Gerald D'Cunha

What comes to us naturally is our calling in life! Let me recount a mundane episode to explain this logic. Last evening, I received a phone call, all out of the blue. It was Cynthia. She was in twelfth-standard, when I had taught her Accountancy, some thirty-five years ago!   I was in my final year B’Com, then. Inspired by my idol, Prof. B.S. Raman, I had started teaching dozens of students, all for free… I was obsessed to become a teacher… and, a teacher like my idol, in that. Yes, nothing else, nothing less! So, Cynthia was one of those, with whom my early teaching experience had begun. I left Mangalore soon after some time…and, my contact with all my students in Mangalore, including Cynthia, was lost immediately. Those were not the days of cell-phones, e-mails and Face book. We had to write letters to keep in touch. It was not easy as it is today. I was very happy to talk to Cynthia, last evening. I learnt that she did not ...

When I was in school, or even college (almost to the end of First-year B’Com), I wasn’t good in studies. Nor was I good in any extracurricular activities. I was too self-conscious and very afraid to assert myself before by peers and teachers.  When your confidence level is low, everything you do turns out to be bad, ugly. And, if you have around you teachers or elders who keep constantly pointing at your mistakes – how bad and ugly you are – then, it is a sure-shot way to hell! What was bad - and, perhaps, ugly - was your ‘work’… But, those people with authority – your elders, seniors, and teachers – did not know how to communicate it to you… They were impatient; they were blunt. So, though they wanted to tell you that you needed to improve in your work… that, it was bad, ugly… they only ending up telling you, “You are useless, bad… ugly!” Only patience and trust can help us see the good human being in a bad work! In my case, there were some wond...