Gerald D'Cunha

  “Those who do not weep, do not see.” Victor Hugo   T he things that make me cry may not be the things that make you cry. Similarly, the way I cry may not be the way you cry… I may cry at the drop of a hat… You may not cry even when a bomb is dropped right at your feet. Let me see it from your perspective, now… You may cry every time you return home after a long stay away from home. I may stay stoic when I do that… You may cry when you see a newborn. I may not… Let me come back to me, again… I may start crying when I am alone, watching a sunset or the restless waves of a sea… You may sit there like a rock. I may cry remembering my lost ones… You may stay stone-like… And, who among us is a good soul? Who is real? The real me is fragile… He cries at the drop of a hat… He cries when he is alone… when he beholds the night sky… when he listens to the quiet restlessness of the waves… He doesn’t require a big reason to cry… The very thought of God’s grace breaks his ve...

Pic.: Azriel D'Souza “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.”   ―   Paul McCartney B ecause I was born and brought up in a typical coastal region and in a typical Christians household, right since I was a baby, I got accustomed to certain non-vegetarian food habits… mutton, chicken, pork, beef, fish – and, shall I say, “anything that crawled except two-legged human species”?  Yes, I grew up eating whatever people around me ate – and, many times, what they could afford. Just like dogs and cats around us loved to eat mutton, chicken and fish, some humans like us, too, loved to eat the same. A few of my friends and neigbours, particularly brahmins, ate only vegetarian food. All others, including non-brahmin Hindus and GSB’s, ate non-vegetarian food. Yes, they did not touch pork and beef… but, their lifestyle did include the rest of  non-vegetarian food. Every house had dogs and cats. The sophisticated pet...