Gerald D'Cunha

“Grass isn’t always greener on the other side. It’s green where you water it.” Anonymous W hat is the actual meaning of the proverb – ‘Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’? Probably, almost every school kid has written an essay or composition on this proverb. When I did, our ‘lawn’ – call it ‘our situation’ – wasn’t green at all. If you take the statement literally, you may laugh: Mangalore is lush green, particularly in a month like July. So, you would never leave this place if you go by the greenery of the land; you would leave it, only because, that - I mean 'Green' -  is, was and will be, always, the colour of the money – the financial situation! Almost all of us – no matter on which side of the fence we live – are programmed to stretch our necks out and envy the greenery of our ‘neighbour’s lawns’. In a way, this tendency has kept all of us working harder to keep up with – and even beat – our neighbours. Remember the famous ad o...

T he grass is, always, greener on the other side of the fence! Well, it, always, was… and, it, always, will be! Employed people, often, tell me, that a self-employed person like me is far better off than them. “You have the freedom to do ‘whatever’ you like to… Nobody sits on your head… You can get on with life on your terms.” I laugh. Rather, I feel sorry for those people, who think, that a self-employed person like me has the freedom to do ‘whatever’ I like to … Nobody sits on my head… and, above all, I can get on with life on my own terms. “Come on here, to this side of the fence,” I often, tease them, “You will find out how free I am to do ‘whatever’ I like to, and how much I can get on with life on my own terms.” Many young boys and girls, these days, live in a fool’s paradise. Someone has brainwashed them, saying, that, being employed under someone means losing your freedom, slogging like a slave and leading a life on someone else’s terms… A ...