Gerald D'Cunha

 “Man proposes, God disposes.” W ell, always? I don’t think so.  Most of the times, I propose… and, what I propose, gets disposed, too. God is okay with my proposal; He doesn’t meddle with my business… And, sometimes, for the reasons best known to Him, He does…  And, when that happens, when my plans go for a toss, when I miss on my 'connecting flight'… initially, I react angrily… I show my frustration… “What the hell is this?” Yes, who the hell am I asking this to? And, how the hell the missed flight be caught up again? Who the hell can tell me this? God has already disposed, buddy… Peace be with you… Amen! Y esterday, my friend Deepak and I boarded the fast-and-dependable Shivneri bus in Pune. We had a program to host here in Mumbai in the afternoon and we had timed ourselves accordingly based on the past track record of our dependable Shivneri.  All went well till we r...

The other day, another friend of mine, Mr. Mustafa, was talking to our young-ones. He had only five of his pet ideas to share. The ideas which had helped him along his journey and now he was keen to share with any young one. MTNL – R. This was how he had codified his subject. Mentoring. Time-management. Net-working. Listening. And, a pause later, Reading.  When you codify your subject matter, it always becomes easy to present it and, it also becomes easy for your audience to retain it in mind. While all the five ideas were interesting and valuable, I, personally, liked the ‘N’. Our young-kids needed it badly… “How many of you are on FB?” Mr. Mustafa asked our kids. He should’ve asked the other way around – “How many of you are not there on FB?” So, all hands went up, including mine… “How much time do you spend on a day on an average?” Some had become tired and bored with FB… They had been there, seen that, do...

A part from the Balloon story, my friend, Mr. Manjeet, had also used, during the PD session, yesterday, another inspiring quote:  “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple; But, only God can count the apples in a seed!” I had first come across this quote in one of Dr. Robert Schuller’s’ inspirational books. Our real potential shall, always, remain a mystery for all of us! We really have no clue as to what potential we possess in our storehouse! So, Dr. Schuller brilliantly unfolds this mystery, saying, that we humans can only count how many seeds are there in an apple… but, how many apples are there in a seed – this, only God can tell.   How true it is! I really have no idea as to what I am really capable of… I have no idea about the value of the ‘acres of diamonds’ over which I stand! Like me, everyone else is clueless about it… If any one of us claims that he does have a clue, he is only pretending! “Sky is the...

Gandhi did not possess the physical attributes of a mighty military General. He was too short, too lean and even too ugly-looking (I say this with loads of respect to one of my heroes in life). Moreover, he was a ‘colored man’… whom the British treated as a slave! And, now imagine, this short, lean, ugly-looking – a colored slave -   challenging the might of all-powerful British Empire; imagine, he bringing the mighty Goliath to his knees… imagine, this unlikely hero freeing a colossal nation from decades of oppression… If the color of your skin or the looks of your face - or, even the kind of wealth you possessed - made great heroes, then, Gandhi would have been a total misfit! Well, though Gandhi is my great hero in life, I do not have any ambition like he had: to free an oppressed nation from the slavery of British. But, then, I have my own little ambition: to free myself from the confinements of my own mind, my own beliefs… my own prison. ...

"If life is a bowl full of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" -- Erma Bombeck Yes, too often, I tend to be too serious about life. And, seriously, so much seriousness isn’t called for to enjoy life in all its hues. So, there are these checks and balances in life… Whenever I tend to go too serious, something comes up and tickles by funny bones… “Hey, there is already enough gloom there out; why do you add more?” Yes, I seriously hear this inside my heart… “Why do you add more?” As a pucca Mumbaikar, last night, I was rooting for Mumbai Indians. But then, I am, also, very fond of Rahul Dravid -   ‘The Wall’ as they call him for his stoic composure and grace under pressure. I have always admired him for his cool. Last night, when he was given out in the very first over (I do think, quite unfairly that was though not intentionally), we all witnessed the human side of Rahul Dravid… He reacted inst...

This morning, I asked our PD students to write down three changes they would love to see in them at the end of the course. We had started the course exactly a month ago, and, now, we had less than a month to go. So, I thought, I would gauge the changes that had come about in our young-ones, or they had hoped to see in them, by the time the course ended. It was necessary. Many of these young kids are here because their parents want them to; some are here because their teachers or well-wishers want them to; some, because of their friends… and, there are a few, who come because they want to… So, I keep reminding them saying, “There is nothing wrong if you are here because of your parents, teachers, well-wishers or friends… Now that you are here, and you have seen… You are old enough to bring about that much needed shift – to say and feel ‘I am here out of my own choice; and I know what I expect from this course’.” Most of them succeed in bringi...

I read Dr. John Gray’s famous classic on relationship – ‘Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus’ - some twenty years ago. That was just after a year or so of our marriage. As I was reading this ‘feel good’ book, I could recall experiencing similar feeling reading another such book. But, that was when I was a teenager. Linda Goodman’s ‘Sun Signs’ (and her other books later – ‘Star Signs’ and ‘Love Signs’) had sounded to me as ‘so true’! It seemed that she knew every soul on this planet, and she knew him so perfectly! I was a Leo… When she claimed she loved Leos a lot… whatever she wrote about Leos sounded perfectly right in my case… “Oh Linda, so sweet of you!” I kept praising and thanking the Goddess of Horoscope!   Dr. John Gray’s book on relationship did the same thing to me. “Hey, we men come from Mars and you ladies come from Venus,” I got it straight into my head, “We are differently wired on different things.” So, I kept reading ...