Gerald D'Cunha

  “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” John Wooden, basketball player and coach   I just returned from my younger brother Vivek’s house. His daughter Riya’s Class-12 Board-exams have started. She has taken Science. Like all her counterparts, Riya, too, knows the importance of ‘percentage’… That, if she doesn’t score ‘high’, she will not be able to get into what she wants to. She knows, that she has to work hard – burn the candle from both ends… But, I know my brother Vivek and his wife, Hemangi… They are neither helicopter parents, nor marks-maniacs . “Science was your choice… So, make the most of that choice.” … This is what the prevailing philosophy at home is. Thus, Riya is reasonably good… reasonably motivated… reasonably tensed. Not ‘High on anything’… Not at all. Today, when I went into her little gupha – her study room that is – I saw her walls packed with photos, paper-cuttings, timetables, reminders, quotes, pictures of her hero...

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein W hen I was a student in school and college, I was as anxious of my exams as any other kid was. All students have the anxiety about their exams – maybe, some have it more and some have it less; but, all of them have it… because, all of us had. Today, after spending more than four decades in the teaching field – ‘coaching’ to be precise - I feel, I am an odd-man-out in this field. I say this, because, even though we teachers were very worried about our exams – at times dreadful – we, now, fail to understand the stress we all induce on young minds simply because we adopt the same approach which our own teachers had adopted: make them work for marks… and more marks! Marks are definitely necessary for getting admissions into the right courses and institutes. But, to take this to extreme level –...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty I had scored very bad marks in tenth-standard and twelfth-standard board-exams. It was only F.Y.B’Com onwards – when Prof. Raman came to teach us, and I intensely desired to become a teacher like him – that my exams performance began to improve. Still, I would say, it was way below the accepted standards of the day. I was teaching plenty of students during my final-year B.Com. Many of my students scored much higher than I did! But, then, I knew that I would do in life nothing else but teaching... whether with good marks or bad. Luckily, I do not remember anyone asking me, all through my three-decades-plus teaching career, “How much did you get?” Everyone has been interested in how good I am now: how well I taught, how good I am in my integrity, commitment and passion... how good I am as a motivator... as a friend, philosopher and guide to my students... Yes, even though most of the parents want my students to score high marks in exams, ne...

Bosco had studied under me some twenty-three years ago. He called me, all out of the blue, last morning. He wanted to meet me and we fixed it for today morning at 10. Bosco wanted to meet me just to say “Thank you for everything”. He did that, this morning, by presenting to me one of his favorite books – ‘The Icarus Deception’. Frankly, I hadn’t heard about this book or its author, Seth Godin. “To the person who sowed the seeds of self-improvement in me…” Bosco had written inside this book. We spoke for close to an hour. Bosco told me, of many things, how this book had influenced him… I was left excited… and, I can’t wait! So, I haven’t read the book yet, though, a line has already caught my attention: “Your work is an art… and, you are an artist.” Well, it is no revelation at all. You and I know it… The world knows about it for ages. So, why do we need a Seth Godin and his book to reveal this old truth to us? Surprisingly, we need him and hi...

E xams are approaching. Hardly any time to prepare well and shine in the exams. And, everybody reminds about that… everybody gives sermons. “I am fed up,” Bhushan cried yesterday. “Don’t they know, I am not an idiot?” Bhushan is not an idiot. His parents know, his aunts and well-wishers know. Still, they keep reminding him, “Bhushan, you better become serious… Else, ….” “I know it. If I don’t become serious, I will end up getting what I deserve,” Bhushan screams. “But, don’t you think it is my life and if I do not take charge now, I will ruin it?” They know it. Still. Bhushan is definitely a head-strong, committed young boy. I know, he is on the right track… and, I also believe he will do well not only in his exams but also in his life. Many a times, I have expressed these feelings of mine to his parents. But, Bhushan still pleads me, “Sir, please tell them not to keep irritating me.” Mohit’s case is exactly opposite. He is completely chilled out. He ...