Gerald D'Cunha

“T ake it easy…” “But, that is not that easy…” “Not easy, because, you are trying too much to be at ease… To be at ease, stop trying, stop struggling… Just let go, sigh, smile… laugh. And, laugh loudly.” These were the dialogues my mind was involved with, last night… I had given a unit-tests break for my students. They were supposed to resume yesterday. But, then, considering the past track-record of some of my students, I decided to remind them through sms’s. One of them, Himanshu, replied: “I will be there sir, bang on time… Don’t be tensed!” I was in the midst of a lecture for another batch when I happened to see Himanshu’s message… Believe me, I was laughing… and, laughing so spontaneously, so happily… and I was feeling so good about it… Boy! My 17-year-old Himanshu  is asking me to take it easy… Chill! Yes, I needed that dose so badly, last evening… I immediately read out the messa...

The other day, when I told someone that I had watched the critically-acclaimed film, ’Ship of Theseus’, his reaction was immediate: “Did you watch it? It is a strain on your brain, everybody says.” “Well, not everybody says so,” I said to my friend, and asked him, “Have you watched it?” “No,” my friend quipped, “I don’t find sense in adding more stress by paying for it.” I haven’t watched ‘Chennai Express’… and, I won’t. Probably, if my friend asks me if I have watched this Madras-Mumbai pot-boiler, my answer would be something like this: “No; I don’t like to go to a cinema hall leaving my brain behind!” Both of us, my friend and I, are on two sides of the same spectrum… both of us have highly preconceived ideas… our respective prejudices… We have allowed others to influence us, chosen to operate from hearsay, past experiences, personal biases and so on… In my case, I have a pre-conceived notion that SRK overacts… I don’t like his dialogue...