Gerald D'Cunha

  “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” Sophocles   M ahima*, my eleventh-standard student, has been very particular about her commitment to my Zoom sessions. Also, she has been very particular about doing her homework. Ditto, I learnt, has been her commitment to her college and other tutors. So, last afternoon, when she did not connect on Zoom, I and some of her fellow students kept calling and messaging her – ‘What happened’? … ‘The session has started’… ‘We are waiting’… ‘Please join’…!” But, the messages were left unread and the calls were left unattended. Knowing her well, I concluded, that she must be really unwell. Thus, we continued with the session without Mahima. This morning, there was a short e-mail from Mahima: “Good Morning Sir, I hope, you are doing well. I couldn’t attend any class yesterday; or, even for that matter, I couldn’t use any device, as it has a screen. I was having a severe headache and doctor told me to take res...

W hen it comes to technology, and particularly the use of social media, people like me can be safely classified as ‘Slow Learners’… aka ‘LDs’… the ones who suffer from a learning disability. I have been writing notes in my diaries ever since I was an adolescent… I did not know, then -   that’s some 42/43 years ago - that writing my notes was a self-healing therapy. Computer hadn’t come to our village… and the internet and the social media hadn’t made their place into the dictionary, yet So, by the time I learnt to operate a computer, my son and my students were already Geeks… fast, furious and impatient. Some of my courteous students patiently sat next to me and helped me open a Blog… Slowly they helped me open my FB account, so that I could share my blog posts on FB. It was a new-found world for me, and, obviously I was excited. But, I heard my son saying, “Dad, you are opening your FB account when many of us are closing ours.” My young son we...