Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Nishant Joshi I find it very difficult to close my eyes while doing the Tai Chi walk in our Sunday Tai Chi classes. The moment I close my eyes, I lose my body-balance… The eyes open up, instantly. Our sir says, we need to train our mind. “It is difficult in the beginning,” sir reminds us, “but slowly and steadily, if you keep practicing it, you will be able to do the Tai Chi walk closing your eyes.” Then, gently tapping a little below my belly-button, he asserts, “Focus on this ‘man’!” The ‘man’ is ‘Tantien’… He lives some three finger-width below my belly-button and about a third of the way in toward the back. It is the center of vital energy, movement and physical awareness of the body… Our sir says. Our sir keeps reminding us, that, a large portion of our troubles brews in our mind… Mind doesn’t easily give up the control. Letting go and surrendering – even though it is for our own well-being and peace… No, it doesn’t come to us easily… The mind just...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” - Friedrich Nietzsche I was talking to someone on phone just a while ago. I heard him say, “Our character is shaped through the tests we pass through in life.” The context he was talking to me had nothing to do with the particular tests I was silently going through as I was talking to him. But, then, what he said – and which I knew was so true – seemed as if he was trying to help me deal with my present pain and suffering… Well, I, unwittingly said ‘pain and suffering’. Yes, like so many people around me, I, too, mixed them up, in my ignorance. Pain and suffering are different. I have written on it many times before… Pain is inevitable in life… I do not have choice on it. But, to suffer or not to suffer because of pain – yes, I do have a choice on it. When I resist pain, I suffer. When I ‘consciously’ accept my pain, I am librated of my sufferin...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda “S o, what’s your big plan for 31 st night?” Either some have, already, asked you this question; or, you have, already, asked this to some… ‘Big plan’, here, invariably, means a ‘big party’… Yes, the New-year party! Well, though many around me still ask me this question, I have, somehow, stopped asking this to others… There is hardly any sense in it… hardly any meaning. I have given my students a holiday on 31 st and 1 st . They are very, very happy. “Happy New-year to all of you,” I wished them, when they left, this morning. “Happy New-year sir,” the response was resounding! “Sir, what is the big plan for 31 st ?” some asked me… “Go, enjoy yourself; have fun,” I smiled without answering their question. Now, I will be meeting them, directly, on 3 rd January… that is, in the ‘new year’… What difference will I see in my students, and what difference will they see in me? I am shaking my head... and smilin...

Pic.: Ruma Chatterjee S ome years ago, I had asked a gentleman this question: “How do you maintain your sanity while your opponent has been harassing you so much?” The gentleman had given me this answer: “I don’t see the person; I see only the problem.” The opponent had mixed the person with the problem, the issue. Whereas, our gentleman had separated the two... That’s what thorough professionals – efficient lawyers, statesmen, businessmen, educators, debaters, and, even, couples and friends do... They do raise the issue and fight over it... But, they separate the person from the problem, the issue. “Easier said than done,” I can hear it so loudly. I agree... and I don’t agree. There is a very wise statement, which goes this way: “People behave only according to their respective level of awareness.” Now, let’s read that again... The gentleman who told me, “I don’t see the person; I see only the problem”, in my view, i...

  "Choose your rut carefully. You may be in it for the next ten years." -- Anonymous The common thing about George Bernard Shaw and the game of Cricket was their love-hate relationship with each other! In those days, the Gentlemen’s Game took five days to complete… and, they called those games ‘Test matches’. Imagine two teams sweating it out on the grounds for five consecutive days while thousands of spectators sat there glued to their seats! Television was a distant reality… Radio had just come. And, the idea of masses deserting their offices, classes and household duties in order to watch a match in a stadium, somehow, repelled the legendary writer. Perhaps, little must he have realized that his comment about the game of cricket, too, would go on to live as a legend like him: “Eleven fools play and eleven thousand fools watch!” T onight, it’s the first Playoff of IPL – 2013… Mumbai Indians V Che...