Gerald D'Cunha

S ix years ago, I had posted a blog and captioned it as ‘Gessler’s Hat’. Today, I am reposting it, again… For, the story of William Tell’s legendary defiance is so timeless, and so inspiring… that, I am prompted to recount this tale, today…   THE GESSLER'S HAT January 09, 2020 “Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.” -      Dalai Lama I  do not know why they had included the story of William Tell in our higher-primary school text. Perhaps, to inculcate in us — the little children — the importance of knowing what is right and what is wrong… what is just and human and what is unjust and inhuman. When I look back at those days — late sixties — I was, perhaps, of the age of William Tell’s son. And, imagine, the impact of this story on a young mind! We, also, had, in our History textbook, the story of Martin Luther King, who had revolted against the unjust and inhuman practices pre...

  “A river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence.” Jim Watkins   I love rivers… They are very, very inspiring. Whenever we see a deep, serene river, we, often, forget how, hundreds of miles away, they originate. Invariably, they originate as violent, fierce waterfalls somewhere in mighty mountains…   and, from there,   they flow down, making their way all through, till they join the oceans. If you try to stop them, they make new way to reach their destinations. But, river being a river, it has to flow constantly; it has to persist… It has to join the ocean… I love this story about every river. You and I – generations after generations – may come and go… while these rivers keep flowing. “D id you go for the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj?”         No, I didn’t. But, several of my friends did. Almost all of them are back and have resumed their daily grind… What about the ‘change’? I mean...

  “Be kind to others. Because, the world is dealing with three pandemics same time: Greed, Corruption and Corona Virus.” De philosopher, DJ Kyos   “H ello Sir, how’re you? This is my new number; please save. Please do get in touch with me whenever you plan to visit our beautiful land.” Who was this man, and which beautiful land was he referring to? Both, my wife and I, had a desire to visit beautiful Kashmir – which was, always, hailed as ‘The Heaven on Earth’ - for a long time. But, for a very long time, our desire was crushed under the painful reality of endless insurgency on the one side and the merciless deluge on the other. It took decades for the people of Kashmir – whose main livelihood depended on tourism – to limp their way back to normalcy. So, in the summer of 2016, when our 25 th wedding anniversary was approaching, we both decided to fulfil one of our long-cherished-but-buried wishes. By then, tourism was substantially back. A couple of our family...

  “A smiling face, after a certain age, is a triumph of the human spirit.” Efrat Cybulkiewicz   R ecently, I have started stepping out of my house on some very important and urgent work. Obviously, taking all the Covid-related precautions. I really had to pinch myself to check if a life, such as this, was real! It was! Yesterday, in the autorickshaw in which I was commuting, the driver was a young man. I struck a cordial conversation with him. “It’s pushed us back at least by two years,” he said, “Personally, whatever I had planned and worked for, now two years behind schedule!” I thought about myself: “I am 62… How many years behind schedule I am?” I really do not know… But, one thing I know: a lot of what I had meticulously planned and worked for has been pushed behind… Like the stranger who drove the auto, I, too, am behind schedule… But, then, who prepared the schedule? Who planned, and who was working towards those plans? Did the schedule get disturbed...

' “In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering  at the momen  it finds a meaning,  s uch as the meaning of a sacrifice.” Dr. Victor Frankl in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ O ne book many must be reading today, when we are all locked down in our homes, is ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Dr. Victor Frankl. Dr. Victor Frankl was a Neurologist and Psychiatrist. Being a Jew, he and his family were thrown into the Nazi Concentration Camps. While his family perished, he somehow survived the Holocaust, to tell us the remarkable lessons, later, in his path-breaking book – ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, and through his subsequent healing therapy called ‘Logo-therapy’. Dr. Frankl’s book is about the ultimate triumph of human spirit. It’s about hope in the face of absolute darkness. Yes, to paraphrase its essence: “Man can be stripped of everything he possesses, but not his ability to choose his response… Between the stimulus and ac...

“Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.” _ Dalai Lama I do not know why they had included the story of William Tell in our higher-primary school-text. Perhaps, to inculcate in us – the little children – the importance of knowing what is right and what is wrong… what is just and human and what is unjust and inhuman. When I look back at those days – late sixties – I was, perhaps, of the age of William Tell’s son. And, imagine, the impact of this story on a young mind! We, also, had, in our History text book, the story of Martin Luther King, who had revolted against the unjust and inhuman practices prevalent under the Pope’s leadership of Christianity. I was a Roman Catholic and I was studying in a Jesuit college (Roman Catholics). Ironically, a Roman Catholic priest was teaching us Social Studies and, particularly, that lesson about how Martin Luther King h...

When Brazil lost in the quarterfinals, yesterday. I am sure, millions of fans, worldwide, must have sunk into a depression. Netherlands are a good side. But, certainly, no one had thought they could trounce Brazil the way they did. Brazil were the favorites… and for the millions of fans, they were the Supreme, the unbeatable… They deserved the Cup… the great glory of the shining gold! But, the great Goliath of Soccer crashed… and, along with him, the hopes of several million fans, world over. The second match, last night, was between Uruguay and Ghana. It was a late-night match, and I went off to sleep half way. In the morning, both, my son and wife, who had sat back to watch this contest, echoed, “You missed something.” It seems, this game had all the thrill, suspense and drama. Finally, in the penalty shootouts, Uruguay got in, and Ghana, who had stolen millions of hearts with their fine skills, got out. My son kept telling me that, it was one of the finest Soccer games he had e...