Gerald D'Cunha

  “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion, still.” Dale Carnegie in ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’   I was born into a Roman Catholic family. By virtue of it, I have been following certain deity and saints, and practicing certain customs, eating and dressing habits. Similarly, over time, I have leaned towards certain political ideology and followed certain leaders.   But, which God I worship or which political leader I support, I think, I should keep it private, unless I have an aggressive evangelistic or political agenda. I have none… I wish to have none. But, let me make it clear: To follow a certain religious or political ideology is my basic human-right. At the same time, I believe, that it’s my basic human-duty to respect others’ basic human-rights… To me, that’s being civilized… Live and let live. Trouble starts, when I try to demean ‘publicly’ what others believe in and practice. That’s like stirring up the hornet’s nest… Da...

“We need a new religion, a global religion, based on one simple principle: live and let live.”  ―  Marty Rubin ‘A completely wasted life’. That’s how I would consider life of a person around me, who, despite the privilege of being educated and economically well-placed in life, hates his fellow-human… for whatever reason it may be. Hatred doesn’t stop with hatred… It seeks to harm damage and destroy the person one hates. In my view, it’s the lowest form of human evolution… A misuse of one’s privilege of education… a complete waste of life, indeed! Little kids are so lovely… so fresh and so unpolluted. They have no idea of what hatred is… yes, hatred stemming from cultural, social, religious, political, economical differences. I think, this state of being innocent is the one that we should try to nurture in us as we load ourselves with our academic qualifications and religious, political and cultural beliefs. When t...

Pic.: Sheela Krihnamony “T he buffalo cannot see his own back.” This is one of my favorite expressions. Sometimes, I give it to someone trying to shut his mouth whenever he points at me – the buffalo in front of him – and chides, “Look at that - your back… so black, so ugly!” And, sometimes, I get it from someone whenever I mock at his black, ugly back… True. The buffalo cannot see his own back. He needs another buffalo to point it out for him! I have some people around me, my close people, who can tell me that point blank… yes, straight on my face. “Mind your own back, you buffalo,” they can tell me whenever I try to point at their or someone else’s uncovered back. So, one of my dear ones, who can make us laugh with his jokes and satire gave it to me, a few days ago… “I am very fond of the jokes and satire your share on FB,” I told my friend, “But, I can’t understand why you ‘like’ your every post before anyone else does.” ...