Gerald D'Cunha

  “Older men declare war. But, it’s youth that must fight and die.” Herbert Hoover   S o many of my relatives (including the families of my two brothers), friends and students – past and present – live in the Middle East countries. And, as the war has broken out, they find themselves caught up in a frightening situation... The first thing I did, after waking up this morning, was to send this message to each one of them: “The news of conflict in the Middle East is very worrying. Pray for your safety and well-being. Hope the situation returns to normalcy, soon. Love and prayers.” Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other countries in the Gulf region are small ones. If war escalates, it will be devastating for the entire region. There is hardly anything, you and I – and our friends and relatives living there – can do to douse the engulfing inferno... Yes, except going on our knees and praying hard - “O God, please bring in sanity.” Whatever the reason b...

  “You must not lean on a tree on Sabbath; if the tree might be dependent on you for support.” Ovadia Yosef I f Sunday is ‘Sabbath’ – the day of rest and prayers -   here in India and many other parts of the world, it’s Friday in many Arab counties… and, it’s not so in Israel, the land of Moses, where the concept of ‘Sabbath’ was first introduced… For the Jews, Sabbath starts at Friday sunset and ends at Saturday sundown… I think, whether Arabs and Jews are endlessly are at war with one another, and whether how a day of Sabbath - or the ‘Lord’s Day’ -   is observed is not at all important. To me, it has nothing to do with God. For, He will never ever ask whether or not we keep your tools down and rest on a Sunday or a Friday or any other day. What difference does it make to God… as long as we have rested, reflected, rejuvenated – sharpened the saw as Stephen Covey said? Yes, why fuss about - which day is ‘Sabbath’? W hen most of us rest, there are so many around...

  “Problems are not big or small. It is based on how big or small your understanding is.” J. Tisa   T he more we worry about what’s happening in others’ lives, the more we invite turmoil in our own. When I say, ‘others’, I mean not our dearest and the nearest ones. When there is turmoil in the lives of our dearest and the nearest ones, we just cannot brush it aside, saying ‘It’s their problem’. They are our own; hence, their problems bother us… weigh us down. When ‘others’ are not our dearest and the nearest ones, well, their problems do not weigh us down. When they narrate their problems to us, we do not involve emotionally, instead, just superficially. Not so? Disagree? Well, I agree, that all of us may not react to others’ problems in an identical manner. But, we realize the thresholds of our limits… We realize, how much stress we are able to withstand… and, we learn what and when to let others’ problems be. Experience teaches us this: The more we focus on others’ business ...

  “If war is the answer, we are asking the wrong question.” Anonymous   I am aware of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Afghanistan. It’s a matter of grave concern for all of us. As we all know, the fire in our neighbour’s house – even if our neigbour is our bitter enemy – is not something we can sleep over, leave alone rejoice over… The fire spreads fast; yes, it does. So, we are flooded with the news about what’s happening in Afghanistan – and how ordinary citizens, like Indians who had been living in that country for their livelihood, are caught between the crossfire – many of us are hooked on to the TV sets – feeling helpless, anxious, worried and, even angry! But, what can ordinary citizens like you and I do in a situation like this? Blaming or debating, in my view, is futile. If war could solve this problem, America would have gone home, long ago… The truth is, that you cannot fight fire with fire… You can fight it only with water! So, while m...

“The strongest of all warriors are these two- Time and Patience.” - Leo Tolstoy M y grandfather was a farmer and my dad was a mechanic. My aunts and uncles were all simple souls, with the most basic education… Did I say ‘the most basic education’? Yes, I did. One of my dad’s younger brothers, with his ‘most basic education’ and driving skill, had joined the Indian Army, where he served as an army truck-driver. During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, he was posted in Kashmir frontier… I was a little boy of 7, then. I still remember my uncle’s war stories! He had sustained several injuries during that war… But, those days, there was no way in which we could get any report about how things were in the war zone… TV, mobile phones, Internet, Social media, good news, bad news, fake news – yes, none of them existed, then. The local papers carried nothing and still, my grandparents, parents, my other uncles and aunts – yes, all of them wer...

I wasn’t aware of the phrase, ‘How’s the josh?” and its response, “High Sir” till I read about it on the newspapers. Apparently, our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, had used this while addressing a Bollywood event in Mumbai. Last evening, my wife and I decided to watch ‘Uri – The Surgical Strike’, finally. I said ‘Finally’, because, we were a bit apprehensive about any political overtures… The movie was released on the same day as ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ was released and there was so much noise about the latter. But, when we heard from every source that ‘Uri’ was a brilliant movie, we wanted to watch it. In the end, PM’s josh did it… He, literally, pushed us to the cinema hall! ‘Uri’ is an action movie, a war movie. As movie buffs, most of us grew on the bollywood or regional flicks, which had the revenge story in them… Yes, ‘Badla’ … “Tera ghar me ghus ke marunga tuje’ … ‘Khoon ka badla khoon se’ … and all that. There is a child in all of us, and, n...

“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”  ―  Theodore Roosevelt W hat is happening in Syria is happening in Syria… We aren’t affected by it, you see. We have our own problems… Why add more worries to our own? This is human tendency… You and I, generally, choose to look the other side when it comes to ‘others’ problems. I am no angel or saint. I, too, look the other side, so often, when I come across ‘others’ problems’… A dear friend of mine has been showing her concern towards lakhs of little children affected by the brutal Syrian war. She has been sharing heart-wrenching images to make her friends, like me, feel a little more sensitive and empathetic towards these helpless children, who are caught in the crossfire of human greed and ego. I don’t do what this friend of mine does about Syrian children… Yes, both of us live here, thousands of miles away from Syria… Both of us are ordinary...

“Whatever Life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: With great power comes great responsibility… this is my gift, my curse… Who am I? – I am Spider-man.” I n  our degree college, we had a language (Kannada) teacher by he name Prof. Padakannayya. It was from him, I first learnt the significance of the story of ‘Mahabharatha’. I particularly remember his description of Duryodhana… The eldest of Kauravas – the 100 sons of Dhritarashtra, the blind king of Hastinapur. I remember a passing remark of our teacher while dealing with this story. “When God gives us great strengths,” he said, “He, deliberately, holds back wisdom!” Well, at age 17-18, I did not grasp the full meaning of our teacher’s statement. It took years and years to do it..  But, fully?   Far from it! “With great power comes great responsibility.” Though most of us heard it as a piece of advice to Spider-man from his uncle, it, actuall...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda A s a human race, we are a strange species… In fact, a very, very funny one! We need calamities – like a war with another county or an earthquake, tsunami or flood or a deadly terrorist attack to unite us together… It takes a war and a tsunami to make us forget for a while that we are Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs… It takes an earthquake and a terrorist attack to make us forget for a while that we are fighting her on this earth on such silly and petty issues… It takes a nasty whip from God to tame our ‘huge’ egos… to bring us on our knees… That’s why I call us – the human species – a wired and funny species We choose to fight when God is kind to us… We chose to abuse His mercy! “Pray for Chennai”… Yes, I am going back to it, once again. My heart bleeds for Chennai as it bleeds for the hapless victims of any such calamity. We need to really, really do whatever we can to reach out to innocent victims… But, then, what do...