Gerald D'Cunha

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.” ― Michael Crichton   N one of us live in a vacuum… not in our private islands, not in our communes. We live right in the midst of a mass -– consisting of hundreds of cultures, customs, languages, religious beliefs, eating habits, and political affiliations… And, in my view, it’s not only a great beauty, but, it’s, also, a great blessing… Think of a citizen of this country like me –- a teacher. For decades, my life had been surrounded by young students from different parts of this country… who spoke different languages, wore their traditional clothes, ate their ethnic food, prayed to their respective deities… and voted to whom they preferred. I was born in a Christian family. In Christianity itself, there are a dozen denominations. I was raised in the coastal town, Mangalore… My neighbours, classmates, friends –- yes, our differences, as I said, did not make our minds narrow -– they only ...

  “Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else’s game.” Evita Ochel A ccording to Darwin’s theory of evolution, we humans were once monkeys. In other words, we have ‘evolved’ from the position of monkeys to the position of human beings. Right? But, had Darwin lived in today’s times – I mean, among a species hooked on to the relentless information and misinformation fed to it by media of hundred kinds – I think, the great scientist, perhaps, would not have given us that conclusion… We have reduced ourselves to something worse than monkeys! And, this degeneration has come about not over a ‘million years’ as Darwin and his fellow-scientists would have concluded. Instead, it has come about within a span of just few decades… Max two or three. Add one more, if you wish. And, after the internet came in, the monkey-hood of humans got complete! The end of the world? The end of right thinking, Sir! The scary part...

A round 10.30 last night, when I last saw the score of India-Pakistan world-cup cricket-match, I knew, that India would win the match. So, I went off to sleep... It was a deep sleep. I was, literally, thrown off the bed when crackers created a ruckus outside our window and all around, near and far. “We won,” my wife declared... Well, we both lost our sleep, then on! We had won against two formidable teams earlier – South Africa and Australia. But, we did not see the kind of joy or hysteria like we did last night... So much love for Pakistan? Or, so much hatred? Till the day we – India and Pakistan - got our respective Independence from the British rule, we were one big family – yes we were brothers and sisters of the same family. What happened to that, then? I simply cannot understand! W hen the summer PD programme of THE DAWN CLUB had begun in the second week of April, I had motivated all our little ones, young ones and some select Indian adults, who we...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda M y grandfather - dad’s dad – was an extremely shy and private person. As a farmer,  he worked in our paddy fields, in the hot sun, all day long, which made his skin intensely dark-brown… and, yes, he wore on his body a piece of cloth just enough to cover what was necessary in a village like ours! The grandma, on the other side, was exactly opposite… She was fair and lovely… exuberant… loved singing and dancing… had lots and lots of friends…. She loved to attend all the events and functions that were happening around… The grandpa shied away from the crowd… Even with his olden-days’ bare-minimum-literacy, he was able to befriend books and magazines which were published in Konkani and Kannada… I saw him lying down on his bench, during his free times, and reading his favorite books (Konkani translation) by St. Augustine. He was, particularly, influenced by Thomas A. Kempis’ ‘Imitation of Christ’… He was fond of reciting the age-old proverbs and ...