Gerald D'Cunha

  “To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.” Confucius   I don’t think, that, there exists a single soul on this planet who hasn’t been hurt by someone, or he/she hasn’t hurt someone. “To err is human.” This statement hasn’t been tossed around as just one more proverb. We are humans; hence, we err… We hurt others, including our own. And, others, including our own, do hurt us. That fact said, and that truth accepted, now what? Should we hold on to those hurts? Keep remembering, reminding, digging, re-digging those painful memories? Let’s pause for a moment and recall: Has digging, re-digging, remembering, reminding – accusing, blaming, screaming, swearing, threatening, emotional-blackmailing… yes, has any of these, which seems so familiar a thing for each of us, really helped one bit? Or, have all of these only added more mess and turmoil into our already turmoiled lives? F unny it sounds! We want peace and happiness; we want to walk light and f...

  “The same wind that blows down your house shakes berries from the bushes.” Marci Ridlon   “B e watchful about the effect of people and the information on your mind,” I heard this speaker telling his audience, “Some people you interact with and some information you consume can drain your energy and pull you down in life.” There are people who drain our energy, and they do pull us down. And, these people need not necessarily be ‘outsiders’; often, they are ‘insiders’ – what we call the ‘significant people’ in our lives.   Thus, cutting off these people from our lives can be a difficult task. Yet, we need to find out ways to work around them, so that their negativity doesn’t leave us drained and drag us down in life. Easier said than done… I know. But, experience does teach us, that, in Life, some ‘crap’, we can cut; some, we can only shield ourselves from… Let the crap be! When it comes to information, it’s relatively easier to cut the crap. After all, w...

  “One of the keys to our happiness is bad memory.” Rita Mae Brown   A lmost all the viral videos become so viral, because, someone simply shoots them without stressing out, and uploads them without expecting anything in return. Ask anyone, whose videos have gone insanely viral, and you will see a simple, joyful heart behind it! On the other hand, if I write something or create a piece of art and attempt to make it viral, it mostly doesn’t even take off! The best things in life are simply spontaneous… Unplanned and done with no expectations. I am sure, many of us have come across this video, lately:     Then, someone added these rustic beats and made it even more heart-warming!   “With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come.” This is what William Shakespeare tells us through ‘The Merchant of Venice’. Well, I think, our old wrinkles come not through mirth and laughter alone; the sorrows and anxieties, too, pave way for them!   W hen 20...

  “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and, often times, we call a man cold when he is only sad.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow W henever people start participating in an online challenge – such as the recent ‘Couple Challenge’, ‘Daughter Challenge’, ‘Son Challenge’, ‘Saree Challenge’, etc. – I look at some of them and smile, or simply let them pass by. Rarely, I try to ridicule them. Yes, they may seem to some of us as shallow or cosmetic; but, if they make the rest of us feel a little lighter and alive, why don’t we just let them be? Personally, I don’t believe in either inviting someone to accept any such challenge or in accepting anyone’s invitation. Life throws fresh challenges everyday; and, therefore, I don’t need more of them to prove how strong or powerful – or even how happy and playful – I am. So, let all those social-media challenges be… Let people participate and feel happy, or make fun of them and feel happy… My Post, today, is in ap...

“Start by doing what is necessary;  t hen do what is possible; and, suddenly, you’ll be doing what’s is impossible.” Francis of Assisi I n the beginning, there was only one phrase: ‘Common Sense’. Then, someone with ‘extra sense’ said, ‘Let there be IQ’.   Not pleased, another soul, with even more sense, said, ‘Let there be EQ’. No, even that was not impressive enough. Thus, came a soul with extra-ordinary sense and said, ‘Let there be ‘SQ’. Stupid! What about ‘AQ’? So, the Guru of Gurus said, let there be ‘AQ’! Well, for those like me, who have been long living under the rock, here are the full forms: IQ = Intelligence Quotient. EQ = Emotional Quotient. SQ = Spiritual Quotients (My wife argues, that it is ‘Social Quotient’). AQ = Adversity Quotient. The day we learnt about the sad and shocking death of Sushant Singh Rajput, we also learnt about – thanks to WhatsApp University – the ‘Theories of Intelligence’. WhatsApp professors claimed...

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Theodore Roosevelt T oday, I came across these lines from Elisabeth Kubler Ross: “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have know defeats, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” While this may be true, I also wonder what makes people cruel, sadists and destructive in life! I ask these questions: Didn’t Hitler suffer in his childhood? Didn’t Osama Bin Laden or Phoolan Devi go through pain and suffering? Well, we do not have to go to such extremes… Let us talk about some ordinary people in our lives… I clearly remember a substitute teacher, who had come to our class room in grade 9. We were given books from the library to read. I had this hab...

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...

"Through my whole life, I did not know if I really existed.  But, I do... and people are starting to notice." - Joker I am an old-timer, you see. So, I went to the multiplex one day before and booked two tickets (for my wife and me ) for the 'Joker' movie. The person at the counter confirmed and reconfirmed from me, at least three times, that none of the two was a minor. I smiled and  assured him, that my wife and I had long entered into our adulthood... "My mother, always, tells me to smile and put on a happy face," Arthur Flek,  Joker, says in this movie! Chalo, I did not tell my wife what happened at the ticket counter. But,  yesterday, just while walking into the theatre, I brought myself to tell her, that the movie might leave us a lot 'disturbed' - rather 'shaken'... "Why are you telling me this now?" she shouted, "now that we are inside." Good, I had booked the ti...

“It’s not always the tears that measure the pain. Sometimes, it’s the smile we fake.” - Anonymous “T hink: one of the most important ways to be cured from anxiety and depression is overcoming whatever you're addicted to, and I am not just talking about alcohol and drugs. There are many other things a person can be addicted to.” I came across this comment from a viewer while watching a powerful video on overcoming depression. The video was put together by using powerful messages from many famous people, including some well-known psychologists, authors and motivational speakers.  Though the intention of this video was to help overcome depression, I felt, that the video itself, at places, was dark and depressing. Maybe I am wrong, here. I would prefer to watch some funny videos of little babies, cats and dogs. Such videos lift me up from my depression... They make me feel so relaxed and make my heart smile. To me, they are the best antid...