Gerald D'Cunha

A gentleman shared this wise thought in one of the WhatsApp groups I belong to: “Quarantine the media for 14 days and 80% of our problems will go away.”   Instantly, a dozen fellow-members in the group responded with thumbs-up. Of course, that statement made pure sense. But, then, I wondered: How many things can we quarantine from our life? Every WhatsApp group or other social media group I belong to, is bombarded with forwards, and about 99% of them is utter rubbish! The members who had greeted the statement with instant thumbs-up were the ones who have been blindly forwarding the rubbish stuff, round the clock, and round the year! So, which ‘media’ have we to quarantine for 14 days?   Obviously, the statement is referring to the relentless TV news! But, when we shut the TV, the ‘crap’ still comes from our own li’l mobile screens, you see… Therefore, just as we shut the windows before the night falls, so to keep the mosquitoes away when we go off to sleep...

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”  ―  J.R.R. Tolkien ,  The Fellowship of the Ring I am always aware of the first thought that dominates my mind as I wake up in the morning. It’s more than a year now since I started getting out of the bed at 5 in the morning… Yes, those early hours - when I am not disturbed by people around… when I am able to feel the softness and mortality of my skin… the quiet, gentle movement of my breath… the chirping of birds, the darkness which is all set to dissolve in a while… Yes, those early hours are blissful. I am able to feel ‘alive’ only in my solitude… But, the first thought that dominates me? I am a human… and, I have my fears and anxieties. So, often, the thoughts that dominate my mind early in the morning are not pleasant ones… “What if this happens?” and “What if that happens?”… Yes, I do get these thoughts early in the morning as I open my eyes… C...

Pic.: Aditi Chakraborty L ast evening, Shirin*, a very dear ex-student, and now a good friend, had come to enroll her nine-year live-wire son to our under-15 PD course. She had brought along one of her friends, too, to enroll her son. The two kids, as I told you, were ‘exploding’ in my office – simply two massive bundles of energy. So, one of the obvious reasons why Shirin and her friend wanted their ‘brats’ to be here was to find out how to minimize the high-voltage of these two transformers… “Sir, they are excellent in every respect… very confident, very expressive and very creative. The only thing we want is help them to ‘sit in one place’, do one thing completely without being distracted. In other words, focus and concentration, if persistence is too hard a word for their age.” I was smiling. “They are just little kids, full of energy, and they are expressing it the way they have to,” I tried to calm down the mothers, “with just a little help and directio...

“What will people think?” For many of us, this is the biggest fear… The heaviest burden!   Now, I hear some saying, “No, I care a damn to what people think.” I can only smile when I hear that! The father of a young-girl was there in my office, this morning. The girl, who currently is in FY B’Com, had cleared her CPT (CA entrance-exam) smoothly and had joined a reputed coaching-class for preparing for the IPCC exams (Inter-CA exams). Along the way, the pressures had gotten the better off of this girl, health had deteriorated and she couldn’t attend the coaching. The parents advised the girl to take good rest, focus on her college exams and just enjoy her college life, presently… They were very supportive and told her that there was no hurry at all to complete her CA; that, she could give exams, gradually in installments, as and when she felt she was able and ready. The girl was just in her 3 rd standard when...