Gerald D'Cunha

  “In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart. ” ― John Bunyan   Y esterday was the last day of Ganeshotsav , the day of final visarjan . I had taken a day off and decided to rest -- do nothing of my routine things… no teaching, no writing, no cribbing… It may surprise you to see ‘cribbing’ in the list of my ‘routine things’… Yes Sir, even though I know gratitude is the best medicine for cribbing and complaining, I haven’t fully done with my deeply-rooted tendency to crib… Perhaps, I am not alone in this. And, perhaps, that’s why Bappa keeps returning to this manavlok, every year. This time, He even stayed for a day more, so that He would provide an extra day for a person like me to crib a little less, if not stop it completely… B appa’s blessings had reached our household, decades ago… More than fifty years ago, a family in our immediate neighbourhood was from GSB community. In our hometown (Mangalore) the GSB community...

Pic,: Chetna Shetty W hat these little kids and young men learn in the Ganpati pandal… yes, they can never learn in their schools and colleges. In my own housing society, the Ganeshotsav has been organized for last fourteen years without any break… and, each year, it has been done in a bigger and grander way. The young men, who started it all, are now busy with their respective career and families. The little kids, who had been watching and assisting the seniors, have now grown up and taken over the charge… and, I see the same pattern unfolding, now. The little kids, who are now seen running around their older counterparts, are being moulded to shoulder the responsibility… For fourteen years, to sustain a big-scale event like this, without infighting and ego-hassles, is something commendable. The schools and colleges haven’t taught these little kids and young men all this… They have learnt it on their own. That’s why, I said, “What they learn in Gan...