Gerald D'Cunha

  “Strength does not come from physical capacity; it comes from indominable will.” Mahatma Gandhi   T he more you focus on the evil people and the evil world outside, the more depressed you tend to become inside. No matter how good you wish to be - and strive to be – the evil in human soul shall continue to prevail. The only sane thing to do, amid such a reality, is to focus on the goodness within… and strive to spread it, even it means, a little bit… each time, over and over and over again. This morning, my wife and I had visited a senior citizen. He has been one of the finest gentlemen we had known for years… An incorrigible optimist, absolutely positive and caring – at times sounding quite innocent and blindly trusting – this gentle soul, of late, had slipped into a bitter state… People, who he had trusted, had cheated him… The good people, who he had known, had been hounded by evil people… His own innocence, goodness and trust in the world outside had been put to...

  “Rivers know this: there is no hurry; we will get there someday.” A.A.Milne   I admire people who show grace in waiting… There is tremendous amount of strength in waiting… and delaying the sensual gratification… This the Navratri time. People, who seriously observe the essence of Navratri, I think, know what I am saying… Fasting is waiting… Delaying the sensual gratification… It’s a fine spiritual exercise... Walking barefoot for nine days is, certainly, tough for people like me. So, when I see someone sincerely doing it, I feel in my heart true admiration for that person… Patience is waiting… Patience when provoked, ridiculed, belittled etc… It is not easy at all to delay the reaction that is stirred inside… Patience is strength. It is prayer… L ast afternoon, I was scheduled to meet an important government officer between 3 and 4. Another government officer, who was known to me, had arranged for the meeting. It was an important work. So, I had cancelle...

  “Of all the choices you make each day, none is more important than the choice of a positive attitude.” Germany Kent   I f I am not comfortable with the world outside, it only signifies, that I am not comfortable with my own self. This truth hits me, time and again, when I see myself irritated and reactive. Things don’t always go the way I want them to… Still, I want them to. The result is the inner conflict. When there is inner conflict, it’s difficult to stay positive… stay hopeful. Bitterness creeps in. The world outside looks dark… The challenge, therefore, is to clean up my own cobwebs… The world outside would, most certainly, appear clean. You and I can learn to stay positive by dealing with our daily little irritations… By being less judgmental, by rejoicing in others’ success, by being a little more patient and tolerant, by being kind to, both, ourselves and others, by staying away from all toxicity, by not letting others’ drama to disturb our own pe...

  “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” Buddha O nly a deep awareness of our own imperfection can help us understand our fellow-beings’. “I am imperfect”… “I am fallible”… “I don’t have all the answers”… “I need help from others” – this realization helps us to be kind. Patience, tolerance, empathy, forgiveness and healing… Yes, they come from a deep realization of our imperfection. It is not   possible for us to deeply relate to our fellow-beings, if we do not recognize our own imperfection and need for interdependence? The lesser we see my own flaws and fallibility, the more we distance ourselves from our fellow-beings. Conversely, the more we see our own flaws and fallibility, the closer we get to our fellow-beings. Thus, before we learn to forgive others, we need to forgive our own selves. Compassion towards others begins with compassion to ourselves. This is an important lesson for inner peace. Yet, it’s the most elusive one. Ju...

  “In my stories, you will meet with underdogs and fighters. You will experience hunger and desire.” Avijeet Das I just concluded, two days ago, a well-designed programme for the degree students of a Mumbai suburban-college. These young kids hailed from ordinary families. Most of them lacked self-confidence and communication skills. There is a great sense of satisfaction and joy when you reach out to this section of the students… They realize the value of this programme and, invariably, approach it with earnestness. Our training team at MINDFLEX consisted of five trainers. I handled the one which is close to my heart – ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’. During this programme, I tell many inspiring stories. I keep two of them towards the end… ‘Poorna’ and ‘The Cheetah’. Both these stories leave a tremendous impact on the young minds. I have shared these stories several times in my Blogs before. Nevertheless, I wish to share ‘The Cheeta’ today, once again…  ...

  “Be such a student that when you go to a teacher, the teacher will feel himself like a student.” Mehmet Murat ildan   I t’s almost two months since I posted my last Blog. The last Blog was on the eve of my birthday. It was titled after Jim Reeves' popular song – ‘Where Do I go from Here’. Frankly, this question keeps haunting me for long... “Should I keep doing what I have been doing for years?”… Or, “Is there something new, something fresh I need to do through my years ahead?”… “If teaching, training and writing – including blogging – have given me the maximum joy in life, will they still continue to give me the same kind of joy and fulfilment?” … And this: "Am I doing all these things just to keep my kitchen fire burning – that is, for my survival?” Yes, these questions ceaselessly haunt me… I think, they should. Else, ‘freshness’ doesn’t come in life… Else, Life becomes a  drudgery… a survival game. Thus, even though my head and heart did come acr...

  “Afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.” Robert Frost   T he morning, soon, becomes the afternoon, you see! We grow old… It’s afternoon, now… What the morning suspected, yes, the afternoon knows… That’s something so beautiful about Life… With age, we mature like good wine… That’s something so beautiful about Life, too! So, when I complete 64 tomorrow, how shall I celebrate this milestone? Do I know, that some hours are still left for the celebration, and, anything can happen in those few hours? I think, this tendency of counting our age by the number of years simply drops when we begin to value each blessing in our lives. Rightly, it is said, “Count your age not by the numbers, but by your blessings.” So, I ask myself on the eve of completion of my 64 years on this planet, “Can I start counting, at least, 64 blessings in my Life?” It sounds silly! Like everyone else, I, too, have never bothered to count my blessings. I know, I will get ti...

  “Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my friends.” George Bernard Shaw     T he definition of ‘Integrity’, I leant many years ago, went like this: “When you do what you know.” As per this definition, one of the areas of lack-of-integrity in my life is the fact, that I still eat animals. Well, if that sounds crude, let me put it in a more acceptable way: I have been a non-vegetarian all my life. Paul McCartney’s famous words come to my mind: “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” I don’t think, my favourite ‘Beatles’ had seen any slaughterhouse with a glass wall. By all probability, somewhere along his adulthood, his inner walls must’ve seen how innocent animals were slaughtered to satisfy his fellow-human’s tastebuds! I have not seen a slaughterhouse with glass walls, either. But, my inner walls have not registered what Paul’s had. I and my fellow animal-eaters are perfectly selective in what our eyes wish to see! So, ...

  “Throwing away food is like stealing food from the tables of those who are poor and hungry.” Pope Francis   I love good food. Yes, I, often, indulge in it… Eat more than what is required for my body and nourishment. Some of my friends keep consoling me, “Friend, it’s okay… Life is short… Make merry when it is there… Don’t feel guilty; don’t regret.” Well, regret I would, when the excess food in my belly refuses to digest. That’s when I stare at the reality, that I am supposed to be eating to live, not living to eat. Meanwhile, I am not writing this Post to highlight the merits and demerits of overeating. I am writing it to highlight the respect for food… The simple food. The maid, who keeps my office and classrooms clean, has been helping me for over twenty-five years. She lives in one of the hutments, clustered along a nearby hill… ‘Dongar’ , they call it. When an elderly woman has served you for over twenty-five years, it’s natural to have in her a deep sens...