Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Chetna Shetty A nd, this morning Kannan had some new stories to tell. Yes, before our Tai Chi class would begin. The first story… Kannan wanted an auto rickshaw to come to the Tai Chi class. He saw at the corner of the road an auto. The place was almost deserted… and, it seemed that the autowala was there waiting for a passenger to come for some time… He looked anxious, lost. Kannan was fast moving to the direction of this auto… Just then, another autowala came from nowhere… Learning that Kannan needed to get into an auto, this autowala honked to draw Kannan’s attention…slowed down, drove close to Kannan, almost inviting him to get in… The first auto was a few yards away… still without a passenger… The autowala was yet to notice Kannan… And, Kannan had to make a spur-of-the-moment decision: Should he get into the one which has come inviting him, there right next to him… all waiting? Or, should he walk some more distance and get into the one w...

Pic.: Vinod Krishnan S ixteen-year-old Bhavesh, who has joined our PD course, was here this morning. I wanted him to write a self-introduction. A self-introduction, if we think about it, should be the easiest task in the world. But, when a young-one really gets down putting it on paper, it looks like a Mount-Everest expedition… Daunting! Well, if you don’t believe it, ask a young one to do it. Or, try doing it yourself! So, this morning, before Bhavesh could blink at me with, “Sir what to write… How to write… How much to write… How to start… How to end… What if this and what if that…” and all that, I handed over to him a couple of well-crafted self-introductions prepared and delivered in our sessions by some of our past participants. Bhavesh was excited after going through them. “ Beta , a self-introduction is your own story,” I told Bhavesh, “Feel strongly for your own story, and tell it well, that’s all it takes to put it on paper… Don’t’ worry about wh...

My dad was a die-hard fan of these three: America, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Muhammad Ali. It was in the Sixties and early part of the Seventies; and, it was in our native town, Mangalore. In those days, we had no electricity in our house; and, though a transistor (radio) was in existence, we could not afford one. All news reached our dad through the local Kannada dailies, which he would read to the last letter, after his work, at one of his favorite shops. There, half a dozen men, including the shop-owner, would heatedly discuss and debate on the current affairs. Those were the days of Vietnam War… America, the Super Power as my dad would call her, was criticized and even hated for the Vietnam mess…  But, not my dad. For him, America was the ‘Greatest nation on earth’… and, so it remained till he died in 1984… Her stories and legends kept us enthralled and inspired till his last day! For some strange reasons, our dad also loved and ad...