Gerald D'Cunha

"There are no uninteresting things; only uninterested people.” G.K. Chesterson L’ le Alice would not have discovered the ‘wonderland’ and experienced all her fascinating adventures had she not been bored that day… and, had she not been curious to find how deep the rabbit hole was and what lay inside it! In Life, Alice, the Rabbit Hole and the Wonderland – yes, all these are the fine metaphors… If we are human, we shall experience boredom, time and again. And, that’s the time to go near the rabbit hole in our backyard and get curious: how deep the hole is, and what lies inside… Every habit that we have formed – and every new habit we are going to form - if we think about it, is something that we have done when we were bored in life. Just think about it! So, now, when we find ourselves locked inside our four walls, for nearly four months – and not knowing how long this situation may continue – we are left with the same choice as l’le Alice was left w...

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work… It’s already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Michelangelo O ne of the amazing mysteries of life is the beauty of what we create. It’s said, “Everything that we create in life, we create twice: once, inside the mind, and once, outside.” This means, that everything is already there in the thin air… everything – beautiful buildings and beautiful books… movies, poems, songs, music, software, machines, automobiles, clothes, commercials, every product and every service on this earth. Yes, it’s all there… just like the simplest solution to the toughest mathematical-problem… Just like a continent, even God! Everything is there already concealed; we just need to ‘uncover’… The beauty of this uncovering is called ‘Creation’! Well, if a mystic is to read what I have just said, he may simply laugh at my ignorance. I hear him shout, “My friend, in life, yo...

P ablo Picasso, once, said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”  And, that explains why the end of the innocence in human soul, is the end of human soul itself. Children are pure and unpolluted. In our frantic attempts to make them ‘grow up’, what we actually end up doing is - make them ‘give up’ their innocence… their purity, their curiosity and sense of wonder. We also end up doing one more thing… a vicious thing, indeed: We pour poison into their hearts… Yes, the poison of ‘discrimination’ and ‘bias’! Caste, class, colour, gender, nationality and religion… every kind of discrimination or bias is alien to a child. It creeps in as it ‘grows up’. In other words, it wasn’t there in us while we were little children. We picked it from outside, only to be polluted and poisoned! The ability to see the goodness in others and live with them harmoniously is a fine education. In fact, as Picasso said, it take...

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” ―   Friedrich Nietzsche A couple of days ago, on the Raksha Bandhan night, the five-year-old daughter of my friend, Vishwanath, came to show me her latest art-work. In a ruled notebook, she had drawn two rakhies with color pencils… “Uncle, I made them; you liked?” the little-one wanted my verdict… and was waiting for it… “Wow, you made them?” I said with excitement, “They are beautiful!” The glow on the little-lady’s face was immediate… “Thank-you, uncle,” she folded the notebook. “Tell me, dear, did you tie Rakhi today?” I asked our little-girl. “Yes, I tied,” the reply was packed with excitement. “Who did you tie, beta ?” I asked, knowing that she was the only child of my friend. “My daddy,” the shy-girl slipped into my friend’s fold. “How sweet!” N ow, was the little-lady’s art-work really beautiful… and my “Wow” sincere? Did I...

I am a late-bloomer in life… But, not in all areas of my life. In many areas, I have bloomed earlier than many others around me; and, yes, there are many areas, where I have taken a lot more time to bloom… One of them is my English. Well, I have a valid excuse, dear... I went to our local Kannada-medium primary-school. At home I was Konkani; in school and everywhere else, it was either Kannanda, Tulu or Konkani. English was for the elite. And, that was it. As a kid, I still have painful memories of either disliking or envying those kids who went to the good English-medium schools. In those days, there were hardly any English-medium schools… Leave alone today’s IB, ICSC, CBSC and the likes. Till you become a teenager, you don’t become too self-conscious. Your poor English does not weigh like a heavy yoke around your neck… It is no big deal, indeed. But, as you enter the High School, you begin to sulk like a shy touch-me-not. And, in your s...

When did you last hear the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt”? Well, I just used it in my reply to Yojana in her FB message box. When I was just a young-and-raw teacher and had joined a Junior college to teach, I was very self-conscious. No doubt, the young teachers get a massive fanfare… but, in my case, it would make me very scared. Oh that shyness cocoon! I haven’t still come out of it! You know, though we love the kick of limelight and adoration of our fans, at the end of the day, it is only the closeness with our own hearts… yes, that alone we all, seriously, take to bed!  I am very happy to have found, in my early days of teaching, such fabulous colleagues and students. The warmth, support and guidance which I received in those days – my struggling days – were very, very important… I still cherish those memories in my heart… I shall, always, look back on this, with a deep sense of gratitude.  Yojana was a twelfth-stand...