Gerald D'Cunha

  “We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King Jr.   W e cannot be aware of everything and everyone around us… Some things and some people – yes, we, always, can. Like, if I told you about the language and culture I grew up with, the food habits, the worship and customs I was accustomed to, the local music that I adored – yes, you may not be aware of any of these. Likewise, I may not be aware of yours. So, in a way, our respective exposure will, always, be limited… Even with all the social media explosion on our faces every second of the day, and even if you and I do a hundred round trips around the globe, let me tell you this: we wouldn’t be able to know it all… Every corner of our own country is blessed with its own music, culture, cuisine, clothes, language, worship and unique tradition and custom. And, to say, that my country should have a single language, single deity, single food and attire – come on, it’s beyond...

I read Dr. John Gray’s famous classic on relationship – ‘Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus’ - some twenty years ago. That was just after a year or so of our marriage. As I was reading this ‘feel good’ book, I could recall experiencing similar feeling reading another such book. But, that was when I was a teenager. Linda Goodman’s ‘Sun Signs’ (and her other books later – ‘Star Signs’ and ‘Love Signs’) had sounded to me as ‘so true’! It seemed that she knew every soul on this planet, and she knew him so perfectly! I was a Leo… When she claimed she loved Leos a lot… whatever she wrote about Leos sounded perfectly right in my case… “Oh Linda, so sweet of you!” I kept praising and thanking the Goddess of Horoscope!   Dr. John Gray’s book on relationship did the same thing to me. “Hey, we men come from Mars and you ladies come from Venus,” I got it straight into my head, “We are differently wired on different things.” So, I kept reading ...