Gerald D'Cunha

  “People are, often, illogical, unreasonable and self-centered…   Love them anyway.” Dr. Kent M. Keith   W hen we say, ‘Humans are complex beings’, it includes all of us. If I think, others’ behaviour is, often, illogical, unreasonable and self-centered, others, by all probability, would think the same way about my behaviour… People are thankless… Well, people say, I, too, am… One of the toughest things to do for me is to take things less personally – if not completely avoid taking it so. My interpretations of others’ behaviour – their mood swings, sulkings, reactions, words etc. – are the reasons why there are mood swings and sulkings in me, too. So, why someone behaves towards me the way he/she does – well, the more I refrain from interpreting and weaving stories around it, the better it is for my mental hygiene… You see, I have no control on others’ behaviour. Their mood swings, reactions, blame, accusations – are not my creations; it’s their own… Ju...

    “Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.” Robert Frost C an we, humans, ever be free from forming opinions about people and events around us - about anything and everything, whether they are happening right next to us or oceans afar, or whether they are about living or dead beings? I don’t think, we are that evolved to be free from such a temptation… It seems, we get instinctively tuned into it. Yes, an opinion is something the human mind instinctively forms… Maybe, it must’ve come in us due to the ‘original sin’… So, blame it on Adam and his wife, Eve… It’s all because of the sin they committed, the original sin – that irresistible temptation… Sounds nice… We are born with this temptation called ‘opinions’… But, then, I wonder: Despite a thousand opinions popping up inside our heads, can we be discreet when it comes to voicing them out – yes, loud in the open? Mercifully, we can… We are bestowed with that freedom of choice… That, we needn’t b...

  “Some of us are busy doing things; Some of us are busy complaining.” Debasish Mridha   I t was late in the night… around 11 to be precise. In one of the WhatsApp groups, to which I belonged, the Admin made the sad announcement of the demise of   a fellow-member’s father. The deceased was a senior citizen, who had some health issues. But, he was an affectionate soul. As is the case in such situations, the members of the group instantly started posting RIP’s and Om Shanti’s… from all sides. Not even ten minutes had gone by, the Admin made one more announcement… This time, about the shocking demise of a 43-year-old lady. She and her husband were in a critical condition battling Covid. She succumbed. The group members, once again, started posting RIP’s, Om Shanti’s “Shocked!”… “Cant’ Believe”… “Sad” and so on. Not even another five minutes had passed by. A young member, who is a chronic cribber in the group, came out with a very trivial complaint… Instantly anothe...

I was, always, poor in Geography and, yes, in General Knowledge, too… I still am. So, in all my sixty-long years, and four-long decades of teaching, I had no idea where was Croatia located. Even my knowledge of football is limited either to some famous football stars or countries like Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Germany, France etc… But, certainly, not Croatia. So, in my class, yesterday, I asked a twelfth-standard student, with whom I had difficulty drilling     in these Accountancy fundas, “Do you know where this country Croatia is?” The floodgates opened! My boy tutored me for ten minutes on not only Croatia, but also on Senegal, Tunisia, Costa Rica and many such… I was pleasantly surprised, when he described to be about the state of economy, the culture of people, the religion the majority followed etc. As my boy was giving me this fresh ghyan about Croatia, Senegal and other nations, less-heard by me, I sensed in me an interesting thi...