Gerald D'Cunha

  “The world doesn’t remember how fast your learn; it celebrates the impact you make with your   knowledge.” Unknown   A couple of days ago, in a session I was conducting for the underprivileged kids (helping them to speak and write in English and motivate them to become better human beings… Call it with its exotic name - ‘Personality Development’, if you like!), there was this mother alongside her 11-yeal-old daughter. Mother worked as a ward-maid in one of the local nursing homes and had realized her handicap while interacting at her workplace in English. So, she was the most enthusiastic and determined learner in that otherwise group of 20-plus kids. The 11-year-old daughter studied in a local English-medium school. Thus, she wasn’t facing the problem which her mother did. But, the level of motivation of the mother was manyfold higher… She was absolutely determined to overcome her handicap despite her hectic schedule at home and workplace… For daughter, there ...

  “Faith is walking in the dark until you find the light.” Geraldine Vermaak   “W hen you know what you want, the whole Universe conspires in your favour.”   I have used this statement so often; and I have, also, heard people using it so often. But, if I have to cite   examples, as to how Universe has conspired in my favour through my 63-year-old journey, I can write an entire book on it! So, in this Post, let me cite just one such example… I must’ve been 22-23 at that time. Fired by Napoleon Hill’s   philosophy – ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve” (‘Think and Grow Rich’) -   I had decided to burn every bridge behind me and focus on only one dream of mine: ‘to start my own teaching space’ – call it a coaching center or a coaching empire, or just ‘tuitions’… I knew clearly what I wanted… Where I wanted to go. But, I was absolutely new in Mumbai… lived with my hand-to-mouth relatives, had no strings to pull, no   exp...

“No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of  the Holy Scriptures.”  John Bunyan M y mom, 85, lives with my eldest brother’s family. We are five brothers. One is in Kuwait, two (including me) are in Mumbai and two are in our hometown, Mangalore (Mangaluru). In these difficult times, we four brothers feel so relieved and reassured – if those are the words, I can use to describe our feelings – that mom is in safe hands! Here in Mumbai, the very night when our PM announced the 21-day lockdown, both my wife and I packed our bags and moved to my in-laws’ place, with whom our 27-year-old son had been already living. My father-in-law is 85 and mother-in-law is nearing 80. The health has not been good and, now, the maids had stopped coming. Thus, we had to take a prompt decision, that very night… which proved to be the right one. On the surface, these things seem very ordinary. But, when...