Gerald D'Cunha

  “In my stories, you will meet with underdogs and fighters. You will experience hunger and desire.” Avijeet Das I just concluded, two days ago, a well-designed programme for the degree students of a Mumbai suburban-college. These young kids hailed from ordinary families. Most of them lacked self-confidence and communication skills. There is a great sense of satisfaction and joy when you reach out to this section of the students… They realize the value of this programme and, invariably, approach it with earnestness. Our training team at MINDFLEX consisted of five trainers. I handled the one which is close to my heart – ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’. During this programme, I tell many inspiring stories. I keep two of them towards the end… ‘Poorna’ and ‘The Cheetah’. Both these stories leave a tremendous impact on the young minds. I have shared these stories several times in my Blogs before. Nevertheless, I wish to share ‘The Cheeta’ today, once again…  ...

I was helping a small group of youngsters, yesterday, on writing skills.. There was a cup on my table and it was empty, as I had just finished drinking my tea. The exercise I had given to them was to make a small write-up, or tell a story, using an image word. As an example, I told them this popular story, using the image word - cup… O nce, a scholar from the West came to a Japanese Zen Master to learn the Buddhist philosophy. As a tradition, before enrolling the Western Scholar as his student, the Zen Master served him tea. As the Master was pouring tea in the cup, the scholar cried, “Stop, stop… The cup is full, it’s overflowing!” The Zen Master smiled and said to his would-be student, “Just as this cup has no space in it for more tea, your mind, too, may be full and may not have any space for more wisdom… You need to empty your cup, my friend.” S ixteen--year-old Utsav, my own Scholar, here in this group, interrupted me, the moment he heard ‘Japanes...