Gerald D'Cunha

I n last one week, I came across two identical situations… In one of them, an ex-student of mine, who I had not met ever since he passed out T.Y B.Com some fifteen years ago, had come to meet me. The purpose was: he wanted me to teach one of his neighbours’ son. Apparently, the neighbour’s family had been going through a tough time financially. “Sir, I want this boy to be a graduate. I have decided to take care of his fees.” In the second one, the Good Samaritan was a mother of one of my ex-students. This woman had brought along a newly-married woman from her community. Apparently, the young woman had to leave her college, get married to a Mumbai man (with no enough schooling). My student’s mother was very concerned about the young woman… “Sir, I want her to complete her graduation, learn to speak in English, so that she can raise a good family… I have decided to take care of her expenditure on studies.” What option do such gestures leave me with? The least, I, a...

Pic.: Shankar Ramchandran T wo days ago, I watched the latest Hindi movie, ‘Kapoor & Sons’ with my wife. We both loved the movie… The story was simple and relate-able. Yes, as most of the viewers had done, we, too, laughed and cried as we watched the movie… The scene that moved me the most was the car accident. As many of my readers are yet to watch the movie, I wouldn’t tell, here, what happens in this car accident. To me, that scene was one of the brilliantly captured scenes of Hindi or any movies. There was no warning before the accident or any melodrama after it… Only this song in the background: “Saathi re thoda thehar jaa Abhi raastein kuch badal se jayenge O saathi re thoda thehar jaa Yeh paanv bhi ab sambhal se jayenge” I went numb while I was listening to this song … “Why do we make such a big deal about the other persons’ behavior – be it our spouses, sons, daughters, sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, uncles and aunts, nieces ...