Gerald D'Cunha

  “There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child… There are seven million.” ― Walt Streightiff Of late, I find myself reminding my young-students about the three pillars of learning: Curiosity, Trust and Risk. Curiosity is the most important pillar… the corner-stone. Every piece of learning starts from this… for every one of us… and, it starts when we are little babies and lasts a lifetime… Perhaps, that’s why it is called the ‘childlike curiosity’… If we are eager to learn, all our lives, we are expected   to be little children… We are expected to be struck with wonder… The sense of wonder… Lee Ann Womack sings in her beautiful song- ‘I Hope You Dance’: “I hope you never lose your sense of wonder… I hope you still feel small standing beside the ocean…” Imagine, learning without this childlike curiosity… this sense of wonder. Imagine gazing at a star-studded nigh...

It happens, sometimes, when I read about Christ's life. Or about the lives of my other heroes - Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Either I experience goose pimples, or I simply cry. I have failed to understand the mystery behind this phenomenon. Why do I get the goosebumps? Why do tears roll down my cheeks? Maybe because I admire them so much. For the kind of challenges they faced, the goodness they spread, for the leadership they provided. I am incredibly inspired by them. I am overwhelmed by the impact they have left on the mankind. Yes, may be because of these reasons, my hair stands straight, my eyes weep. A small challenge makes me chicken out, develop cold feet. When faced with discouragement and criticism, I tend to turn cynical, and give up. And, I am talking about small challenges, the ordinary battles of my life. My heroes took upon them tasks of Herculean proportion. The mortals never dare near them. That's why their lives are legends; that's why, the price for th...