Gerald D'Cunha

  “Life is the soil, our choices and actions  are the sun and   rain, our dreams are the seeds.” Richard Paul Evans   “I really don’t care how much you score in your exams;” I keep screaming, with all my temper and passion, each day in my class, “but, I seriously care about the basics of your life... the foundation.” Now, when I scream like this before a young college student, why do I remind him about the ‘basics of life – the ‘foundation’ – now, when he/she is in his mid-teens? In this Post, I wish to touch upon only two such fundamentals: keeping an unbiased mind, and keeping our commitments. And, I wish to single out two of my students... O ne was very close to me when I started teaching here in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1980. This young boy, now is a retired person (from a government organization). He got reconnected with me on FB, some years ago. I have been able to scan the kind of mind he has developed over these years... It’s very, very narrow, extreme...

Pic.: Anand Ashokan M ayank* is a wonderful boy. He is in twelfth standard – ISC and goes to a reputed institution. Besides, he comes from a wonderful family... Both parents are highly educated, and the family is blessed with, almost, everything one would desire. But, to me, Mayank has been a kind of mystery. He loves me and respects me. But, lets me down when it comes to his attendance... If he attends one class, he misses two, at times, three! I have tried my level best to make him understand... He realizes his problem, gives me a new promise... only to break it, once again! This has been going on right since his eleventh standard. This year, he has Board exams; so, I am quite concerned... Yesterday, Mayank had attended my class after missing three classes in succession. I consciously decided not to ‘lecture’ him or ‘scold’ him. It was futile, I knew it... If it hadn’t worked for this long, it wouldn’t for whatever period is now left. So, I went about  te...