Gerald D'Cunha

“The great thing about social media is that it gives everyone a voice. But, the trouble is, it’s, often, a very loud voice.” -      Mark Zuckerberg W hile in college, I remember going to a particular restaurant (in my hometown, Mangalore) to enjoy the tea served there in the white cups. Somehow, that memory has stayed etched in my mind even after fifty years. I think, like this, each one of us has some soft memory spots… Here in Mumbai, after my Sunday Tai Chi session, a friend of mine and I go for a simple cup of tea served in those white cups… Ah, that simple pleasure… those quiet old memories… and, above all, the peace in being anonymous in, otherwise, noisy world around! This morning, I was amused to see a young man capturing his chai moment for his social media status. As I knew him and was connected with him on social media, I smiled when I saw his broadcast soon: “What a delight!” While I am no one to judge this young man –- or any of those who pos...

  “Live a life as a monument to your soul.” Ayn Rand   O ne of the highly motivational books, which I had read over and over again, was Dr. Robert Schuller’s ‘Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do.” Dr. Schuller had convincingly sold his ‘success philosophy’ to his readers as ‘Possibility Thinking’... Please note: Dr. Schuller was drilling into our heads, that only Positive Thinking wouldn’t take us anywhere... We needed to be practical, by applying ‘Possibility Thinking.” And, in his bestselling book - ‘Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do’, Dr. Schuller graphically narrated to us the story of building his dream project – ‘The Crystal Cathedral’ in Garden Grove, California... Yes, how a smalltime, countryside Pastor conceived and achieved a mammoth dream through his practical philosophy – ‘Possibility Thinking.” Crystal Cathedral (now Christ Cathedra), Garden Grove, California I t was the early eighties... Here, in the city of Mumbai, I was a newcomer...

  “It’s not the man who has little, but he who desires more, that is poor.” Seneca the Younger   I have blogged about this elderly woman many times before. I call her Maaji. She lives in her small room in a chawl, which is situated between my residence and workplace. She lives all   alone, gets up very early every morning, does her morning puja and does every household chore by herself. What’s endearing to see is, that this elderly woman has always some women to talk to her. I rarely see her ‘lonely’, and I have never seen her complaining about anything... Every morning and evening, I walk past Maaji’s humble room. And, every now and then, she asks me to wait. And, I know she has packed some fresh Maharashtrian delicacy for me. Invariably, it’s something simple, but prepared with exceptional love... and, more than anything else, keeping someone like me – who walks by her room every day – in her heart. “Wait, wait,” Maaji   literally called me back, whe...

  “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf   Y esterday was a Sunday. The night before, my wife and I decided to go out (on Sunday) and watch a good movie at a fine theatre, after that eat some delicious food somewhere, and simply spend some good time together… Importantly, together with our young son. We both knew, that we were able to make the most of this experience only if we let our young son decide on the movie and the eating place… What is best for the Prince is, always, the best for the King and the Queen, you see… Son chose to watch a movie my wife and I had never heard of… ‘Boong’, a short Manipuri film. Apparently, this film had done well in many international film festivals. Here at the INOX/PVR auditorium of the glittering Jio world, it sounded very weird for us… We were the only three spectators till the movie started. Then, another couple joined… and, that’s it. The film was about this poor family of M...

    “When the spirit shines, even the foggy skies make pleasant light.” Abraham Isaac Kook   B oth, joy and despair, are contagious… They spread very fast. But, in my experience, the despair spreads faster than joy. That seems to be the reason why we have so much negativity – the dark sensationalism – on our television news. Even on social media, what mostly gets viral is the negative content… This human psychology is manipulated to the hilt by the brains behind the social media algorithm… Just watch one video or post, that’s enough to open the floodgates of similar posts and videos. The mind is simply manipulated by this dangerous engineering… One happy video will be followed by a hundred more, and one gloomy story will be followed by not hundred, but a thousand more! T wo nights ago, our son explained to my wife and me the meaning of these two terms (apparently popular in psychology): the ‘triggers’ and the ‘glimmers’. On finding us, that evening, repeated...

“Wanting more is just a recipe for heartache.” Stephen King   H ow much is really enough? Is there a point in life, you and I will stop chasing, pursuing, wanting more and more and more? Will we ever say in our lives, ‘Enough’? To describe this human dilemma in Jesus’ words, “It’s as difficult for us to do that as it’s for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle.” Wanting more is a universal disease – a pandemic -   of human soul… It’s never enough… Ever. Well, if you ask me, “Have you stopped wanting more?”… Yes, my answer to that question is – “Not yet, Sir.” I know how difficult it is for me to walk through the eye of this needle… Ye dil, always, maange more… and more and more ji! T his morning, I bumped into this young man, who was my student some years ago. He lives here in this vicinity in his parents’ one-room house. In fact, he was born and has lived here for all his 30-plus years. He said, that he has been working for a real estate enterprise whi...

  “We must adjust to changing times, and still hold steadfast to unchanging principles.” Jimmy Carter   P urpose in life keeps us productive, useful… Should I say ‘Youthful’, too? We just have to look at former American President Jimmy Carter’s life and legacy… He passed away, at 100, just two weeks ago. Barring a couple of years before that century-long life, he lived with a clear purpose through ‘Habitat for Humanity’, in which, he and his wife Rosalynn had involved immediately after his four-year-term was over as 39 th   President of America. Leading from the front, for close to forty-five years, since then, the Carters inspired countless volunteers to build thousands of affordable houses, both, inside and outside America… President Carter, through these years, survived brain cancer, a hip surgery, multiple stiches around his wounded eye and many other challenges. What has been endearing was the childlike enthusiasm and steadfast faith he and his wife exud...

    “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.”   Pierre Teilhard de Chardin   I remember my excitement as a kid… I loved making the Christmas crib… Back then, in our village home, there wasn’t any electricity, not to mention money… The crib, that kids like me set up, was in today’s lingo – purely organic… The hills raised out of mud fetched from nearby paddy fields, the stones from another hill – a real one – nearby, the grass from a neighbour's backyard… the   light for baby Jesus' manger   came from the desi jugad – a candle placed inside a coconut shell , or - if there were some coins to indulge in - a little bulb lit up through torch batteries and wires… Whatever that was, it was pure joy… As I grew into adulthood, I saw it dimming, slowly dying… But, the child in us seldom dies…Don’t you agree? As you become an adult, the excitement of setting up the Christmas crib gets replaced by several other simple things… Each one of us ha...