Gerald D'Cunha

“If two people are thinking alike, one of them is not required.” An old saying     T oday, this old saying kept coming back to me… The same message has been conveyed through another saying: “If everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking at all.” I can’t tell you how often I have come across the above sayings. But, today, they made me pause and reflect… For some time now, I have been strongly feeling irritated with a few of my social-media friends. They have been relentlessly sharing posts – mostly, political or religious – which, in my view, are extreme right… Often, they are provocative. In the past, I have blocked many such friends from my social-media account. So, this time around, too, I have been strongly feeling the prompting to block them… My reasoning is this: “These fellows are not adding any value to my life. On the other hand, they are causing unrest inside me… So, why keep them? – just discard.” But, strangely, this time around, I have not a...

  “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too; they live inside us… And, sometimes, they win.” Stephen King   T ill this date, I do not know what a ‘Halloween Day’ is all about. While growing up, back home, we would hear about something called ‘All Souls’ Day’. On this day, we went to church, visited graveyard and prayed for the souls of every near, dear and far-off departed ones… That’s all I remember doing as a child… That’s about it. And, here, in this big city, and, particularly after the exposure to social media and YouTube, I started hearing about this fancy-dress event called ‘Halloween’. Interestingly, not only little kids took part in this fancy-dress event, the young and the old alike, the schooled and the unschooled alike – yes all of them dressed in these crazy, scary, weird costumes with the hope, that they could entertain the world around them…  make them  happy and scared. Whatever one hopes to do, like every other festival in this world...

"You become what you think about  all day long.” Ralf Waldo Emerson N eed I ‘investigate’ into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput? Let me admit at the outset: I have watched two of his beautiful movies – ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ and ‘Chhichhore’ – and, after coming home from the cinema hall, hugely impressed by the movies and Sushant’s acting both, I have written lovely Blogs. I have, also, watched a couple of his interviews, as I, often, watch others’ too; and, yes, I have been impressed by that, too. And, with that – and, maybe, some Magazine articles on him - ends my affection and loyalty to this fine actor. So, when the news broke about his unfortunate death, like so many around me, I, too, was saddened… “Was it a suicide or a foul play?” Yes, this thought, too, was planted into my mind by the insane media. But, here is what I did: I completely insulated my mind from further poisoning on SSR… One death was enough… I did not want the ...

“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” -       Benjamin Franklin       M y first memories about the revered Udupi Sri Krishna temple roll back to my primary-school days in Mangalore. Udupi, as many may know, is a stone-throw away from Mangalore (Now, Mangaluru). We had a story called ‘Kanakana Kindi’ in our text book. That seemed to be the reason why our school took the school kids to the famed centuries-old shrine in Udupi…yes, on an 'educational picnic'! Ever since then, I have been fascinated by this legend – ‘Kanakana Kindi’… Translated from Kannada, it means – ‘Kanaka’s Window’. This is how the legend goes… Kanakadasa (Dasa, in Kannada, means devotee) was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna, who ceaselessly sang through his tambura (a string instrument) in devotion to Lord Krishna. Once, he had gone on a pilgrimage from his village to Sri Krishna tem...

S everal years ago, we used to have our annual picnic to Gorai beach. Those were the days of no mobile phones… Colour TV hadn’t come, yet... leave alone internet and digital cameras… There were no video games and Candy Crush saga… multiplexes weren’t born… So, a picnic like ours – which was well-organized – would appeal to one and all… the affluent and the middle class, the local-college kids and the town-college kids, all alike… The challenge for us was to bring together all these young college boys and girls, right from 11 th standard to TY, who belonged to different colleges and did not know each other – yes, the challenge was to knit all of them together through series of volunteers’ meetings. A core leadership-group would call these 40-50 volunteers to animate the rest – about 500 to 600 young boys and girls -  to take them to Gorai beach and bring them back… yes, ALIVE! For almost ten long years, we went for those Gorai picnics… Mind you, college boys and gi...

Pic.: Shoba N. Krishnan “How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” -        John Muir T oday is the main day of Diwali and I haven’t, yet, sent a single greeting to anyone. But, I have already received ship-loads of them… They are still coming and will continue to come, maybe, for the next couple of days. But, if you ask me, “Who has sent you the Diwali greetings?” or “Do you remember any wordings?”  you will get only my blank stare! There is nothing ‘exclusive’ or ‘special’ about greetings we send or receive, anymore… They are mechanical, impersonal and bereft of true feelings – affection and care. Am I generalizing? No, I am not. To me, the biggest concern, today on this auspicious day of Diwali, is this: “Will my greetings be noticed at all? Or, will they pass like ships that pass in the night?” Well, on the upside, I have, suddenly, become ‘conscio...

Pic.:Chetna Shetty I n the evening, yesterday, I had been to a friend’s office. He is a very skilled and efficient accountant, who has employed in his office half-a-dozen staff. Some of them are graduates and some of them are undergraduates – obviously, all from the Commerce stream. I was there in my friend’s office for twenty minutes. Later, my friend came out to see me off. We walked for a short distance. On the way, my friend introduced me to a young-man, who seemed to be in his late twenties. His name was Sanjay. “Sir, I want to tell you about Sanjay,” my friend’s face lit up, “He had started working as a peon in an accounting firm when he was in eighth standard. Due to his house situation, he couldn’t’ study beyond eight standard. But, today, for most of us, the professional accountants, he is a very resourceful person… He can do our entries, with super-speed and super-efficiency, get the Trial Balance ready for us… help us with our...