Gerald D'Cunha

  "The more grateful I am,  the more beauty I see." – Mary Davis   T his morning, I saw two posts, from two of my favourite people… The first one was from my surgeon friend, Dr. Sanjay Sonar. He is a super specialist in laparoscopic surgeries (Minimal invasion). Eight years ago, almost during this very Diwali time, he had performed two back-to-back surgeries on me. A cancerous tumor was, accidentally, detected on my right kidney. The kidney was surgically (with minimum cut) removed. Dr. Sonar is blessed with fine hands… and, within ten days, I was all set to get discharged from the hospital. But, during those last few days, a blood clot in my leg caused something called ‘Pulmonary Embolism’. I hadn’t heard about this condition, nor I wanted to know what it was… or how life-threatening it could be! Dr. Sonar quickly deliberated with other specialists and decided, that night, to rush me into the OT and perform another surgery… This time, he cut me open right from the ...

  “It takes an earthquake to remind us, that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet.” Charles Kuralt   L ast evening , while watching the disturbing images of devastation in Turkey, I remembered one of my dear friends. His sister’s entire family has been living in Turkey for nearly ten years, now. I was quite tensed as I messaged him… “Hope sister’s family is safe in Turkey.” “Mercifully, yes. The tremors haven’t touched Istanbul, yet,” my friend replied. That’s when I realized, that my friend’s statement carried a great irony of our existence… When natural disasters, like earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones etc., strike, you and I are either caught in them, or spared. “God has been kind,” was my instant conclusion on reading my friend’s reply. But, at hindsight, a question kept haunting me – “Why has not God been kind to the ones caught in the disasters?”… “Why has He been so selective?” But, then, who am I to question God? N ot very far from the epicenter...

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.”  ―  Hannah Whitall Smith M y problems and my suffering are always mine… They are ‘big’… till I see someone else’s problems and suffering and realize how ‘small’ mine are. When I am stuck in my own ‘selfish’ world of self-pity and blame, I can never see how small my problems and suffering are… It is all about I, me and myself. Acceptance, I know, is the key to end my suffering. But, acceptance doesn’t come to me easily. When it does, it, invariably, comes via the long route called – ‘resistance’… Yes, when I am grief-stricken, I cry and keep asking ‘Why me?’... I throw resistance… I remain a victim. I have come to realize, that the state of acceptance is a state of grace…  Only prayerful and grateful hearts are blessed with this state. Life has problems and I am not alone in this… There are mill...