Gerald D'Cunha

“Have you noticed how many people, who walk in the shade, curse the Sun?”  ―  Idries Shah ,  Reflections I still have in my drawer two old 500-rupee notes. Sometime in Jan, this year – that was after the last date given to us to exchange the old notes for the new ones or to deposit the old notes into our bank account – yes, one evening in Jan, this year, I found in an envelope these two notes… “What to do with these?” I asked my wife… “Keep them safely,” she said with her tongue firmly in cheek “they may fetch us a fortune when we become very old.” Yes, ‘old’ often becomes ‘gold.  Maybe, as my wife has predicted, if I keep these two 500-rupee notes safely for thirty years or so, they may go as rare antiques… Some historian or some crazy antiques-addict  may come searching for my old notes...  I need to be patient, I know. At times, I just forget that we do not have the 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes anymore i...

“Y ou are too naive,” this man told me today morning, “You don’t understand how politics works.” Why did he say that to me? Because I had wondered, while having our casual discussion about yesterday’s BMC voting: “ Arey yaar … I was thinking how would these candidates spend money for their campaign? Where will the cash come from? How will they go ‘digital’, survive without cash? Will they have to pay everyone involved in the campaign only through Paytm or by cheque etc, etc?” “Did you observe what the difference was during this campaign?” this person asked me, “Highest amount was spent during this campaign… Cash flew like water. Never before was a BMC election fought by the parties and their candidates so aggressively and on such a grand scale.” Yes, I had observed that. I have been in Mumbai for over thirty-seven years now. Never ever have I seen a corporation election fought so aggressively and on such a grand scale… And, yes, it has made me wonder: “W...

I am yet to come across some sensible thoughts of wisdom amidst all this polarized arguments for and against demonetization in our country. Frankly, the focus should have been on monetization and not on demonetization. If all our lives, we have focused on amassing wealth with the hope that a day would come when we would be secure and free, we a have simply lived a life of illusion… For, we have been blind to the truth that our true security never depended on our fat bank balance but on our deeply-felt knowledge that we could do without it… We have been fooling ourselves with the illusion, that living in our big mansions and riding in our fancy cars would make us happier… What has been happening is this: we have been constantly living in fear of losing all that one day! Is there any meaning to our life if we cannot sleep soundly on our million-rupee worth beds? Sleep is kingly when it simply comes! The rest, as they say, is all a ‘story’ – a fairy-tale! “How do you...