Gerald D'Cunha

  “A lifetime of training for just ten seconds!” Jesse Owens   E very Olympics medal – whether Gold, Silver or Bronze – matters to us, a lot. We are a country of close to 140-crore people; the second highest population in the world. So, if we come back empty-handed from the Olympics game, it shows us in poor light. As I said, even one or two medals – whether Gold, Silver or Bronze – can give us the relief, that we haven’t come back with a ‘duck’… This explains why the whole nation becomes ecstatic and celebrates with pride, when this simple woman from Manipur – Mirabai Chanu - brings us a Silver medal in weightlifting,   Frankly, I find it silly! Yes, while Mirabai did it, beating all odds, why are we celebrating her victory as our own? There is a lot to take away from every poor Olympics-tally of our country. Is our State doing enough? No. Are we, individually or collectively, doing enough? No. Whatever little we get from the Olympics village, it is broug...

  “You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.” Liane Moriarty   S ome days ago, I had asked 13-year-old Darshil and his 11-year-old sister, Tirtha, to write at least five of their privileges in life. That day, during the Zoom session, I told them the story of Ekalavya, the tribal boy from Mahabharata. I tell about this boy, Ekalavya, in every Personality-development session, while helping kids, youngsters or adults to become self-confident and proactive persons… I call it ‘The Spirit of Ekalavya’ and, often, ‘The School of Ekalavya’. What Ekalavya did was the most proactive act towards building his self-confidence… No blaming, no self-pitying and no reacting. So, to me, Ekalavya was a better student, a better learner, a better young man than Arjuna. I am not interested in the archery… The story gives us enough proof for his brilliance in archery, too. But, then, to me, that’s a small feat on his part… The greater feat was, that he beat Arjuna,...

  “I am black or white; I will never be grey in my life.” Diego Maradona D iego Maradona died yesterday, at the age of 60. Being his ardent fan, I couldn’t bring myself to accept the way he looked, now… He had bloated like a huge football, and when he walked, I, literally, closed my eyes! The images of charismatic Maradona of the eighties had been robustly embedded on the minds of most of his fans, including me, who watched him in the field with his lightning speed and magical skills… That was our Diego Maradona: The God of football!   “To see the ball, to run after it, makes me the happiest man in the world,” Maradona once said talking about his love for football. This statement speaks on behalf of every man or woman, who rise to the top in their respective fields – sports, music, acting, business, painting … any field, any profession, any game. There is no alternative route to excel in your ‘game’. As Maradona said, when you see the ‘ball’, you’ve got o feel super-exci...

” No discipline seems pleasant at the time, But painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 K indness and firmness… these are the two sides of the same coin called – ‘discipline’. Today, as parents and teachers, if we emphasize on disciplining our children or students, we should not forget, that our parents and teachers, too, did emphasize  on it. Maybe, we wished more of kindness (call it leniency) and less of firmness when we were at the receiving end. But, today, when we look back, we do realize, that excess amount of kindness would have only robbed us of the goodness we possess today. The firmness comes from the kindness – our care and concern, our love… It makes discipline complete. The value of discipline our parents and teachers had instilled in us could be felt only in due course… What was painful once has shaped our character later… It has ...

A student of mine remained absent for the third consecutive class, this morning. Without informing me, that is! In the case of this young man, mostly, it’s a habit… and, it’s so deeply-rooted, that no amount of persuasion, coaxing, scolding and even threatening has helped the cause… The dog’s tail has remained only a dog’s tail! So, this morning, when I did not see him in my class – despite his promise yesterday to attend – and, when he failed to respond to my calls and messages this morning, I declared in my mind:   “I shall put in this fellow’s mind the fear of God!” The moment I said that in my mind, I heard a quiet voice inside me: “Hello, do you remember how often others put the fear of God in you… and tried to straighten your tail?" I remembered my own school and college days… The fear I had in my heart every time I missed a class or skipped my homework… I was very scared of my teachers… I was very scared of facing the Head Master or th...

A 16-year-old boy, by the name Aarya, called me up, last afternoon. He wanted to join our ongoing Personality Development course. He said, “Sir, can you give me all the details so that I can discuss them with my parents?” I gave Aarya all the details, and, within the next two hours, his mother called me up. “Sir, my husband and I will come along with Aarya tomorrow morning at 9 to enroll him. Is that fine?” “Perfectly fine, ma’am,” I said. Today. Sharp at 9, Aarya - a lean-and-tall boy who has just given his tenth-standard Board-exams – was here in my office accompanied by his parents. This was a different experience for me, today. Normally, the parents ask me a dozen questions, like: “Sir, what do you teach in PD?”… “How do you go about it?”… “Will they be confident after the course?”… “Do you take out fear from them?”… “What about English - Will they be fluent… Will you teach them good vocabulary and diction?”… “Will they be ‘perfect’?... “Do you gi...

“I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.” - Benjamin Franklin I saw Kannan in our Tai Chi class after many Sundays. “All is all?” I enquired.”Seeing you after a long time.”  “Oh yes, all is well,” Kannan replied in his gung-ho style, “September-November are my months of hibernation… I go into my cave… They are less productive. In November, I come out.”   Today, Kannan and I were discussing about the food habits… “If our stomachs are fine, we are fine,” Kannan said, “as they say, we are what we eat.” The habit of eating light, putting less strain on our stomachs is a habit, like all healthy habits, we need to cultivate with discipline. What works for us at our young age doesn’t work for us when we grow old… Heavy food at night, particularly late in the night, is a major cause for most of our health issues. Kannan shared with me the way he had brought about changes in his eating habits. He emphasized on the time-teste...

I nvariably, all of us – if not ‘all’, most of us – have disciple in those areas of life, which, we have made as our priority areas. We have a strong value attached to those areas and hence, we give a lot of attention and focus to these areas… Yes, most of us are disciplined in that sense… For example, when it comes to my work – getting up, starting my first batch, being punctual and regular… writing a bog almost every day… keeping my promise and commitments… thanking, appreciating, keeping good communication etc... yes, when it comes to these, I am very disciplined. Working hard, yes… I am extremely disciplined… Keeping good relationship, yes, I am extremely disciplined… Forgiving and letting go… yes, I score excellently there, too… And, yet, there are many arrears in my life, I lack discipline. On top of this list comes my health care! Health is wealth… Don’t I know this? The problem doesn’t lie in ‘knowledge’… Problem lies in ‘implementation’ of that...

  Pic.: Vinod Krishnan     “You may strive to be like them (your children), But seek not to make them like you. For, Life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.”   - KAHLIL GIBRAN I n my school days, there were two kinds of teachers.   The first kind was the majority: They were too strict… quick to react on our mistakes and indiscipline… They punished us for the smallest of the smallest things even… Threw us out of the class, sent us frequently to the Head Master’s room… They regularly packed us back home, summoned our parents… And yes, they even thrashed us black and blue (and got away with it easily in those days).    The other kind was the minority: They were more tolerant towards our ‘sins’… tried to change us by constant counseling, trust, patience and foresight… Yes, they did lose their patience, did shout and scream at us… but, that was not to ‘punish’ us, but to ‘change’ us, help us see our mistakes and m...