Gerald D'Cunha

  “If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time, do not drag your feet.” Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam   T hree of my favourite people – who I, always, admired -- and even idolised –- come before me, today. And, all three of them are no more now. Let me talk a bit about each one of them… R . K. Laxman, kept us all enthralled and inspired for long decades as a gifted cartoonist. Like millions of people in this country, I, too, would eagerly look forward to each morning to see his everyday political satire, and, yes, his famous ‘Common man’ saying so much without uttering a single word… What a genius R. K. Laxman was! The legend has it, that the famed ‘J. J. School of Art’ of Bombay rejected him as a student, saying, that he lacked talent. In other words, according to the selection panel, he wasn’t worthy to be a student of this ‘coveted’ institution. Ironically, today, you walk into this very college campus to witness a statue of this ‘rejected’ student’s fine...

  “You will never be the person you can be if pressure,  tension and discipline are taken out of your life.” James G. Bilkey   I  remember what great Albert Einstein once said: “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing, that it’s stupid.” Well, with the permission of the great scientist, I wish to replace the word ‘Genius’ in this quote with ‘Champion’... T his morning, I was teaching this batch of twelfth standard. Two days ago, one of the students, Maansi, who has been always regular and committed to her studies, had requested me for a leave. “Sir, I will be leaving to Chennai for my tournament (Rifle shooting), early tomorrow morning. I will miss a couple of classes. But, I will try to attend online.” I sent Maansi the zoom link. But, due to a weak network, she had to miss one of the sessions while she was travelling by train. “But, Sir, I will make it up... Solve the sums a...

  “Light yourself on fire with passion, and people will come from miles to watch you burn.” John Wesley   A couple of weeks ago, a 60-year-old woman called me. Apparently, she had asked, on one of the FB groups, about a place where Public Speaking was taught for ‘adults’… And, you know how willingly - and, often, weirdly - some of us are ready with our responses. The woman, must’ve received dozens of recommendations… many saying, ‘So and so person/place is the best.’ When the woman called me, she said what one of the young girls, who had attended our Public-speaking course, had written on FB: “Gerry Sir… the best in the entire world!!!” The woman and I both laughed at it… and, then, started discussing about why the she was keen to learn the public-speaking skill… The woman said, that she was a pastor at a certain Christian congregation and felt she lacked the gift of speaking with passion. “I need to speak like great evangelists,” she said… I remembered a hu...

  “Children are not things to be moulded, but are people to be unfolded.” Jess Lair   I have not played any competitive game in my life, leave alone a high-pressure game like the one (Cricket) going on, today, between India and Pakistan… Yes, leave alone playing such a game, I haven’t even played a competitive gully-game. But, I know this: without experiencing pressure, there can’t be a competitive game… And, what about the exams – board exams, the regular school and college exams, entrance exams, and high-profile exams? I don’t think, we can free some amount of pressure and stress from these exams… And, I believe, that a reasonable amount of stress in life is a ‘good stress’… It is necessary to keep us alert, agile and prepared… Imagine, a student who is just not bothered about his/her exams? Is such a stress-free approach okay for you and me? A s a teenager, I remember getting stressed out before my every exam. I had been an anxious kid, always… I had high de...

  “Surely, of all the wonders of the world, the horizon is the greatest.” Freya Stark M y dear friend, Jayaprakash, and his wife, Shital, are both Chartered Accountants. Their son, Vedant pursues Chartered Accountancy and daughter, Shrushti, pursues Law. All of them are voracious readers, music lovers, while Shital and Shrushti are Bharat Natyam dancers. But, what I admire the most about these four is their insane love for travel… Every summer, this family explores one more part of the globe - often, a remote one, and often, a buzzing one. (On foreign lands, they rent a car and drive for days). On realizing how richly this family has been valuing travel around the world, I only end up consoling myself with Harun Yahya’s words: “I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on earth; then, I ask myself the same question.” Well, that’s my way of justifying my limitations, and, yes, concealing my envy of those who travel the way my...

  “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask ‘What seat?’… Just get on.” Sheryl Sandberg   T his morning, I bumped into a middle-aged man inside our building lift. He was a stranger. So, after the spontaneous exchange of the courtesy ‘Hello’,   the he asked me, “What do you do?” “I am a teacher… I teach,” I said instinctively. “What do you teach?” the gentleman asked. “I teach Accounting subjects?” I replied. “Where do you teach?” was the next question. “I teach in my own coaching centre,” I responded. “Is it?... Where is your centre?” By then, the lift had landed on the ground floor, and the gentleman had to rush up, his way… and I had to do the same, my way… I forgot about this conversation completely, as such questions from strangers have been routine… You see, I would ask the same way to someone. So, nothing strange about this stranger’s questions – or, call it his   curiosity. H ere in my class, at the end of the lecture, I f...

  “Sing like there’s nobody listening; and live like it’s heaven on earth.” William Watson Purkey   M y elder brother, Franklin, is a ‘retired man’… He is presently 68. Eight years ago, when he retired from his ‘sailing life’, he clearly knew, that he was not retiring from living life. So, today, he is busier than all his younger brothers. Mom is 89... For the last two years, she has been confined to her bed – unable to move, eat, recognize…Franklin and his wife, Merlyn, have taken upon them the responsibility to look after Mom – nurse her, feed her, care for her like a little baby. We brothers, who live faraway from our native home in Mangalore (where Mom lives with Franklin and Merlyn), endlessly feel not only guilty, but also grateful for the selfless care Mom has been receiving from my elder brother and his wife… Franklin’s daily duty gets over only around 10 in the night. A shower, followed by 2 pegs of whiskey and dinner – and some time on catching up/sharing s...