Gerald D'Cunha

  “You never know where a blessing can come from.” Teena Marie   T his morning, I met a young lady (let me call her Vishakha), after a very long time… She was on way to her office. During the brief course of our discussion, I learnt, that she was presently working for a reputed CA firm after completing her CA exam some years ago. She seemed very happy about the progress she had made. “Thank you Sir, for the help you had offered when I needed it the most,” the girl said. “I can’t help enough Nilesh Sir, too,” she added, “It was because of his financial help, that I could venture into doing Chartered Accountancy.” Years ago, when she was doing her B.Com, Vishakha had come to see me, along with her mother. I learnt, that the mother was raising Vishakha all alone as her husband had deserted them. They lived in a small, rented house and faced a lot of financial problems. But, Vishakha was not only a bright student, she was, also, a confident and articulate girl. I had immed...

“ Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”   ―  Eckhart Tolle ,  A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose W e need to know not only how to give, we also need to know how to receive. Both have to come from a clean space in our hearts. I think, we have undermined the significance of the attitude involved with receiving. A married young woman had come to visit her mother late last evening. When she saw me inside my office, she opened the door. “Hello sir, Merry Christmas,” she said as she came inside. I was delighted to see this woman after a long time. As I was talking to her, I handed to her two of my books and said warmly, “This is for you… You will love them.” “Thank you so much sir,” the woman said excitedly looking at the books she had just received, “I love your writings… They are so simple yet so good.” “I am glad to hear that,” I said, obviously fe...

Pic.: Dilip V. I f you think, there is a dearth of talent around us, you are wrong. There is talent galore… Loads and loads of it. There is dearth of discipline… Self-discipline. When I was in eleventh standard, we had a wonderful teacher who taught us the Language, Kannada.  His name was Shri. Padakanayya. One day, while discussing a poem, he made a very profound statement. He said, “God gives each one of us a great strength (read it as Gift or Talent); but, He holds back ‘something’ from us so that we remain humble, grateful and deserving.” I was barely a teenager, then. Still, I could grasp the depth of our teacher’s words. What God holds back, becomes our weakness… Our lack of self-discipline. He expects us to work on it before we can encash our talents. Talents and gifts are God-given, no doubt. God is all loving and merciful, no doubt. But, He isn’t a fool to ruin us by placing precious pearls in our hands. If man knows what happens if pearls are ...

O ften, in the past, I have used the expression, “Life is a gift”. But, of late, I don’t like this expression. Instead, I find more often using the expression, “Life is a lease”. So, in this post, let me explain to you why I am prompted to think so. When I think about my life, it does seem to be a pure gift from God. Because, He has just given it with all His love. I haven’t worked for it, paid for it… Yes, I haven’t earned it. He has just placed it in my hand. So, it does look like a gift.  But, then, whenever, someone around me wants to drill in my head the point that I have to work hard to earn my bread, sweat it out… I have to pay for the goodies I long for… I have to shed my ‘I am-entitled-for’ mentality… he does that with the expression, “There is no free lunch in life”. And, immediately, that goes into my head… I know he is right. “By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground.” Ever since, God sen...