Gerald D'Cunha

  “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.” Mark Twain   T HE DAWN CLUB used to conduct a very popular Workshop regularly. It was titled – “Is it Love or Is it Obsession?’ Basically, it was intended to help youngsters recognize the traces of heathy and unhealthy relationships. We held this Workshop for several years. During the break-time, in one of these Workshops, I was introducing a   middle-aged gentleman to a young man. “Are you married?” asked the middle-aged gentleman, quite seriously. “No, Sir, I am happy,” replied the young man, light-heartedly. All of us started laughing. What we had intended to convey through a 3-hour-long intense Workshop on intimate relationship, was conveyed in a flash, by this happy-go-lucky young man… The take away was simple: ‘If you are not happy on this side of the fence, you can’t be happy on the other side, too!’ Or, was it this: ‘I am already happy. So, why to lose it?’ I remember another incident. I ha...

              Pic.: Amrita Jeurkar   “More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams.”   - Amy Grant S ometimes, I really think, how blessed one’s life can be, if he knows how to laugh at himself - his mistakes, his problems, his limitations and ignorance! Going about our daily lives wearing a light heart is, in deed, a great virtue… an endowment far beyond the measure and treasure called money! The laughing man is the wealthiest man on this planet! What is the use of all our academic, psychological and spiritual ‘gyaan’ , if we aren’t able to laugh at life’s harsh realities? What are we accumulating that wisdom for, if we have to only go about wearing grim masks all the time, everywhere in life? This world has lasted this long, and, it will last for thousands of years to come… So, sir, let’s chill a littl...

If  not the World, the year is coming to an end tomorrow… The World has survived, so far… We all have! M ullah Nasrudin had a prized goat. Many of his friends wanted him to kill this goat and invite them for a dinner. But, Mullah being a miser, wouldn’t do that… Finally, the friends hatched a plan to bring around Nasrudin. “Nasrudin, have you heard the news?” they asked him with serious faces. “What news?” Nasrudin wanted to know. “So bad Mullah!” the friends exclaimed, “Listen, the World is going to end tomorrow!” “Is it?” Nasrudin seemed seriously shocked. “Yes, that’s true,” the friends cried in a chorus, “What’s the use of keeping such a big goat when you know that the World would end tomorrow? Let’s have our last supper tonight!” Mullah immediately agreed.  When night fell, Nasrudin’s friends began to drop in, one by one. Mullah had killed his prized goat and prepared a great meal for his friends. They all had a sumptuous dinn...

If you yell at me, saying, “You are a donkey,” will I become one?  Similarly, if you scream in front of a thousand people, “You are ‘dumb’, an ‘idiot’,” will that make me one? Most of the times, it does.  Yes, some one angrily calls me a ‘donkey’… and, I take it to my heart. I become angry too… I become mad, sad and then conspire to get back at my tormentor… get even. My mind and heart both are consumed by this ‘donkey consciousness’… Before long, I become the donkey I did not want to be! In the same way, I become a ‘dumb’… an ‘idiot’! Well, if you call me a ‘donkey’, a ‘dumb’ or an ‘idiot’, my heart is expected to sulk. Don’t expect those degrading words to pass off my heart the way milk passes off the Mahabali’s idol on a Maha-abhishekam! It hurts... I sulk, I react. For, I am as sensitive as you are… I am not a dumb statue! Oh yes, I just said, “as you are”! This means, we both accept the fact that we ...

It is not necessary that the day that starts with your foul mood should end in a similar way! I was in such a foul mood this morning, that I was determined to throw myself out of it, before the donkey brayed! So, the first thing I did was: pay tribute my good-old friend Mulla and his darling donkey.  Yes, how, one morning, he had overcome his own foul mood, I remembered that story… and, I decided to pay homage to my never-say-die friend in my morning post.  He had pointed to the ‘centre of the Earth’…. Right under the right foot of his sweet ass! To pour more stink on Mulla’s foul mood, an extra-smart bumpkin had asked him, “Hey Mulla, can you show me where the centre of Earth is?” After sending that post, I had felt a lot better. A lot liberated, in fact! Many got back to me to tell that it had ‘donkeyed’ away their foul mood, as well. One of them was my dear, dear friend and a well-wisher, Shri Uday Acharyaji. Just Uday, to me. H...