Gerald D'Cunha

  “We will be judged by, ‘I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was homeless, and you took me in’.” Mother Teresa   F rom Richard Attenborough’s movie, ‘Gandhi’, two powerful scenes come to my mind… First scene: One of Gandhi’s most faithful followers - an English woman associated with his work for a long time – one day, in his Ashram, expresses her deep wish to be converted into Hinduism. Bapu’s response takes my breath away… “You do not deed to convert yourself into a Hindu,” he tells her, “You just need to become a better Christian.” The second scene: It involves, once again, a young Christian priest, an English man, who has been deeply inspired by the ideals of Gandhiji. He mentions these ideals in one of his Sunday sermons in the church… We see some hardened men and women walking out. Apparently, they have come to church to hear what Jesus said two thousand years ago, not what this ‘coloured man’ (by all yardsticks, m...

  “You cannot control the world; but, you can control your contribution to it.” Unknown   M y aunt, Cecelia (Dad’s sister) was a Carmelite nun. She was known as Sr. Leo. She was a gentle soul… very soft-spoken and affectionate. Till she passed away, aunt lived at several convents far away from our native home. However, she occasionally visited all her relatives… She would spend a day or two at each of relative’s place. I remember her visit to our place when our son was very small. As a nun, her staple gift for us used to be some religious relics – like a scapular, a rosary, or a picture of Mother Mary, Jesus or a Saint. When she bid us goodbye, we would place an envelope in her hand with a small amount inside it… knowing well, that it would reach some poor souls in the remotest places where she served. The life of a nun is a life of great discipline. Even though aunt, Sr. Leo, stayed for a day or two in our households, she followed her spiritual routine very strictly...

  “All men make mistakes; but, a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong. The only crime is pride.” Sophocles   E arly this morning, when I watched the nightmarish scenes of mob violence by Trump supporters at Washington DC Capitol – the heart of American Democracy – my own heart stopped! Like most of my fellow-humans, I, too, couldn’t believe my eyes. But, having seen, and understood well, what kind of mind the sitting President of America possessed, today’s mayhem, coup, insurrection, madness - whatever you want to call it – did not come as a surprise to me. Yes, only he could have prevented it, just as only he had incited it. He is fully responsible for today’s brutal attack on one of the finest (Not perfect, agreed) democracies in the world – which, Ronald Reagan, once, described as ‘The Shining City on a Hill’. Donald Trump is a fallen man… a loser! As Sen. Mitt Romney, a seasoned   fellow-Republican, mentioned in his speech to the Congress, a...

W e all have some conflicts in our personal lives, which we have never been able to resolve. When I say ‘We’, I really mean we all... Let’s me brutally honest: Don’t we all have some conflicts with some people in our lives, including very near and dear ones? Often, the conflict which seems extremely easy to resolve turns out to be the most difficult one to unknot. For some of us, it may be with our brothers and sisters, parents, spouses, children, uncles or aunts… while for the rest of us, it may be with our business partners, fellow members of the community, neighbours, political or ideological opponents… What is strange is this: so often, we come so close to end our conflicts and embrace; and, just when we are about to stretch our hands to embrace, something creeps in… and, there we are… unable to meet our eyes, leave alone our hearts! I think, no matter how noble and evolved we are in life, we will, always, have some people in our lives who wou...

“The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.” ―  Paulo Coelho M any things make me special… One of them is my vulnerability. If I have to put it in simplest of words, being vulnerable means to open my heart before someone by trusting him or her. When I do that, I make myself defenseless… I know it can break my heart… I can get wounded in the process. If so, why don’t I, always, guard myself… stonewall? I have tried to but failed. Opening my heart, by trusting a person I love, respect, care… yes, it comes easily to me. The main outcome of my openness – vulnerability – is that, it makes me feel better… Light… Loved and lovable… Strong. On the other hand, when I stonewall my feelings, guard too much… don’t reveal my human side, it, invariably makes me stone-like…   The world calls some heartless and some heartfelt… And, you know why the world does it so! Despite getting wounded, le...

D eepak Chopra was waiting in the lounge of Denver airport when, on the morning of September 11, 2001, the terror struck from the skies and brought down the iconic twin towers in New York City. Just as the horrendous images numbed all of us, it left the famous spiritual teacher numb, too. Right there, yes right in the midst of frightening devastation, he got down to pen the core message for his book of healing – ‘THE DEEPER WOUND’.  It was sixteen years ago. And, it seems, Donald Trump has leant nothing from this tragedy. Nothing from the images of the mammoth towers melting down and taking away thousands of lives in a few moments… later, the retaliation of the US… later the retaliation from the terror outfits… later… later… later. Yes, later! Donald Trump has not only invited unimaginable trouble for himself, he has done it to innocent people – lakhs and lakhs of them – all over the globe. I see no difference between Donald Trump and a hardcore terrorist… The mi...

S everal years ago, when I was barely a few years into teaching, I was teaching a group of final-year B.Com students in the residence of one of those students. All boys were smart and fun-loving and they hailed from affluent Punjabi/Sindhi families. I was yet to become acquainted to the life-styles, culture, language and daily vocabulary… the ethos and even the routine slang that young boys – if not girls – of various communities in Mumbai used. I was a young man in mid twenties and the boys in this particular group, probably, were a couple of years younger than me. So, while teaching them, the boys would use a lot of colourful slang and swear words. The fact that I was young and open made it easy for them to take liberty, often. One night, when the young man, in whose house I was teaching, used a swear word (not referring to me, of course). I was in a foul mood, that night and I did not approve the boy’s reference to one’s sister in that swear world… “Do you know you ha...