Gerald D'Cunha

  “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” Corrie Ten Boom   I t’s a herculean task for teachers to expect a decent attendance in Mumbai schools and colleges during the Ganeshotsav … Almost every household and every housing colony – plush   or humble – there is Ganesh celebration. Thus, the Maharashtra Government has decided to keep the state-run schools and colleges shut for a major portion of this festive season… Young kids are hyperactive in the pandals … Parents, too – with a dozen things planned… So, teachers like me have learnt to go easy on the attendance… “Chalo , how many days do you want me to keep the classes closed?” For five days or for eleven – whatever is asked, granted. “But, then, at least, do some homework… even one simple sum.” I plead them… Today, my students had come – some online, some offline – after a break of six days. Only a couple of them had done their homework… and others had turned up not only without their homework...

  “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Denis Waitely I had written this Post a week ago. But, for some reasons, I delayed sharing it till this morning…   F or years, we would regularly have a daily newspaper at our door. This stopped when the Pandemic broke out. We stopped reading the   newspaper completely. More than two years later, on 1 st of this April, we suddenly saw the same newspaper being dropped at our door,   again. We thought, that it could be by mistake. Then, it continued every morning. By now, we knew what was happening: The vendor was trying to re-form the habit in us, all over again! Reading a newspaper is a habit just like smoking a cigarette. Mind gets accustomed (read addicted) to a certain pattern and a brand… Today, on the eighth   day,   when my wife opened the door for some other reason, coincidentally, the newspaper vendor appeared to drop the...

  “An attitude of entitlement is inversely related to one of gratitude.” Pete Wilson   E very time I use the expression, “You can’t be grateful and unhappy at the same time,” a thought passes through my mind: “Do I know what it really means?” One of my dear friends, often, likes to remind me, “Our problem is not ‘knowledge’; our problem is ‘implementation.” I, certainly, know what a powerful antidote ‘gratitude’ can be for ‘unhappiness’; but, when it comes to ‘living in a constant state of gratitude’ – it is really not easy. Like most around me, I, too, quite regularly, slip into the complaining mode – grumbling about what is missing in my life rather than appreciating and be thankful for what is there in my life – yes, this comes more naturally. Thus, to shake me hard from this kind of attitude of a lack of gratitude, I truly feel, that I need to come out of my own shell of self-pity and entitlement state-of-mind, and see around me to check how worse it is for m...

  “Let’s build bridges, not walls.” Martin Luther King Jr.   I came across this interesting dialogue while looking for appropriate quotes relating to self-care and assertiveness: “Not everything is about you,” Clary said furiously. “Possibly,"  Jace said, "but, you have to admit, that majority of things are.” (Cassandra Clare, City of Glass)   When we criticize others, are we aware, if we are criticizing the ‘person’ or his/her ‘actions’? I think, many times, we aren’t. Similarly, when someone criticizes us, are we aware, if it is our actions or we, as persons, that are being criticized? Again, I think, many times, we aren’t. It’s easy for us to say, “Hey, it’s not about you.” But, ‘something’, always, is… Isn’t it? That’s what drew my attention to in the dialogue shared above. While Clary, furiously, declares, “Not ‘everything’ is about you,” Jace reminds, ‘Something’ is… In fact, "‘majority of things’ are"! To me, the take away from th...

“T here is no free lunch in life,” I told  Varun*, this morning. He had come to attend the Tax class (Direct Tax). Varun’s parents, who are both doctors, are my friends. Some months ago, when Varun had decided to change his stream from Engineering to Commerce, I was approached to do two things: 1. To provide a solid foundation to Varun in important Commerce subjects like Accountancy, Costing and Taxation so that he would be able to take off smoothly. 2. To motivate him to be a self-starter and develop a winning attitude. I have had wonderful experience over last two-three months. Varun has been very receptive and has not disappointed me. However, as a young boy, Varun is no different from his peers… He loves to chill out with his friends, play competitive football and video games, watch movies and attend late-night parties… Move around with friends, both boys and girls… invite them over for lunch and sleep-overs… And, importantly, bully his kid brother,...

T he first ones to greet me ‘Good Morning’ - I mean, in person – are our security guards and a couple of car-wash persons. The security guards do their twelve-hour night-duty – 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. I have no idea what they do once they end their duty in the morning… Obviously, they need a good sleep.  So, do they all go home and sleep or do they also do some other duty - maybe a few hours – to earn some extra income. Whenever we saw a guard doing in our colony back-to-back duty (day and night both), we had sternly told the security chief not to make any guard do such day-and-night duty. So, now, they all are found doing only 12-hour duty in our colony. But, I am sure, in order to earn some extra income, they must be doing, now and then, another 12-hour duty somewhere else. Or, at least some other duty involving a couple of hours. This morning, when one of the car-wash persons (a lovable old hand) wished me ‘Good Morning, sir,” I asked him gently, “So, at what time do ...

Pic.: Shankar Ramachndran A s the autorickshaw I was commuting by stopped at the busy signal, the cleaner of the tempo next to us spat out on the road, inches away from us, blood-red paan from his mouth. Barely the mess had touched the ground, my young autowala blasted: “You idiot, do you do it on your house-floor, too?”… He was really furious! “Why are you worked-up? Is there any problem for you?” the cleaner yelled back. “Yes, there ‘is’ a problem for me,” my autowala was out on the road, now, “Do you want me to show you that?”  On the other side, the cleaner opened the tempo-door and was ready to pick the gauntlet… The yellow-light had already flashed… I knew, if someone didn’t intervene, a war would break out on the busy street! So, I held my autowala’s hand, gently, saying, “Brother, let it be.” On the others side, I saw the tempo-driver gently pleading before the autowala, “Sorry brother, he shouldn’t have done that.” Luckily, the cl...

Pic.: Rekha Prakash I t is widely known as ‘The Parable of the Talents’. It is, also, known as ‘The Parable of the Minas’ … and, sometimes, as ‘The Parable of the Pounds’. But, I love the first name – ‘The Parable of the Talents.’ To me, it is one of Jesus’ most profound Parables… O nce, a Master was to go on a long journey. Before leaving, he called three of his servants and handed each one of them some Talents (A Talent, then, was a substantial sum of money… call it ‘Minas’ or ‘Pound’ or even ‘Dollar!’) according to their abilities. To the first servant, the Master handed five Talents; to the second, he gave two; and to the third, he offered one. Then, he proceeded on his journey. The first two servants immediately went on to work. They invested the Talents gifted by their Master wisely and responsibly. The third savant just dug a hole in the ground and hid his Talent there. When the Master returned, he wanted to know what his three servants had done...

Pic.: Alwyn Mathais “If you don't get out of the box you've been raised in, you won't understand how much bigger the world is.” - Angelina Jolie T he ‘box’, Angelina is referring to, is our mind. Unless, we bring ourselves out of the rut – the image – we are in, we shall, always, be held captive there. Yes, inside the ‘box’. Someone had said it, rather bluntly, this way: “A rag-picker’s son will, always, remain a rig-picker as long as he has the image of the rag-picker.” And, that’s the story of each and every one of us… We have this image of the situation in which we are born and grown… That’s our ‘box’, our ‘image’… our ‘world’. So, till we don’t look at it hard and decide to re-sketch this image, decide to re-write our script, we will, always, remain caught-up in our ‘boxes’. There should be something bigger than us calling us, all the time… There should be something greater challenging us, all the time… A bigger vision, a greater cause… a ...

A   friend of mine has a favorite line, and he recites it in his chaste Marathi. I wish, I could reproduce it here with the same effect. Nevertheless, what he wants to convey through it is: ”Everyone wants Shivaji to be born… but, in someone-else’s home!” M ost of us are cribbers of the first order. We complain about everything and everyone, and we do it everywhere and everytime… Why something or someone is wrong, we are first to point out. Why can’t it be done this way or that way… Why can’t he do it this or do that… Yes, cribbing and complaining comes to us, so effortlessly! My friend puts these guys – the habitual cribbers – to a simple test… He asks them to come forward… take up the responsibility to lead and manage. If they are genuinely interested in the progress of the place – organization or community – if they are sincere, if their intentions are good, then, they will surely take it up. If not, they will give a hundred reasons why they ca...