Gerald D'Cunha

Did you ever know that you’re my hero? You’re everything I wish I could be, I could fly higher than an eagle, ‘cause you are the wind beneath my wings.” From the song ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ by Bette Midler I n the morning, today, I received a ‘surprise friend-request’ on FB… It was Danika, the young daughter of my cousin, Oscar Rebello and his wife Mavis.  I said ‘surprise friend-request’, because, while Mavis has been on my FB friend-list for years (and would read my blogs regularly), Oscar found FB and other social-media platforms very superficial. He had told me, many times, that he believed in keeping personal touch, not virtual touch. That seems to be the only reason, why Oscar made it a point to keep in touch, by calling and visiting, with all his relatives, near and far, young and old alike. He has called my 85-year-old mom, who lives in our hometown, Mangalore, almost on every festival and special occasions, while, I may have skipped many ti...

Pic.: Shreeshay Patel “You can sacrifice and not love… But you cannot love and not sacrifice.”   ―   Kris Vallotton I had visitors in my office, a while ago – a father and his daughter. During the course of our discussion, the father told me that his daughter had given him and his wife a pleasant surprise, some days ago. It was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The daughter had quietly worked from behind the scene… She had meticulously saved every rupee she had earned during the entire year (by giving tuitions)… She had contacted her parents' closest friends, who had been by them, in their good times and bad times… She had invited them along with some close relatives and arranged for a warm celebration in a beautiful venue… Her parents had no clue about it till the day of the celebration had arrived! For twenty-five years, the parents had been doing so many things for their daughter without making any ‘show’ about it. Small and big s...