Gerald D'Cunha

“Good timber doesn’t grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.” ~ J. Willard Marriott I n every field, there are Legends who leave an enduring legacy. Every political leader is a not a Statesman. Similarly, every sports person is not a sports Legend. In Business, Movies, Music, Social Work, Architecture, Law, Art and in every other field – yes, there are stars who occupy a distinct place and shine there for a long, long time… while other stars fade away quickly. What makes a person a Legend? What gives him that durability… that enduring power? Yesterday, I was talking to a friend of mine, a great cricket buff, about the durability issue in cricket. “Only Sachin Tendulkar could play for that long (24 years) at such level. Even the fine cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly played only for 10 to 15 years on an average. That’s great considering the productive age of the players to play competitive intern...

Pic.: Nicole Gubin O ne doesn’t need a great voice to be a great singer, these days. There are highly sophisticated devices in the state-of-the-art studios around, to fix that. Similarly, these days, one doesn’t need a great creative-eye to be a great photographer. The Photoshop is there to fix that! Well, the up-side of the story is: the music, songs and pictures can come out fast and effortlessly. Even at an extremely low cost. But, the flip-side is: the singers thrive without possessing great voice, the musicians thrive without possessing mastery over their instruments… and, the photographers thrive without possessing the creative eye… And, in the end, everything and anything goes! “Years and years of riaz!” “Fourteen years of learning violin or tabla”… Do you get to hear such statements, now a days? Things are to be done fast these days; they need to be done with less fuss… That’s how the music and songs are recorded today in studios… Every musici...