Gerald D'Cunha

  “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C. S. Lewis   S ome days ago, I had wished a friend of mine on her birthday. I was not in touch with this friend for quite some time. The friend, while thanking me for the wishes, casually asked: “How’s life treating you?” I do not know, how many of you are familiar with this expression, which, essentially, means, “How’s life?” or “How are you doing?” … “All well?”… etc. During Covid times, some, who live in America, had asked me, “How’s Covid treating you?” That’s when I had realized, that it’s the modern way of asking - “Kya haal, chaal hai?”… So, the other day, when this friend asked me, casually, “How’s life treating you?”, I replied: “No complaints… Can be only grateful.” “Excuses and complaints are signs of a dreamless life,” says Bangambiki Habyarimana. Well, I know the significance of these words of wisdom. I use them, every day, either in my classroom or in my blogs to tell, “Stop giv...

  “The way you do small things is the way you do all things.” Jens Wolffs   “W hy bad things happen to good people?" Well, in my view, this is not a good question. We shall never get an answer to this question… Never, ever. One of my favourite Gospel singers and songwriters is Dottie Rambo. I just love her lyrics and, of course, singing. She and her whole family devoted their lives singing glory to God… Then one day, during one of her successful tours, the bus carrying her and her group met with an accident (due to bad weather condition). While many got badly injured in this accident, the only person who lost her life was Dottie! “Of all the people, why Dottie, God?” I spend a lot of time listening to Dottie’s songs (sung by several other singers, too). Last afternoon, while listening to one of her touching songs, ‘Too Much to Gain, to Lose’, I heard her brother say this: “We don’t understand some of these things….” That’s all you and I, too, can console oursel...

  “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...

“ If you can gift your son or daughter only one gift – let it be enthusiasm.” Bruce Barton W hy only to son or daughter?   Most of us know what a valuable gift enthusiasm is. So, be it our students, employees or associates – for that matter, anyone who comes in contact with us - gifting away enthusiasm is one of the most empowering acts you and I can carry out. By the way, does it work other way round, too? Do our young sons and daughters, our students, associates and employees, too, gift us enthusiasm? I believe, they do. Just as parents gift their children, teachers gift their students and employers gift their employees this valuable gift – enthusiasm, children, students and employees, too, gift their counterparts the same. So, it works from both the ends. Because, on both the ends, there live humans… They all need to be charged… enthused! As a teacher, I have survived for over four decades, not only due to my own enthusiasm, I have survived...

"My life isn’t over, and I’m not going to  sit  in a rocking chair and take money  from the government.” Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of KFC I will complete 62 this July. If I was a government employee, I would have been a ‘retired’ old-man, living on his monthly pension, by now. But, being a self-employed fellow, I know, that my pension will come only if I - what that famous line says – ‘get up, dress up and show up, each morning’ … Yes, no matter how I feel when I get up in the morning! My cousin brother, Stany is 65, and retired from his job with a well-known Petro-chemical company, some years ago. But, if you look at him, he looks much younger than I am. Being passionate about music, he took up a teaching assignment at an international school where he is a popular music teacher even now.  Besides this, he and his wife, Martina, have been leading the church choir group for years now. So, at 65, he still finds himself relevant and productive…...

“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes.” ―  Richie Norton T wenty-twenty! Will it be fast and furious, young and colourful, good, bad and ugly like the T20 of the cricket world? Just a couple of days ago, Amitabh Bachchan had tweeted, in a lighter vein, that we needed not to worry as there was only an ‘ unnees-bees ka farak’   between 2019 and 2020! Now, the ‘ unnees’ is behind us, and the ‘ bees’ is ahead… Will it be any different? Jab jaago, tab savera ! It’s morning when you wake up… When our eyes are new, the sunrise, too, appears new and glorious! Life is never static to any one of us… It can’t be. Life is constantly moving… Yes, it’s in a constant flux. What come on our way, as our good times and bad times, are only life-situations… They come and they go… just as the day and the night do. So, whether it is the unnees or the bees , the difference betwe...

E nthusiasm is not just another word… It’s another name for Life… a clear sign that we are alive and kicking! In our PD sessions, I take a hammer and convey this to our young ones and little ones, alike. Yesterday morning, we had our session from 8 to 10.30. It’s a summer vacation, you see. So, no matter how hard you ‘hammer’ it into the thick skulls of our young ones, some of them – mercifully, ‘some of them’ and not all – find it difficult to be regular or be punctual, or both. ‘Ki farak painda’ … Yes, what difference does it make? So, come as you please… But, you better be prepared to get the hammer, too… Hello, enthusiasm cannot be taught in the classrooms… You better pick it up, from here and there, by being hungry and thirsty in life… “What class is this?” I thunder… “Personality Development, Sir,” they respond… “Personality Development… My foot!” I hammer it hard, knowing well, that ‘My foot’ is not a nice way of ...

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that counts… It’s the life in your years.” -           Abraham Lincoln   I love the names of Tai Chi exercises we do. One of them is ‘Walking in the Clouds’… I have chosen this name for today’s Post… S ome days ago, a dear friend of mine sent to me a video about an amazing woman by the name Anna Halprin. I hadn’t heard about this woman till my friend shared the video with me. I was so fascinated by the energy and charm of this graceful woman, that I was curious to know more about her. Anna Halprin is still ‘alive’, and, she is only 98! When I say she is ‘still alive’, I know what I am saying: there is still life in her years, at 98! Anna’s life revolves around dance... all forms of dance. She is surrounded by people – little children, young men and women and elderly. They either come to learn dance from her, or to watch her...