Gerald D'Cunha

  “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” Denis Waitely I had written this Post a week ago. But, for some reasons, I delayed sharing it till this morning…   F or years, we would regularly have a daily newspaper at our door. This stopped when the Pandemic broke out. We stopped reading the   newspaper completely. More than two years later, on 1 st of this April, we suddenly saw the same newspaper being dropped at our door,   again. We thought, that it could be by mistake. Then, it continued every morning. By now, we knew what was happening: The vendor was trying to re-form the habit in us, all over again! Reading a newspaper is a habit just like smoking a cigarette. Mind gets accustomed (read addicted) to a certain pattern and a brand… Today, on the eighth   day,   when my wife opened the door for some other reason, coincidentally, the newspaper vendor appeared to drop the...

  “ The sign of true love is not a diamond; it’s a cross.” Anonymous   O ur shoulders are not broad enough to carry the problems of the world. Forget the ‘world’, we cannot even carry the problems of a handful around us. Yet, we happily and readily carry on our shoulders the problems of ‘a chosen few’… Don’t we? I have done that, and I still do that. Similarly, there are a few Jesus Christs around me, who readily, happily   and, unconditionally, carry my cross on their shoulders... That’s how Love, always, has been… and will be. I will, always, find strength and grace to carry on my shoulders the burdens of a chosen few… and, I will, always, find some chosen few to carry my burden on theirs… Some days ago, a dear one pressed into my hand a beautiful note when he sensed the weight of some of my burden. The note read: “The sign of true love is not a diamond; it is a cross.” O nly yesterday, another friend of mine spent almost half a day, sidelining all his p...

  “Every child comes with the message, that God is not yet discouraged of man.” Rabindranath Tagore   M y wife and I have just returned after visiting Hardeep’s house. Hardeep is a friend of ours, who got married quite late in life. After marriage, she moved to Gurgaon where her hubby had been living. Presently, she is in Mumbai for a few weeks with her three-month-old baby-girl. So, my wife and I wanted to see both, the baby and the mother… The baby was fast asleep, with her tender hands raised the way the smiling/ laughing   Buddha did. In fact, in her sleep, the baby was smiling! For a while, I stood there mesmerized, reflecting over what Lish McBride had said: “You know what the great thing about babies is? They are like the bundles of hope… Like the future in a basket.” How I wished the baby in this basket remained a baby in the future, too! If alone the wishes were horses!!! You and I have been once babies like this little bundle of joy is… We,...

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Theodore Roosevelt T oday, I came across these lines from Elisabeth Kubler Ross: “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have know defeats, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” While this may be true, I also wonder what makes people cruel, sadists and destructive in life! I ask these questions: Didn’t Hitler suffer in his childhood? Didn’t Osama Bin Laden or Phoolan Devi go through pain and suffering? Well, we do not have to go to such extremes… Let us talk about some ordinary people in our lives… I clearly remember a substitute teacher, who had come to our class room in grade 9. We were given books from the library to read. I had this hab...

M any of us have heard this story… An elderly man is sowing seeds of a fruit tree… His little grandchild asks him, “Grandpa, how many years will it take for these seeds to become trees and give us fruits?” “At least ten,” the grandfather tells. “But, grandpa, you are too old, already… You will not be there when the fruits come,” says the innocent child. “Yes my sweetheart, I won’t be there when the fruits come,” says the grandfather pulling his little grandchild close to him, “I am sowing these seeds for you!” M any a time, this image of the man and his little grandchild does appear before me… Every time when I think of my elderly mom or in-laws, the same image does appear… Every time I watch grandparents and parents doing so much for their little ones, the same image does appear before me… We are humans, and we I are ‘selfish’ by our very nature… We earn and we shine essentially for ourselves. But, then, somewhere along our pursuit, we all realize, that...

Pic.:   Dilip V        "Don't Strive To Make Your Presence Noticed, Just Make Your Absence Felt" -        Anonymous Y esterday, Kannan had used this old quote in our Tai Chi class, in a certain context. But, I could immediately grasp its universal applicability… especially in any area of leadership. And yes, in any area of relationship, or, even social work. It’s tough to be anonymous, faceless and low-key when we are leaders… Asserting our authority and position, expecting recognition from our subordinates comes easily to us. The thought of being a faceless leader or social worker… yes, it sounds scary. In relationships, too, it is quite scary to function without we striving to make our presence noticed… But, that need to make our presence noticed comes from our insecurity! If we closely observe true leaders – be them business leaders, work-place leaders, leaders at schools and col...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty H er name was Mrs. Liticia. She was my class teacher when I was in third standard. I must have been eight or nine year old, then. And, she must have been in her early thirties. What I remember about her the most is that she was very fair and pretty; very loving and caring. As a kid, I was very scared of most of my teachers... But, Mrs. Liticia’s warmth and care made me feel very secure and loved... Nearly fifty years have rolled by... How a teacher has touched you when you were a little boy, yes, this beautiful feeling has lasted so long! S ome days ago, while I was in Mangalore, my hometown, I had this strong desire in my heart to see Synthia, one of my earliest students. I hadn't met her or talked to her for years and years. It was just a year ago that we got in touch with each other; even then, we hardly communicated... Today, Synthia  is a mother of two young-children and well settled in Mangalore. When I spent about...

Pic.: Neerja Panchal I haven’t posted anything since I posted, four days ago, that video – ‘The Inspiring story of the birth of THE DAWN CLUB’. As I told you, the story of our institution is very close to my heart… and, yes, very close to all the well-wishers of our Club. On 3 rd Aug., 2008, we had held a function at the amazing TISS auditorium, Mumbai, to bring together as many people as possible who were instrumental in creating THE DAWN CLUB. I wasn’t on FB then, nor did I have contacts of so many of my students who had come around me and inspired me to found our Club in Sep.1989. Still, as we were about to enter the 20 th year, we held this function and unveiled two books during the same. ‘Vaachas Chame’ chronicled our classroom action over the years. But, ‘The Echoes of the Dawn’ chronicled the story - how it all had started about two decades ago. In fact, those many years ago - at the sunset, while leaving the sands of Gorai Beach – when I h...

Pic.: Neerja Panchal A good friend of mine regularly attends self-development workshops. I like that. But, what I don’t like is this: He keeps reminding his friends, including me, to attend some of them. “It is fantastic… You shouldn’t miss it,” he reminds his friends. So much is so good. But, my friend keeps calling you, and reminding you, about the same… and, you really are not interested, not just excited about it. But, he is… “It is great… awesome… just mind-blowing!” No, it doesn’t blow your mind at all… He persists… You resist… My friend really means well for me. So, he wants me to attend the workshop and benefit from it. He doesn’t have any other intention like earning some commission or other gains. Today, when my friend had called me, I told him, “My friend, I am really happy that you found the workshop fantastic… It is really good for you. But, I am not keen to attend it now… Let’s see sometime later.” If ...

Pic.: Neerja Panchal We express our love, concern and care for our loved ones in thousand different ways. Most of them are done quietly, without any ceremony around them… And, so, they hardly get noticed by our loved ones. Yes, our parents, spouses, children and other dear-ones do thousand small-acts of love, concern and care for us… while we are totally ‘blind’ to those acts! Obviously, we find them unloving, uncaring and irresponsible… and, we do scream at the top of our voices to let them know how we feel about it… Our loved-ones do the same to us… This means, we will eternally remain for each other – unloving, uncaring and irresponsible… Won’t we? All acts of love are – and should be - soundless… quiet ones. The noise and ceremony around them, make them ugly, vulgar! Whether we like it or not, and whether we are happy about it or not… unless we are able to open our eyes and hearts to all those soundless acts of l...