Gerald D'Cunha

  “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” —  Aristotle   I had taught Naresh in his T. Y. B. Com. It was forty years ago. We have remained as good friends ever since. Some months ago, his daughter Debanshee got married to her sweetheart, Sooraj, in a simple temple ceremony in America. Naresh and his wife, Sangeeta, attended this simple ceremony alongside boy’s parents. A couple of days ago, Naresh had shared on WhatsApp a beautiful invite for the reception they have planned here in Mumbai (on 13 th of this month). I, immediately, thanked him for the invite and confirmed, that my wife and I would, certainly, grace the occasion… Yesterday, early in the morning, there was a call from Naresh… “Good morning Sir; hope, it’s not too early to call you.” “Not at all, Naresh,” I said. “Sir, though we have sent you the invite on WhatsApp, Sangeeta and I wanted to invite you and Anima, personally.” Then, Naresh and Sangeeta invited ...

  “Someday, we are going to look back and wonder, how we ever got by without AI.” Derek Haoyang Li   I t’s almost 9 p.m., here in India… and, it’s 7.30 p.m. there in Abu Dhabi. I just concluded my online (Zoom) session with a group of CBSE students. Such a routine of online classes for long-distance students has become a new normal for many like me. Yes, all thanks to the Pandemic. Even my local students have an option whenever they are unwell or out of station… They needn’t miss my class; they can join online… And, as Derek Haoyank Li says about AI, I, too, find myself saying the same, looking back: “How I ever got by without these online platforms?” Looking back, you and I have to say the same about every kind of technology… Imagine machines, transport facilities, phones, the internet, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ( ‘X’), malls, multiplexes, OTT platforms, Amazon, Swiggy, Wefast, GPay Paytm, Zomato, OLA, Uber, Urban Clap – there are scores of t...

W hat is good for the mind is good for the body. And, its opposite is, also, true – what is good for the body is good for the mind. If I feed junk into my belly, the body will, surely, react with discomfort… sooner or later that is. Similarly, if I keep feeding junk into my mind, won’t my mind react with discomfort… irritation, anger, sadness, prejudice, hatred, loss of empathy, even violence? The interesting thing is this: Just as the junk-food habit has crept into our eating system, over a period of time, the habit of junk-thinking, too, has crept into our thinking system, slowly, over a period of time… All of us, by now, are these junkies… endlessly surfing those useless videos and forwards… one after another then another and then another. We do not need the idiot box anymore… We do not need the ‘hall rooms’… Even the toilet will do… Even the holy places and the grave yards! Many of my friends have begun to realize what this frantic addiction to social me...