Gerald D'Cunha

“We’ve all got the light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Sirius Black in Harry Potter    N o. Shyness doesn’t go. It’s something beautiful about you… Your essence, your core. For God’s sake, recognize it, accept it, respect it, and celebrate it… Yes, I tell this to hundreds of worried parents. “Has your own shyness gone?” I, often, ask them. “Had you been to a psychologist or a Personality Development centre to root it out?” When you try to root out your shyness, you root out your essence, your core… What you leave behind is a distorted you, not the authentic you. Well, all this may sound very fictional for the uninitiated. A couple of days ago, a young, married woman had come to see me. She wanted to be a corporate trainer on ‘wellness’. “I want to learn voice modulation and right diction,” she kept insisting… “You don’t need them, madam,” I kept reminding her, “What you need is the belief in you...

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  ―  J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets “We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.”  ―  J.K. Rowling,  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I haven’t read a single Harry Potter book… I have only watched one – the very first – Harry Potter movie. Now, even if you think, I am dumb, it’s alright; but, here is my truth: I couldn’t understand, at all, what was going on there, when I tried to read the very first book! Little kids have read all the books, I know… and, kids, young ones and adults have raved about the movies. Good for them, really. But, I have been clueless about a lot of Harry Potter stuff… Anyway, whether J.K. Rowling’s famous tales are really so great is not the issue here. The books and movies, sure...