Gerald D'Cunha

  “There is no fire like passion; there is no shark like hatred; there is no snare like folly; there is no torrent like greed.” Siddharta Gautama   T hese days, there is no need to go to a barber; the barber comes home, you see.  A person like me, who grew up in a village, has been the one who, always, went to a local barber. My brothers and I went to a barber named Keshava… We lived not in a remote village, though. But, I remember the barber at my maternal uncle’s remote village… The house was isolated and miles away from the road… The barber had to come home. The name of uncle Lawrie’s barber was Isara. Uncle would sit in the shade of a nearby tree, and Isara would go about doing a complete job, including uncle’s armpits! It was a sight to behold for excited kids like us. One thing common with the Isara-kind of barbers and the Keshava-kind was this: they had the latest and the most exhaustive update about the village… People, always, went back updated about the ...

  “Why ask for your daily bread, when you own the bakery?” Randy Alcom   F or many years, I used to regularly receive a small booklet (free of cost) by the name – ‘Our Daily Bread’. It carried some simple, yet profound, reflections to help wade through our frantic life. It was published by a Christian organization.   When Covid broke out, I stopped receiving this booklet, and I completely forgot about it… Out of sight, out of mind! Some days ago, when my wife and I had gone to Mahim church for a novena, I stopped at the book counter just outside the exit… My eyes fell on this 2021 annual-edition   of ‘Our Daily Bread’. I, immediately,   began to glance through some of its pages, when I heard the man at   the counter gently nudge me, saying, “Please take it.” I pulled out a note of Rs. 500 to pay – without even checking the price… I was simply told with a smile, “It’s free.” That’s when I realized, that all the books and magazines displayed at th...

“Life has a way of taking you past your wants and hopes. Instead, it drops you in front of what you need.” Shannon Alder A s I write this Post, the Sun is slowly on its way home… The sky changes its attire as if it’s performing on a stage… Colours explode so beautifully, making the Sun appear calmer, gentler and prettier as it departs… One more lockdown day is about to end. But, the sky and the Sun seem completely unaware of it! It’s one more day to Mother Nature… To Her, it’s business as usual. But, we – you and I - are anxious…   We have been so busy building our castles in the air… We fantasized a life of ‘security’. And, suddenly, it seems, our castles were nothing but the bubbles in the air… and, the security has gone with the wind! Gloomy words? No Sir… Very bright and optimistic ones. So much was not needed, anyway, for our so-called ‘security’… Such big mansions, such lavish lifestyle… Clothes, cars, education, food, entertainment, holi...

“I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars.” Edward Abbey I f life is like a river, then, it will make its own way to flow. Won’t it? Flow it will, come what may! Till the other day, almost all of us lived in our own bubbles… We wanted everything grand and glittery. I said ‘everything’ – weddings and anniversaries, birthdays and funerals, baby showers, christenings, memorial days… the sports and musical events, movies and reality shows, the businesses, lifestyles… everything had to be bigger and grander… Yes, till the other day. And, now? Now, the size doesn’t matter… Five to twenty people max, even less, for laying to rest your dearest one. Maybe a few more would be enough to celebrate a wedding at home… Forget the parties on birthdays and anniversaries… You can simply cut a cake or raise a toast at home, and finish it! Till the other day, we all lived in our bubbles! Till th...

“There is no security in life;  only opportunity.” Mark Twain “I f you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost,” said Henry David Thoreau, “That is where they should be. Now, put the foundation under them.” Do these words make sense, today? I do not know about you; but, yes, they do make a lot of sense to me… When all that I did – for nearly 62 years of my life – suddenly appears to me as just those castles in the air! Suddenly, someone has shaken me very hard and made me realize, that my castles still lie suspended in the air, without any foundation at all! So, what should I do, now? Let my castle-building work, of over six decades, go wasted? Or, start focusing on the foundation work? “Man proposes, and God disposes.” How casually we have all said these words! And these, too: “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making your other plans!” Yes, what’s that you and I were busy doing all th...

“Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretches her fingers to touch the heavens.” -        Lao Tzu I don’t’ think, it’s possible for any of us to achieve anything in life without ambition. Now, some of us may not like to admit that… But, I seriously feel, that it’s our ambition that propels us to achieve whatever we desire to, decide to… Some four decades ago, as a young man, here in Mumbai, I, too, wanted to know how people ‘succeeded’… how they achieved whatever they desired to. I wanted to know if there was a systematic method, a way, to do that. That’s when I had found, on the footpaths of this city, an old copy of Napoleon Hill’s famous book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’. Incidentally, the author, too, said, that his own search had started with the same question – “How people achieved great success?” Challenged by the great steel-tycoon of the time, Andrew Carnegie,  young Napoleon Hill h...

A young and qualified friend of mine has been the Secretary of his housing society for over a decade. He is one of the most sensible, practical and intelligent persons I have met in my life. Theirs is a very old – nearly fifty-year old – society, which is now in a dilapidated condition. BMC has warned them either to go for major repairs immediately, or to go for redevelopment. The members, who had originally bought the flats in this society, are either dead-and-gone or are alive in a dilapidated state of health themselves. My friend along with the Managing Committees of his society and the vast majority of the members want a redevelopment of the buildings. The frantic efforts have been going on for over a decade… Countless meetings, endless discussion, the best persuasion, trust and distrust, hope and despair… the greed, the groupism, the conspiracies… They had almost succeeded in their efforts, with nine out of ten things done regarding redevelopment…  But, alas, th...

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”  ―  Socrates T he desire to grow financially, improve the standard of living and secure the future of our family members – yes, I think, it is one of the most powerful human drives. The poor want to come out of their poverty and the rich want to become ever richer… The drive is the same… Only the sizes of their ‘wants’ – I said ‘wants’, not ‘needs’ – differ. A poor man, who doesn’t have a house of his own, desires to have one of his own. So, ideally, with a small house of 1-BHK or 2-BHK, he should be content. On the other hand, a rich man, with a big mansion, should be content with what he has already got. But, the poor man desires for even better house and life style and the rich man desires for even bigger mansion, more luxurious cars and material things in life. It shows in their family’s lifestyles, including weddings and holidays....