Gerald D'Cunha

  “The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future.” Jordan B. Peterson (12 Rules for Life – an Antidote to Chaos)   L ately, my wife and I have begun to have early dinner… mostly around 6 or 6.30 in the evening. Then, take a light breakfast around 9 or 10 in the morning. This  gives us a window or 13 – 16 hours. We have become used to it, now… Earlier, when the dinner used to be at 10 or 11 and retiring time used to be immediately after that, seeing my Jain friends completing their last meal before the sunset and taking their breakfast after the sunset – and the hospitals serving dinner to patients around 7 p. m. … yes, seeing all this, I used to wonder, “How can they follow such an eating habit… Dinner at 6 or 7…?” Even, for a blood test, when we were asked to keep a 12-hour fast, it felt like a mission impossible! Well, with age and sickness comes wisdom, too! My wife and I woke up to this ancient discipline of eating with a...

  “Rivers know this: there is no hurry; we will get there someday.” A.A.Milne   I admire people who show grace in waiting… There is tremendous amount of strength in waiting… and delaying the sensual gratification… This the Navratri time. People, who seriously observe the essence of Navratri, I think, know what I am saying… Fasting is waiting… Delaying the sensual gratification… It’s a fine spiritual exercise... Walking barefoot for nine days is, certainly, tough for people like me. So, when I see someone sincerely doing it, I feel in my heart true admiration for that person… Patience is waiting… Patience when provoked, ridiculed, belittled etc… It is not easy at all to delay the reaction that is stirred inside… Patience is strength. It is prayer… L ast afternoon, I was scheduled to meet an important government officer between 3 and 4. Another government officer, who was known to me, had arranged for the meeting. It was an important work. So, I had cancelle...

Pic.: Arvind Salunke “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” Soren Kierkegaard H ere is another encounter with another autowala. Yesterday was Sunday. In the afternoon, I left home, in a hurry, on some urgent and important work. It was pouring heavily and had turned so dark, that at 2.30 in the afternoon, it looked like evening seven! Water had logged all around and, I was worried if I would find an auto. Luckily, one appeared just in time, and I got into it. About a couple of minutes later, I suddenly realized that, in my hurry, I had left my cell-phone at home. I was already late; but, as I was expecting some important calls, I gently requested the auto-driver to take me back, so that I could fetch my phone. “I can not take you back,” the rickshaw-wala reacted, bluntly. “Brother, I have left home on an important work; I need my phone badly,” I was still explaining t...