still ask this: “What is special, today?” Today is a Sunday. A while ago, while talking to my elder brother, Franklin (who lives in our hometown), that good-old question: “Brother, what is special today?” And, my brother went on explaining what’s special for lunch, today… Brother, also, narrated as to where, when and how he went to buy chicken, fish and veggies, this morning… I was smiling… A couple of my FB friends regularly post pictures of the breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, drinks etc. So, we do not have to ask them - “What is cooked, today?”, or “What is special, today?” … It has been promptly broadcast! I was, also, smiling, as my elder brother was narrating to me where, when and how he went to buy ...

“Risk, then, is not just part of life. It is life. The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place. ” -       Nick Vujicic A ‘Certificate of Learning Disability’ (LD) can do more harm to a student than good. Well, that’s my take. As a Commerce teacher, I get to deal with college students. When parents of some of these students tell me that their young ones have been ‘certified’ to be ‘slow learners’, I literally choose to be deaf. This modern vocabulary has crippled more young boys and girls than illiteracy and poverty have done to them. For whatever reason, and under whatever circumstances, the Certificate of Learning Disability (LD) may have been given to your child, my take is this: ‘Let it not be a permanent label or a chain of confinement for your child’. The old story about the 'Baby-elephant Syndrome’ perfectly fits in, here… When a baby elephant is born, it is tied w...

O ne reason why we need to team up to achieve our goals is, that, as much as we pool our individual strengths together, we also complement our individual weaknesses with each others’ strengths. If I am extremely creative, someone in our team is extremely organized, cautions or communicative… If I am bad in handling money, someone in our team may be brilliant at that. As a team, we can certainly achieve a thousand-fold more than what we can achieve as individuals… “Why can’t we ourselves overcome all our weaknesses and then go for the kill all alone? Well, that’s not practical. Moreover, we can go only so much on our own. To go far, to do it big, we need to do it together as a team… creating a ‘Master-mind alliance’ as Napoleon Hill puts it. As individuals, most of us suffer from the fear of failure: What if I fail? What if I don’t succeed? What if I lose whatever I possess now? What will others think? So, for individuals, this remains a huge block… unless the i...

O ur comfort zones, often, become our prisons… We remain confined to the boundaries of our prisons. Like that proverbial ship, which is safe in the harbor, we all feel extremely safe in our comfort zones… where the water is shallow and the risk is almost zero. But then, just as how ships look glorious only when they leave the shores and sail into the deep and restless seas, we all look glorious only when we muster our courage and make our voyages of faith… Yes, there is risk and uncertainty out there… but unless we trust, unless we plunge, the voyage can never take place… The New World will remain undiscovered! I am very much alive to this familiar fear that holds us all back at the shores… I experience this fear and hesitate to take the plunge… The deep and restless sea, often, frightens me. My past experience is incapable of inspiring in me the faith… Something beyond the past experience can alone fire my soul with faith and courage! There is this episode in the ...

Pic.: Aparna Khanolkar Sheth “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” - Neale Donald Walsch “ I t is so difficult to get a job, but it is even more difficult to leave one. It, really, needs guts my dear... Enjoy life the way you like!” This was how Indrani  responded to her near-and-dear Tandra, on reading what Tandra had just written on her FB status: “YES,  I am on a job sabbatical... and here's what its like: My house gets all the sunlight for most part of the day... because, I am there to draw the curtains when needed... My culinary skills seem to have come out of the dormancy or weekend mode... My voice [speaking/singing] is no more embarrassing.....in fact, my karaokes are splendid... Most gadgets and things are fixed and are not waiting for a weekend Mom and dad - and, for that matter, my spouse - can call me anytime....esp in need to speak Some old friendships have got a new life... Vacations nee...

Pic. : Neerja Panchal A decision is some definite resolve that we make in our minds. We decide to do or not to do. And, such simple state of mind has so much power to influence the state of our affairs, the quality of our lives, and, above all, our destinations... For so many years, I dreamed of so many things. But, when it came to achieving them, nothing took off the launching pad. I realized my handicap: my habit of procrastination. I avoided making decisions, because, I avoided responsibility. Things were quite comfortable, so I feared change, consequences. It was the classic Arjuna Syndrome . The whole Gita was written to explain the importance of making up our minds, of getting up and doing things – instead of just thinking on and on. Later, I did mark these moments in the lives of my heroes: the night Gautama left his palace, the chilly night when young Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment in South Africa; the night Christ prayed for c...