Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Sudha Ahuja “80% Delhi’s buildings wont’ stand a quake. http://toi.in/iHvisZ . We should do a structural study of ours to study if it can withstand an earthquake.” This was the first message on my cell-phone, today. It was 6.30 in the morning. NIlesh*, a young and highly-qualified member of our housing society had sent this message to me – the honorary chairman of our society… I smiled began to nod my head… “Who should I forward it to – God?” I wondered. “Good morning Nilesh,” I replied immediately, “have a nice day!” Nilesh had not even bothered to greet me, ‘Good morning’ in his message… He was bothered about the stability of our buildings… whether they can withstand an earthquake! Alright, let’s suppose we conduct a structural audit right away, tomorrow, and are advised to do something about our buildings… You think, we will be able to protect ourselves against the catastrophe? W hen Malaysian Airlines ...

Pic.: Ruma Chatterjee A s per our son’s suggestion, last night, we had my b’day dinner, quietly, on the roof-top restaurant, ‘Koyla’, at Colaba. He knew that I did not like crowded and noisy restaurants... So, ‘Koyla’, with its beach-inspired ambiance, fitted the bill, perfectly. But, there was one condition we had agreed upon: to switch off our cell-phones... No regrets... even though there were two-dozen missed-calls and another two-dozen messages... The roof-top did not come down, nor did my heart fail to beat! Late night, after returning home, I picked one of the calls. It was Kushal*, a twelfth-standard student of mine. He had his class, early this morning. So, almost close to midnight, when I got his call to wish me, though I felt very nice, I reminded him about today’s early-morning class... There was a home-work to be done... He had been skipping homework, almost, every class... and, almost, in every class, he had been getting my ‘special sermon’......

Pic.: Madan Manik L ast night, the mother of one of my students called me up from Kuwait. She wanted to know how her son, who studied under me here in Mumbai, was doing. “Ma’am, I see a lot of improvement, since we last spoke,” I said to my student’s mother, “Don’t worry, he will do well.” “But, sir, I don’t want him to become complacent,” the lady said with genuine concern, “He needs to be pushed and prompted all the time.” “Oh yes, I agree with you ma’am,” I laughed, “You prompt him; I will push!” No matter how badly my students do, and no matter how hopeless I, sometimes, might feel, I somehow try not to put more stress on the parents, make them more anxious. What I do is, that I try my level best to influence and motivate the student him/herself. Improvement is a continuous process; and, as a teacher, I am aware that the students need to be constantly reminded, constantly sensitized and ‘pushed’ to the process of improvement… For, ...

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...

Pic.: Neerja Panchal At 11, today, I was about to walk into my class and my mobile phone started ringing. I, instinctively, picked the call. A telemarketing girl greeted me in a clearly borrowed accent.  “Good morning sir… This is so and so calling from so and so firm.   Is it a right time to talk to you sir?” she asked me.  It was not… I had picked that call expecting it to be from a student or a parent or from my home. So, I wanted to tell the lady on the other end, that I was busy. But, I have a problem here, always: I just can’t bring myself to tell such people bluntly, “Sorry, I am not interested,”… “Please don’t call me, ever… You understand?”… “Who the hell gave you my number?” … or, even this - “I am in a meeting!” What I do, and I did today, is: “What is this regarding, ma’am?” Today it was regarding bulk sms’s.  Did I have a requirement?  Not at all. So, I let the lady know, in my clear, honest ...

A gentleman called me the other day and wanted me to help his daughter in the Accountancy subject. Now, that’s nothing special to talk about, here. Let me tell you, in this Post, what makes this case special. The girl had done exceptionally well in her latest twelfth-standard CBSE-Board-exams. They were planning to enroll her in one of the select engineering-colleges; and, if that would not happen, they would make her switch over to commerce and settle for nothing less than Chartered Accountancy! When the call came to me, that night, from the father of this girl, I was a lot apprehensive. Switching over to commerce after twelfth, without any foundation of the core subject, Accountancy, is nothing uncommon. I do get to teach many such students, every year. But, directly jumping over to CA… Yes, I had to grill this gentleman. But, throughout the discussion, he sounded extremely confident of his young daughter. “Sir, we have done our enough home w...

Is it important for parents to tell their children – little-ones or young-ones - where they (parents) go and when they will be back home? What about the children? Is it important for them to tell their parents where they go and when they will be back home? I am a parent – a father of a young son. Let’s assume, as I am his father, I did not think it was important at all to tell my son, and he always saw me leaving home without telling where I went or when I would be back – how would he think it is important for him to do it every time he left home? Now, normally, people at my home know where I am headed – my workplace. But, if, during the day, I have a different agenda, a different destination to visit, then, I think it is important I let them know about it… The idea is: we never know what may happen to us outside - when, where and how! So, I emphasize: It ‘is’ important for me as a father to let my young son know, where I wil...