Gerald D'Cunha

W hen we are in a position of power, we can scream angrily, suppress others with our caustic, sarcastic, angry words… and, yes, we can easily get away with it. But, the one place from where we cannot get away is: from our own ‘conscience’. But, what if our conscience is dead? When I said, ‘position of power’, I never meant the position of the Prime Minister or the Chief Justice of India or the Army General… I meant: as a parent of my children, as a teacher of my students, as the Principal of my school etc. Angry words and screaming, sure, get us the attention. We learnt it as little babies… Remember the old saying: “The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease”? I haven’t been in high power zones… My zones are the commonplace ones… I am a parent, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a teacher etc.… and my world revolves around it. But, in this limited zone itself, I am able to realize how much I ‘misuse’ my position ...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty Y ears ago, when I had decided to do something about my poor English, one of the things I did – and found very effective – was telling a nice story in two tenses… the Present and the Past. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of people, who were earnest about improving their English, with the same method… Yes, write a nice story down in both the tenses… and, then, tell it to someone… I had first come across this mystical (Chinese) story in Fr. Anthony de Mello’s book – ‘THE SONG OF THE BIRDS’. Reportedly, this story used to be the late Jesuit’s most favourite story. I have shared it in my training sessions and Blog umpteen times… It is simply timeless… a classic. Yes, it is my favourite, too… GOOD LUCK OR BAD LUCK… WHO KNOWS? PAST: T here lived, in a Chinese village, a wise old-man. He had a great horse and everyone in the village thought that the old man was the most fortunate one.  Then, one day, the horse fled in...