Gerald D'Cunha

  “Manners are a sensitive awareness of feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, No matter what fork you use.” Emily Post   A young lady – let me name her Shyla* --   messaged me the other day (in my FB inbox): “Do you take (spoken) English classes?” I replied: “Hello Shyla, yes, I do. Can you please share your number, so that we can discuss about it. Regards.” After three days, today, I saw the response: “93……10” I called Shyla… “Hello Shyla, this is Gerry Sir,” I said. “Yes?” was her response. “You had enquired about the spoken English, right?” I reminded her. “Yes, tell me,” she said with the same deadpan tone. “Yes, Sir… Please tell me (Provide me the information/Give me the details)”… I asserted, knowing very well – It’s now or never! “Yes Sir… I want to be fluent in English… I am trying for a better job in an MNC,” she opened up. “That’s better, Shyla… If you want to be fluent in English, you don’t need me… S...

  “ In Beverly Hills… They don’t throw their garbage away; they make it into television shows.” Woody Allen   A couple of nights ago, I wanted to talk to one of my friends. It was around 11.45 in the night. So, even though he was my friend, I was a bit apprehensive about calling him at that time of the night. So, I texted him, saying, that if he was still awake, I wanted to talk on something urgent. He immediately called me. “Sorry for disturbing you at this time;” I said, “I really thought, that you had gone off to sleep.” My friend, who is in his early fifties, lives alone in the house. These are Covid times; and to many of us, despite being surrounded by our family members, these have been quite lonely and scary times. I have been concerned about my friend, and, have enquired about him several times. When I called him late that night, he sounded charged up… The reason? He was deeply involved in one of the T.V. debates on Sushant Singh Rajput… “Whatever people...

“Start by doing what is necessary;  t hen do what is possible; and, suddenly, you’ll be doing what’s is impossible.” Francis of Assisi I n the beginning, there was only one phrase: ‘Common Sense’. Then, someone with ‘extra sense’ said, ‘Let there be IQ’.   Not pleased, another soul, with even more sense, said, ‘Let there be EQ’. No, even that was not impressive enough. Thus, came a soul with extra-ordinary sense and said, ‘Let there be ‘SQ’. Stupid! What about ‘AQ’? So, the Guru of Gurus said, let there be ‘AQ’! Well, for those like me, who have been long living under the rock, here are the full forms: IQ = Intelligence Quotient. EQ = Emotional Quotient. SQ = Spiritual Quotients (My wife argues, that it is ‘Social Quotient’). AQ = Adversity Quotient. The day we learnt about the sad and shocking death of Sushant Singh Rajput, we also learnt about – thanks to WhatsApp University – the ‘Theories of Intelligence’. WhatsApp professors claimed...

W hen I first learnt it from our text books, I thought the term ‘Management’ was all about managing efficiently the vital and scarce resources of the organization – Men, Money, Machines, Markets, Material and such. Well, I, also, thought, that ‘Men’ – people – are the most valuable resources of every organization. When people management is floppy, organizations sink, gradually… I have, always, believed in this lesson. I just came back from two banks. One was an old Public-sector bank. Our family has been having three accounts in this bank for close to a quarter century. But, frankly, the staff does not seem interested in bank’s customers, including ones like me. We go there, complete our transactions, mechanically, and come back.   There is a lovely catch line: ‘The Banking Experience’…   I wonder, if that’s only for the dreamy ads made to woe us. \ Well, there is this lady peon in this bank. She must be about 40-year old. Her main job is to rece...

Pic.: Anand Ashokan “Courtesy is the one coin you can never have too much of or be stingy with.” - John Wanamaker   A couple of days ago, Ekta, a dear student of mine, who presently pursues MBA through a reputed institution in Mumbai , had posted a picture: “She is holding ma hand, you see!” Ekta had given the caption, filled with pride and excitement... The present Union HRD-minister, Ms. Smriti Irani, had visited Ekta’s college. The picture captured the moment when Ms. Irani had held Ekta’s hand as she was stepping out of the car. “Ekta, please don’t wash that hand... yes, till you hold mine!  What say????” I sent my teaser to Ekta, indicating that it was a precious moment, and she had to cherish it for a long, long time. “Till you hold mine” was to convey that I, too, being Ms. Irani’s great admirer, would love to feel the fragrance of her hand, of course, via Ekta’s hand! “Hehe...Okay sir....not yet washed m comin sir...”...