Gerald D'Cunha

  “Every child thinks archelogy is about digging up land to find dinosaur remains and gold…   I had the same intentions.” Bhuvan Bam   T his young boy (of class 12) stayed back after everyone had left the class. “Want to say something, beta? ” I asked him.   “Yes Sir,” he said quite hesitatingly. “Tell me, what is it,” I encouraged him to speak… “Sir, I want to pursue Archeology. But, my parents and elder brother are against it,” he said. “Have you found out why they are against it?” I asked. “Sir, they think, that it’s not the field with job opportunities. They want me to pursue the regular fields where there won’t be scarcity of jobs.” “Since when have you been thinking about Archelogy?” I asked the boy. “For quite many years, Sir… Since I was a little boy,” he explained, “I am really fascinated by the idea.” Now, it’s not every day, that I get a young one expressing his desire to pursue Archeology. Almost everyone wants to follow a road...

  “Seize every opportunity along the way;   for, how sad it would be if the road you chose became the road not taken.” Robert Breault   T he book that inspired me the most –   I have told this countless number of times – was ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. I found a used copy of this book on the footpath near Churchgate area when I had just come to Bombay (now Mumbai) and was jobless. But, I was dreaming… I earnestly wanted to know how people succeeded. I hadn’t read any motivational books before I read ‘Think and Grow Rich’, nor I had attended any motivational Workshops, leave alone watching today’s YouTube videos! So, when, on the cover of this book, I read ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve’… Yes, it came to me as the Manna from heaven… I wanted to hear it… I wanted to reinforce in me, that what I dreamt in my heart, I could achieve… and there was a way to do it! After more than eight decades since ‘Think and Grow Rich’...

O ne of the toughest questions – in fact ‘THE’ toughest – I get to answer before my young students is:”Sir, what should I do after tenth?” I, also, encounter this question after twelfth and after T.Y, too… Frankly, some twenty years ago, when there were fewer options on Boards (SSC/ICSE/CBSE/IB etc) and, when there were fewer options after twelfth… Yes, I think, when options were fewer, it was easier for kids to choose… Now, more the options, the more the confusion! One of the biggest fall-outs of this ‘options-galore’ phenomenon is, that young ones come out too shallow in their academics without any depth… or love and passion for any particular subject or subjects… I come across this situation on a daily basis. It is difficult to bring about the depth, love and passion in young ones the way it was possible for us, the teachers, once… There is a story behind the choices most of us have made in life… I am talking about the career choices. Most of us have...