Gerald D'Cunha

  “Share our similarities, celebrate our difference.” M. Scott Peck   T his morning, I was talking to one of my friends. During the course of our discussion, I praised his young son… “His work is brilliant, absolutely creative and unique,” I said, “I look forward to see his new work posted on FB.” My friend’s son, as I said, is a creative young man. Who works for a automobile-design company where he is given a free hand to express himself. So, each of his new work he regularly shares on FB with his friends, which is highly appreciated. “My son is gifted, very creative and brilliant, no doubt,” my friend said in response to my compliment, “But, he is too sincere and trusting not only at his work place but also everywhere else. Therefore, he doesn’t get the due recognition and, often, people take undue advantage of his gentleness.” For a while, I thought, that my friend was talking about me… “You are too gentle, sincere and trusting in a rough and tough world… They t...

  “People, who advocate simplicity, have money in the bank.  Money came first, not the simplicity.” Douglas Coupland   A t the outset, let me confess: I do not have money in the bank; but, I still advocate simplicity. A lot of money in the bank, or a little in the bank, or nothing in the bank… I wonder, if these conditions have anything to do with ‘simplicity’… Simplicity in living, always, is subjective. It is a conscious choice we make to live our lives… flashy, less flashy, or simply ordinary. When I grew up, I felt deprived of money. Like any young man, coming from a family like mine, I, too, desired to make money when I grew up. Napolean Hill’s book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ became my Bible for growing financially. I had acquired the traditional tools to grow rich, and, they were, really, effective… But, then, one thing I clearly noticed along this route: at no point of time – irrespective of the size of my bank balance – I, always, remained ‘poor’ in my m...

  “A goodness you do by waiting for a return is not a goodness, but just a cunning investment in the future.” Mehemet Murat Ildan   L ife is short… It gets even shorter through our complaints. When our complaints occupy our major mind-space, it is difficult for us to notice and appreciate the beautiful gifts we are blessed with… Complaints make life look like a bottomless pit… No matter how valuable gifts God puts into it, they all go down into this pit with no bottom! Our complaints breed our unhappiness – our disappointments, hurts, sorrow, self-pity and pain. A major complaint, which many of us carry in life, is, that we do not find people reciprocating our goodness towards them... Sounds familiar? Let’s see it from both ends… We complain, saying, that those who we have helped are ungrateful to us. On the other hand, others who have helped us complain, saying, that we are ungrateful to them. Thus, just as we feel hurt and angry, there are others feeling ...

  “Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from indominable will.” Mahatma Gandhi   T he more you focus on the evil people and the evil world outside, the more depressed you tend to become inside. No matter how good you wish to be - and strive to be – the evil in human soul shall continue to prevail. The only sane thing to do, amid such a reality, is to focus on the goodness within… and strive to spread it, even it means, a little bit… each time, over and over and over again. This morning, my wife and I had visited a senior citizen. He has been one of the finest gentlemen we had known for years… An incorrigible optimist, absolutely positive and caring – at times sounding quite innocent and blindly trusting – this gentle soul, of late, had slipped into a bitter state… People, who he had trusted, had cheated him… The good people, who he had known, had been hounded by evil people… His own innocence, goodness and trust in the world outside had been put to...

“Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.”  - Rumi O ur enemy is the creation of our own insecure mind. We perceive someone as our ‘enemy’… because, we are not confident of ourselves… We are insecure. Moreover, an enemy takes birth in our mind, when we fail to see our own goodness and the goodness of another soul – including our so-called ‘enemy’. Deep hatred towards another person, therefore, is nothing but a deep hatred towards our own selves. Yes, ironical – and unbelievable – it may sound! Learning to love ourselves - by recognizing and accepting all our human flaws – is the most crucial step towards learning to love others. We all are ‘flawed’ people on this planet… The flaws that we see in others are the flaws that we have to see in ourselves. Kabir described it beautifully: “The river that flows in you flows in me, too.” How true! Humanity is this river… The only reli...

Pic.: Rohit Makhija T his Post is about ‘Good-morning’. The first person to greet me ‘Good-morning’ is our doodhwala boy. The door-bell rings around 6.15 every morning and I open the door to take the milk. “Good- morning sir,” the greetings come before the milk... “AHHHH!” I can feel the positive vibe, “Good-morning beta ; thank-you,”  I give the vibe back to the young-boy, who, after doing the morning milk-rounds, goes to do his regular job as an office peon. Honestly, I feel very, very happy about this young-man, who must be up on his feet before 5 every morning and goes about doing his door-to-door service by giving every resident more than what his line of duty expects, calls for… He lives in one of the slums in our vicinity and has studied till twelfth.. So, every time I close the door, I shake my head in a pleasant disbelief and ask, “Who must’ve inculcated this value in him?” W hen I reach my classes, invariably, a group of young-students ...

Pic.: Ruma Chatterjee “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” - Dalai Lama F or Sana , my eleventh-standard (CBSE) student, today was the first session in my class. When her mother came to pick her up after the class, I spontaneously said: “Ma’am, Sana is really good... Very attentive, very enthusiastic and responsive... It was a real pleasure teaching her.” The mother blushed... Without her saying much, I could hear what she was telling me: “Thank you sir... You made my day!” Last night, Arnab, a friend of mine, had invited me to his place for dinner. He and his wife, Reena, had really poured their hearts into everything that was there as part of last evening... music, food, drinks, snacks, desert, discussion and, above all, the warmth... Giving was full. It was visible, palpable... inviting. I felt so relaxed and re-charged that I did not realize the time I was leaving their place: 1.30! Normally, ...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty H ow another person – no matter who he or she may be your life – perceives you, is not important you... How you perceive yourself, it, really, is. Allowing ourselves to behave on the basis of how others think of us, is the surest way to the hell called depression! It is becoming clearer to me, as each day passes by, that the most important lesson to learn in life is to have a strong and healthy opinion about our own selves. Simply put – a very healthy and strong self-regard. Most of our miseries can be dealt with just by this one endowment in life. A bitter – rather funny – reality in life is: you might be the most genuine human being, a real gem. But, another person – and, I am not talking about any passerby in your life – might think you are the worst creature on this earth... a mistake, a disaster, a demon! So, unless you learn to live by your own light – the light from your own healthy opinion of yourself – it is going to be to...

Pic.: Swati Gangurde T he man next to me is not – and he can not be - like me. If I am polite and gentle, he may not be. If I am very patient, he may not be. If I like to be dependable, he may not be... If I am good-mannered, he may not be... That’s world... The imperfect world we live in! Sometimes, I ask: Why should I be patient with my neighbor when he is not? Why should I show courtesy when he doesn’t? Why should I greet his reactive behavior with my proactive one? Yes, why can’t I treat him with his own medicine - Tit-for-tat... An- eye-for-an-eye? But, the more I ask these questions to myself, the more silent I become... I reason out: our goodness can be tested only in an imperfect world... The nastiness of others can be handled more effectively by our assertive gentleness... That, I need not stoop to someone’s level to bring peace within my soul...   My anger is my reaction to my own inefficiencies... When I constantly react to other people, ...