Gerald D'Cunha

  “Yes, and how many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?” From Bob Dylan’s song – ‘Blowing in the Wind’ O ur two-month summer programme just concluded, yesterday. We had decided to keep the certification ceremony simple; and, therefore, held it in our newly-renovated premises. Three of our young students were capturing the memories through their mobile cameras. Tanvir Shaikh, an aspiring pilot, was one of them. Around 1 noon, all of a sudden, Tanvir’s phone rang (as he hadn’t kept it on the silent mode)… The ringtone was a soothing azan (the Islamic call to prayer). Among the 25-plus members present in the room, he was the only Muslim. The haunting sound of azan had turned every head turn towards Tanvir… who sounded apologetic for not keeping his phone on the silent mode. I, instantly, said to all, “It’s a beautiful call to prayer... Let’s be silent for a moment.” I let the azan play, as the Grace before meal…… The stillness in the room was very poig...

  “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” Warsan Shire   W hen I was small, almost every young man and a girl from my native place, Mangalore, migrated to big Indian cities or to one of the Gulf countries. A handful of young ones migrated to the West, either to pursue studies and eventually to settle down there, or they went there in pursuance of work. Whatever the reason for one’s migration, one thing is clear: no one leaves home unless the situation he now finds himself/herself in is ‘bad’... I remember, while I was still a kid. Just outside our local, primary school, there used be tents raised by poor migrants from the interior places of   our own state (Karnataka). Imagine this: If we were looking for better pastures in some other cities, these poor migrants were finding better pastures here in our own village. And, this has been the migrants’ story all over the world. Cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad are flooded...