Gerald D'Cunha

  “I don’t go with the flow, nor do I go against it. I create my own.” Laurie Buchanan T he very thought   of ‘Going with the flow’   has a very calming effect on our minds. I am talking about very simple situations in our daily lives (like arriving at some consensus), as well as complex situations which are beyond human control (like calamites such as Covid, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes etc.) While the former offers us the options to go or not to go with the flow, the latter   (calamities) offer no options to us, but to go with the flow… But, wait a minute: Even when calamities like floods, tsunamis, earthquakes or Covid strike us, do we passively declare, “Take us – Thy will be done?” Or, do we try, with all that we possess, to fight, to survive and to outwit the current? That’s where, I think, we need clarity on the idea of ‘Going with the flow’. When we use this phrase, we should be aware of what we are saying… In all life-situations, whether within ...

  “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Popular English proverb   N obody, in his senses, will ask God for tough times in life. The prayer to God will, always, be: ‘God, keep us away from tough times.” Even the Son of God went down on His knees and prayed, “My Father, if it’s possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.” But, then, He, being an evolved human, concluded His heart-wrenching prayer at Gethsemane: “But, thy will be done, not mine.” In Life, tough times come to test us - to make us stronger, wiser and kinder human beings… That’s my steadfast belief. While everyone’s life has tough times, some of us have tougher times than the rest. I, mercifully, have belonged to the ‘rest’, so far! Thank you, God; thank you for the mercy! T he family of Shilpa*, my eleventh standard student, has been going through very tough times, of late. She, along with her parents and younger sister (7 th std.) had tested Covid-positive. Only her 3-year-o...

  “A smiling face, after a certain age, is a triumph of the human spirit.” Efrat Cybulkiewicz   R ecently, I have started stepping out of my house on some very important and urgent work. Obviously, taking all the Covid-related precautions. I really had to pinch myself to check if a life, such as this, was real! It was! Yesterday, in the autorickshaw in which I was commuting, the driver was a young man. I struck a cordial conversation with him. “It’s pushed us back at least by two years,” he said, “Personally, whatever I had planned and worked for, now two years behind schedule!” I thought about myself: “I am 62… How many years behind schedule I am?” I really do not know… But, one thing I know: a lot of what I had meticulously planned and worked for has been pushed behind… Like the stranger who drove the auto, I, too, am behind schedule… But, then, who prepared the schedule? Who planned, and who was working towards those plans? Did the schedule get disturbed...

“Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe.” ~Eileen Elias Freeman I  have just returned after attending the funeral of my friend Gurpreet’s dad. The first thought that came to my mind, when I heard about the death, early in the morning, today, was: “Thank you Lord, for remembering him.” Now, it may not sound good to thank Lord for the death of our near and dear ones in our families. But, death is a long sleep we all are going to enter, sooner or later… May his soul rest in eternal peace! Gurpreet’s dad had to endure a lot of suffering due to his failed kidneys. He was a strong man, very hard-working and responsible. He has left leaving the family in good place. But, in his pain and suffering, despite the family’s unflagging support and care, he had to endure it all by himself… When I stood there, a while ago, drenched in the sobs of family members on the one side, and the...

“Once the thunderstorm starts, raindrops can no longer vote.” ―  Mike Klepper D o we all experience the fear of consequences? I haven’t gone around asking this question to people with in my own reach… leave alone the ones beyond my reach. Yet, I can speak for all of them, I suppose: yes, we all experience the fear of consequences… The consequences of our decisions… The consequences of our actions as well as inactions… Consequences  of what we say, what we write and how we behave etc. Maybe, with some people, this fear is less visible… But, I am sure, they do experience this fear deep inside. I n life, every decision that we take has the potential of going right and going wrong. We can only weigh the degree of the two possibilities… how much it can go right and how much it can go wrong. Most of us go through this process before arriving at our decisions…We gather facts from reliable sources, we consult right people… we take advice a...