Gerald D'Cunha

  “There is a world of practical religion in simply being considerate of others.” Roger Babson   W hen we are solely concerned about our own happiness and success, we become not only blind and deaf, we also become dumb… heartless, stones. I remember one such incident when I had become one… It was 1991 early January month. I was 33, young and unmarried. Sorry, I was married to ‘The Dawn Club’ which I had founded just two years before that. I was obsessed with what I was doing in its name. So, a grand entertainment programme, including several dances, a fashion show and an elaborate orchestra was being staged in an open-air ground. The ground was allotted to us by the top-boss of a government organization, whose wife was the chief guest of the day… The music was too, too loud, but the packed ground was having a gala time. Touching the boundary of that ground was the hospital run by the organization… There were several patients inside. The security men came several time...

“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.” Mary Anne Radmacher A fter her fall in mid-2021, my Mom’s health began to sink. A year ago, just after her 87 th birthday, we thought, she wouldn’t make it. That was the time, I started putting together a book about her. I did not have to think hard for the title… I named the book – ‘The Good Shepherd & Her Lost Sheep’. In one of His parables, Jesus tells about a shepherd. This shepherd has hundred sheep and loses one of them... He leaves all the ninety-nine and goes looking for the one which is lost… When he finds the lost sheep, he rejoices, crying – ‘I found my lost sheep’… Our Mom had five sons, and each one of them was ‘lost’ at one time or the other, and in one way or the other. Our Mom was our good shepherd… She had to go looking for each of her ‘lost sheep’… and, like the good shepherd in Jesus’ parable, our Mom’s joy knew no bounds! In the first section of this book, I shared many stories...

“Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses. It has only a sharp tongue and a pointing finger.” Toba Beta   T his morning, Rameeta*, who lives in New Delhi, called me up. “Gerry Sir, where have the teaching ideals gone?” she sounded quite upset. “What happened, Rameeta,” I prodded. “My daughter had enrolled to learn Kuchipudi dance under a well-known classical dance-teacher. Just eight sessions… Two of them got cancelled… When I checked with the teacher, if there would be compensatory sessions for the lost ones, she turned wild and gave me a mouthful… Even though, she was unreasonably arrogant and mean, I kept my calm for my daughter’s sake… But, I have been disturbed ever since… Thought I would share with you, just to feel a bit lighter.” Rameeta was my committed, hard-working and zestful student more than twenty-five years ago. She hailed from a very humble household; and despite the financial constraints, she and her brother both completed their Chartered Acc...

“Sometimes, love blinds us; other times, it lets us see.” -       Paulo Coelho A FB friends of mine was a die-hard fan of one of the political parties, especially its supreme leader. For about three-four years, I would get on FB his absolutely-polarized posts - either glorifying everything about his idol and his party, or brutally demeaning the opponents. I remember blocking his posts regularly. But, they would surface relentlessly, again and again. The blind worship had made him see nothing good on the other side of the divide and nothing wrong on his side… It was black, or it was white… No shades in between. The fact, that his friends belonged to both sides of the divide and many of them, including me, would not like his ‘public display of affection’… yes, he seemed to have hardly bothered about it… Just how many couples do love on the roadsides… or, on these social platforms! While such PDA continues to be there - left right and the c...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda T oughness and softness are two extreme worlds… So are anger and compassion… Sinfulness and grace. It is just like this world – the globe. If we see this on a flat world- atlas, we come out with the conclusion, that Japan is on one end of the world, the extreme East… and America is on the other end of the world, the extreme West… But, then, when we fold the same world-map and view it as a globe, we can’t believe our own eyes… “Hey, Japan is at America’s backyard!” If someone told me when I am angry, violently angry, “Friend, you are inches away from compassion, grace, God,” would I buy that logic? I would, I would! To me, my anger is something already there inside me… I do not have to put it inside… And,  every time  the lid bows off… the maniac in me, the monster, comes out… that’s, also, the time, my heart melts the most, knees bend the most… God and grace make sense the most! I have never watched a single episode of...

Pic.: Aparna Khanolkar Sheth B oth, Vijay and Ravi, were born to the same parents. But, the scar on Vijay’s wrist – ‘Mera baap chor hai’ , and its subsequent trauma, would live with him till his tragic end. It made him a school dropout, become a boot-polish boy by the street, a sworn atheist… It drove him to amass wealth, by hook or by crook. He became an underworld don, a hardened criminal. But, he loved and worshipped his mother. He believed that she deserved a better life… and his wealth would bring her that joy and happiness… His life, therefore, was fired by that ideal… On the other hand, Ravi, who did not have to go through the trauma of the scar as his elder brother Vijay had to, turned out to be a good sheep. He went to school, become a graduate and, eventually, an honest cop… He, too, loved and worshipped his mother… He, too, believed that his mother, who had to go through such great suffering in life, deserved a better deal… So, his life, too...

Pic.: Vinod Krishnan B alloons go up only when you fill them with air… the hot-air. So, if they have to remain up there, if they have to keep soaring high – then, you need to ensure that the hot- air lasts in them for a long, long time… But, do you see balloons floating long enough in the air? Well, let me talk about another kind of balloons, now. As I had promised to my friend, Harish, I held, yesterday, a four-hour programme for his wonderful staff in a hotel. Harish was very clear in his objective: he wanted his young boys and girls to ‘aspire’ for a better life… a productive and contributing life. For that, he wanted them to be ‘inspired’… So, rightly, he had coined the theme for the programme: ‘Inspire and Aspire’. Well, I gave my best… and, I could make out that they were all ‘inspired’… Yes, pumped-up with that hot-air. At the end of the session, almost all young boys and girls came up to me to tell that they were charged-up, now… That, they we...

Pic.: Vinod Krishnan T here are only two ways in which I can save myself from falling in a ditch: One, by heeding to the wise and well-meant advice of my well-wishers – parents, teachers, friends and such… Two, by ignoring their advice and falling in the ditch, itself! “Sir, my son will never learn from my advice or your advice,” the mother of a 19-year-old told me, one day, over the phone, “he will learn only from falling in the ditch.” The ‘ditch’ was young-man’s T.Y. B’Com exam! The mother was right. Both parents were highly qualified and worked very hard to give the best to their son… including the best of advice… But, then, but then… Here, in my class, I, too, did the same thing. Besides the best teaching in their subject, I would give him and others the best of advice, as well… Yes, wise, kind and well-meant advice... “You guys are not doing well, not because you are weak,” I would remind my students, repeatedly, “It is because you d...

Pic.: Sherry Haridas T hey are a bunch of six boys, in the age group of 14 to 16. For the last two weeks or so, their evening mission, every day, has been: to hit passing girls with water-balloons... trouble them, harass them, anger them... and, do it more when these hapless girls asked them to stop it... Whenever some harassed ladies or elderly men would confront them, the boys would treat them with the same mischief... trouble even more... tease, irritate, harass... and, then, run from there, mocking, “Catch us if you can!” Ladies, elderly men and innocent girls, yes, none of them could ‘catch’ the mischief-mongers...and, it would go on, unabated, for almost two weeks now. Many, including myself, had told these boys, in different ways and words, not to go for such sadistic pleasure, not to harass... and, if they didn’t stop, they might land up in problems. But, they wouldn’t listen; the mischief wouldn’t come to an end...  Finally, late last evening, it h...