Gerald D'Cunha

  “Ek baar maine commitment kar di, toh phir mein apne aap ki bhi nahin sunta.” Salman Bhai     O ne of my dear-old students, Sumeet, has been a die-hard fan of Salman Khan. He loves to flaunt his body, looks, clothes, style, speech and, almost, everything like Salman bhai … So, ever since bhai’s ‘Radhe’ was released on Eid day, amidst all the hilarious memes and reviews from all and sundry, Sumeet, the Salman bhakt, posted his latest bhaiwala selfie: Instantly, I saw the reaction from Prashant, one of Sumeet’s FB friends: “Bas kar bhai, ‘Radhe’ flop ho gayi’!   Knowing my dear-old student’s dear-old devotion to Salman bhai, I am sure, woh bas nahi karega, flop or super flop. Just as bhai famously declared – and repeats it in ‘Radhe’ - “Ek baar maine commitment kar di, toh phir mein apne aap ki bhi nahin sunta.” And, we may be fools… Salman is not. He has already made his bucks even before this movie was made. He has enough fans – call them ...

Pic.:  Chetna Shetty S hri Uday Acharya, my good friend, has initiated a FB page and baptized it as ‘Buddha Laughed’. The very first time my eyes fell on this name, my heart just laughed! Strangely, I hadn't even read any content of it... Just the thought that the Buddha – the otherwise a serious holy-man – laughed made my lungs loosen-up a little, and I found my heart just laughing... I think, the idea of the laughing Buddha – with his  laid-back  hands and pot-belly – has come from the same fact: When you come to understand the simple truth behind the harshest realities of life, you do not have to prompt your heart to laugh... It just laughs. And, that laughter is the laughter of true joy and lightness, true freedom and acceptance. There is no  pretense  or ridicule. The carelessness has dissolved into carefreeness... The heart ‘knows’; hence laughs... Simply laughs... So, Udayji keeps sharing with us...

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...