Gerald D'Cunha

  “Light yourself on fire with passion, and people will come from miles to watch you burn.” John Wesley   A couple of weeks ago, a 60-year-old woman called me. Apparently, she had asked, on one of the FB groups, about a place where Public Speaking was taught for ‘adults’… And, you know how willingly - and, often, weirdly - some of us are ready with our responses. The woman, must’ve received dozens of recommendations… many saying, ‘So and so person/place is the best.’ When the woman called me, she said what one of the young girls, who had attended our Public-speaking course, had written on FB: “Gerry Sir… the best in the entire world!!!” The woman and I both laughed at it… and, then, started discussing about why the she was keen to learn the public-speaking skill… The woman said, that she was a pastor at a certain Christian congregation and felt she lacked the gift of speaking with passion. “I need to speak like great evangelists,” she said… I remembered a hu...

“Dismiss thoughts of good, bad, right, wrong, success, failure – be spontaneous.” Joshua L. Goldberg   O ne evening, I was returning from work… It was around 6.30, and I was especially tired on that day… Two more long-distance zoom sessions still awaited after reaching home… As it was a rush-hour for our building lift, when I sneaked in, it was already packed with people returning from their duties, some elderly men and women returning after their daily walk… Just when the lift door was about close, two little boys – probably about age 9 or 10 – got in. There was no place; still, they didn’t care, nor did any of us , the so-called ‘elders’ who were weight-conscious…. We knew, that the lift would happily take  few kilos of additional weight… So, as the lift started taking us up, the two little friends -  one, quite chubby and heavier in size holding a bat in his hand, the other, a lean, little sardar – continued their animated conversation… They seemed least bother...

  “The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. The grass is greener where it’s watered.” Robert Fulghum   J ust as the grass on the other side of our fences, always, looks greener, everything else in our lives, too, does… When I was in college, the situation at home was quite challenging… Dad was a mechanic in a local workshop… He was a loving Dad, but was an alcoholic… Mom struggled, every day and all through her life, to keep us above the water… So, when a young boy watches this situation at home, and feels a lot ashamed and deprived of, what would be running through his mind? Well, the same situation may not yield the same results… To some, it might motivate to work towards a better living condition; while, to some others, it might leave as bitter, harder and even angrier humans… I wanted to come out of poverty of all kinds… I realized, early in life, that money was not everything. Though I held Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ as my...

  “Whatever you are ready for is ready for you.” Mark Victor Hansen   A while ago, a gentleman had come to see me. He had brought along his 17-year-old son. “Sir, I want him to do your summer programme. But, I want you to convince him to join it.” Well, I knew, from my years of experience, that no one could be convinced against his free will. So, the father had brought his son to the pond, but, would the son drink from the pond? Yes, only when he is thirsty… In Life, our thirst to drink is our readiness… Everything happens from there. Until then, as this father put it, the good-ole way, “What comes from one ear goes out from the other.” I get this feeling throughout the day… Most of what I say, with such intensity and passion, seems to enter in from one ear and go out from the other… What stays in, goes deep inside… Those are the fertile fields, which Jesus refers to in His ‘Parable of the Sower’… A farmer went about sowing seeds… Some seeds fell on the pave...

  “The chief proof of man’s real greatness lies   in his perception of his own smallness.” Arthur Conan Doyle   W ell, there are these super-wealthy, who are hailed as connoisseurs/patrons of art, and they are ready to buy a piece of art – a panting in particular – for any astronomical price. But, you see, the painting has to be a ‘original’… So, when an original painting of Picasso, Michael Angelo or M.F. Hussain goes for millions and crores, a thought hits me: “Who, in deed, is the original artist – the real Creator?” To grasp the depth of my question, just stop on your way home, this evening, and have a good look at a few stray cats… Behold the colours of their bodies, their eyes… every hair – the softness, the teeth and the paws of those little creatures. Ask: “Who made them?”… A Picasso, a Michael Angelo or a Hussain? So much for our great pride in feeling, that we are the original creators. Look, we, at best, can be the ‘original duplicators’. That’s i...

  “A fresh start is, always, made with dirty laundry.” Teri Louise Kelly I was talking to this mother, this morning. Her husband had done our Personality Development programme many years ago, when he was a teenager, and found it very useful in his career. Three years ago, their daughter was enrolled for the programme, and she, too, had found it very useful. Then, last year, I was approached by the mother wanting to enroll her son, too. But, the son was not ready for it. “Sir, he is simply not ready," the mother said, “let’s see next year.” A few days ago, the mother called me, once again. “Sir, can I send him, this summer?” she asked. “Yes, please do,” I encouraged… But, then, the young boy’s time hasn’t come, yet… He is simply not convinced by the experience of his parents or sibling… “I am good… I don’t need it,” the young man, has told them, bluntly… The mother was feeling bad, this morning, as she was talking to me… “How can I convince him, Sir?” she asked sincere...

    “Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.” Robert Frost C an we, humans, ever be free from forming opinions about people and events around us - about anything and everything, whether they are happening right next to us or oceans afar, or whether they are about living or dead beings? I don’t think, we are that evolved to be free from such a temptation… It seems, we get instinctively tuned into it. Yes, an opinion is something the human mind instinctively forms… Maybe, it must’ve come in us due to the ‘original sin’… So, blame it on Adam and his wife, Eve… It’s all because of the sin they committed, the original sin – that irresistible temptation… Sounds nice… We are born with this temptation called ‘opinions’… But, then, I wonder: Despite a thousand opinions popping up inside our heads, can we be discreet when it comes to voicing them out – yes, loud in the open? Mercifully, we can… We are bestowed with that freedom of choice… That, we needn’t b...

  “In the age of distraction, single-tasking is a superpower.” Greg McKeown   I don’t think, we can accomplish any worthwhile goal in Life, if we lack clarity and focus. And, we cannot expect clarity and focus to be our allies when we are constantly distracted by a hundred ‘useless’ things… ‘Useless things’ are those things which are neither urgent nor important. The more we focus on such things now, the more blurred gets our vision… When we focus on things which are not related to our goals, we are bound to be swayed away from our goals… In Life, our energies, always, flow where our attention goes… What we focus on in Life, it grows… I have been teaching hundreds of young kids for decades. I have noticed this: The bigger their schools and households, sorry to say this, the bigger their distractions… Well, I am aware, that we cannot paint everyone with the same brush… But, then, when these kids are given almost everything at their beck and call, why would they s...