Gerald D'Cunha

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” Euripides O ne of the things that I have learnt the hard way – and, now, try to practice consciously – is not to get into arguments with people with extreme bias – political, religious, racial etc. It has become easier for us to trace such people on social-media platforms. Those who relentlessly and indiscriminately keep displaying their bias towards what they don’t like – people of other religion, political affiliation or race – are the ones I do not like to argue with on public platforms. I leave them alone. And, when they cross all the boundaries, I simply unfollow them. Is it advisable to get into ‘ugly fights’ on social platforms? Does it serve any purpose, except by giving us that strange ego-kick? We can watch what happens when some of our friends indulge in such ugly fights on social-media groups… We can, also, see it on daily TV debates… All of us are capable of recognizing what is ugly and toxic. And, al...

Pic.: Mini Milind Y ears ago, when I had decided to do something about my poor English, one of the things I did – and found it very useful – was telling a nice story in two tenses… Past and Present. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of people who were earnest to improve their English with the same method… Yes, write a nice story down in both the tenses… and tell it to someone. This monkey comes before me every time I am set to pick a fight with my fellow-being over the ‘stuff’ we find along the street called Life… THE MONKEY’S JUSTICE PAST: O ne day, two cats were wandering along a street. They saw a big chunk of cake and one of the cats swiftly grabbed it. “Give it here,” screamed the other cat, “I sighted it first.” “Maybe, my friend,” retorted the cat with the cake, “I grabbed it first.” The argument, soon, turned into a bitter fight… Just then, there appeared on the scene a monkey. “Why are you fighting my dear f...

Pic .: Sana Shetty I f we look back and reflect on what Hitler did – including the Holocaust and the Second World-War – it simply boils down to that old Sanskrit wisdom , ‘Vinaash Kaale, Vipreet Buddhi’ …It means: when one’s end is nearing, he acts without his intelligence. In the same Second World-War, look at what Japan did. It did not surrender even after Germany and others did. It continued to unleash havoc even though it knew what was in store for it. And, the wickedest – and the dumbest - act it did was to attack Pearl Harbor. Till then, America was not dragged into the War. Now, this one act of madness on part of Japan was enough to awaken the sleeping giant… and, you know what happened after that! Every dark act in human history is carried out by man in his dark hour – at a time when he had acted against his intelligence… The most negative and the wickedest acts are the result of this… Man going against his intelligence… Saddam Hussein did t...

Pic.: Sheela Krishnamony I t was a hot afternoon. In a jungle, a lion, who was tired and thirst, wandered in search of water. Finally, when he came near a pond of water, the lion saw a leopard there. The leopard, too, was tired and thirsty and had reached there in search of water. “What are you doing here?” the lion blasted with his kingly arrogance. The leopard did not like the way the lion treated him. So, provoked by lion’s arrogance, and gathering all his courage, he reacted, “What are YOU doing here?” Lion, not used to such a reaction from his subjects, pretended as if he had not heard what leopard had just said. “Get off my way,” he blasted, “let me drink first.” “I am telling you the same,” the leopard did not want to concede, “wait till I finish… You very well know that I was here first.” The lion went into a rage and threw his paw at the leopard… The leopard tried to grab lion’s neck… and they both got entangled in a fierce fight… The dust an...

Pic.:  Umang Pahwa M ulla, once again, made me smile, today! O nce, seeing a large crowd gathered around a deep pond, Mulla Nasudin rushed to the site to check what had happened. A rich merchant, with a long beard and a large turban, had fallen into the pond and was struggling to come out. Many onlookers offered their help to the drowning man, saying, “Give me your hand, sir.” But, the merchant would not respond to their calls. Instead, he kept struggling in the pond, trying to keep his head barely above the water, in the meantime. This continued for a while, as everyone near the pond began to worry, and, as it became evident that the merchant’s strange behavior would take him down, any moment... Finally, our Mulla decided to take charge of the situation. “All of you go aside,” he announced loudly, “Let me handle it, my way.” So saying, Mulla extended his hand to the drowning merchant and said, gently, “Take my hand, sir.” It worked! Imm...

One day, Mullah Nasrudin, was badly in need of money. So, he went to a wealthy man to borrow some money. "What do you want it for?” asked the wealthy man. "To buy an elephant," Mullah replied. "What did you say?” reacted an annoyed wealthy-man, “You have come to me to borrow money, of all the things, to buy an elephant?”  He yelled at Mullah, “How on this earth do you think you can maintain it?” “Well,” retorted Mullah, unruffled by what the angry money-lender had just dished out, “did I come here for money, or for your advice?” In the all-time favorite movie, ‘3-Idiots’, there is this amazing scene: Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) has come for his first job-interview on a wheelchair, his bones all broken! “How did it happen?” enquirers one of the interviewers, “An accident?” “No sir, not an accident,” Raju makes his honest confession, “I had attempted a suicide, jumping off the building out there!” ‘Shocked!!!’ Well, this is...

It was a cold night. In a jungle, a monkey was jumping around some red seeds, crying, “Ouch, it is very cold! Ouch, it is very cold!” He was warming himself mistaking those red seeds to be balls of fire! From a nearby tree, a little bird saw what the monkey was doing. She said, “My friend, those are not balls of fire… they are just red seeds.” “Shut up, you silly bird,” the monkey yelled, “Mind your own business.” He continued to jump around the seeds, screaming, “Ouch, it is very cold! Ouch, it is very cold!” The little bird felt sorry for the monkey. She tried to explain to him, once again, “My friend, I am telling you, they are not fire balls… they are our jungle seeds.” “I have warned you once, and I am warning you again,” the monkey blasted, “get off my way, you dumb bird!” Then, he continued to warm himself, jumping and shouting, “Ouch, it is very cold! Ouch, it is very cold!” The bird couldn’t see it, any more. She cam...

Mulla Narsuddin's wife hated his donkey.  "I don't want that good-for-nothing Ass in my house... Sell him in the market, or dump him in a pond... But, out he must be, before the Sun, tomorrow, goes down," one night, Mulla's wife gave the ultimatum to her husband.  Mulla, somehow, had a great love for his donkey, though, he too knew that the lazy animal did nothing but, hogging and sleeping, all day long. He still loved his donkey... and, the thought of living without his donkey made him very uncomfortable. So much so, he would live without his wife, but not his donkey! But then, Mulla had no courage to defy his wife's order. So, the next morning, he took his donkey and proceeded to the market place to sell the animal at the auction. In the evening, when Mulla returned home, his wife was quite relieved to see a very excited man.  "So?" the lady asked Mulla. "I am very happy, darling," ...