Gerald D'Cunha

  “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”   Mark Twain W hen American writer, essayist and humourist, Mark Twain, lived, he must’ve imagined, that a motor car, rail engine, telegram, a steam ship and some more technical innovations were a near possibilities. But, internet, mobile phones, zoom and its cousins, social media, YouTube, Uber and Olas, Swiggy and Zomatoes, Wefast (now Borzo) and its cousins, remotely-performed robotic surgeries, and, above all, the all-conquering AI – yes, the great Mark Twain, by any stretch of his wise, wild imagination, must’ve never thought, that they would soon be coming to ‘disrupt’ human life... Did I say, ‘disrupt’? Yes, I did... A week ago, my wife and I were to visit our elderly uncle and aunt who we lived in faraway suburbs. We had organized some delicious food to carry and have lunch together at their place. But, as we were about to book an Uber to proceed to their place, we received a c...

  “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” A.A. Milne T he Google Maps – the live directions – have made driving, searching, finding and reaching easy… na? It seems, we all have put ourselves on an autopilot mode… Just tell “Google dear, take me here, and take me there… Alexa darling, play this for me, and that for me… and, now, with mind-blowing AI at our fingertips, we do not have to think at all… Are we thinking: Just some years ago, when there were no calculators or computers – how complicated our life was…Na? No pun intended, perhaps?   I think, the technology has to only help us do things faster, while it should not rob us of our powers – to think fresh, take risks, be curious, find alternatives, learn from our mistakes, trust self and trust people around, teamwork, and above all, to stay alert, agile and young… As the old saying goes about money, even technology should be a great servant – never a bad master… ...

“My life is a blank cheque before God… No strings attached.” David Platt   I did not start writing because I was good at writing… It’s the opposite. I was very, very bad at it. English was not my medium… I was afraid to open my mouth before those who spoke fluently in English. I had terrible stage fear and I was filled with self-doubts. I had not read any self-help books or attended any such workshops… This was while I was a teenager and studying in my college. All that had happened, I remember, was this: Prof. B . S. Raman had come to teach our big class (more than 100 students… all boys). I sat somewhere in the middle and got inspired by him. Next thing that happened was this: I was burning with the desire to become like him – a fine teacher and writer, and, of course, an idealist. He as that… and, I wanted to be that. So, for sitting in Prof. Raman’s classroom for three years during my degree college - and without talking to him, one-on-one, even a sentence – I had a...

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” R. W. Emerson in his essay, ‘Self-reliance’.   I was introduced to Ralf Waldo Emerson’s inspiring essays through Napoleon Hill’s books. In his famous classic, ‘The Law of Success’, Napoleon Hill has separate chapters on topics such as ‘Initiative’, ‘Enthusiasm’, ‘Leadership’ etc. What hit me the most, at the young age of 21, when I was reading this book over and over again (alongside his ‘Think and Grow Rich’) was the idea called ‘Initiative’. I learnt, that it’s the personal quality of an individual to do tasks without being told… doing them without looking at the watch… doing them for not money alone… It’s going the extra-mile to do them and, above all, do them with a great deal of self-reliance. As I said, at an age of 21, when one gets to grasp the importance of these personal qualities, one, also, realizes how it helps to build his personal leadership. I learnt, early, that through these qualities, I was in ...

“There are no traffic jams  when you go the extra mile.” Zig Ziglar T he thought that I should know everything, I should be good at everything… I should have an answer for every problem – yes, this kind of thought can be extremely overwhelming and stressful. It comes from the misconceived and ill-advised pursuit of ‘perfection’. No Sir, we needn’t know everything in life… We needn’t have an answer for every problem under the Sun… We are living people – full of imperfections. We make lots and lots of mistakes as we walk into our unfamiliar territories in life… As long as we live, we shall live with our imperfections… and, that is not only perfectly fine, that’s also something so beautiful about living, and growing. A week ago, I was approached by a young Assistant Professor of a reputed college of Architecture in Mumbai. This young gentleman’s name was Pulkit, and he told me that the college Principal had asked him to approach me for an online motivational ...

"Two men looked out from prison bars; one saw the mud, the other saw stars.” Dale Carnegie in ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. A ttitude is, often, called ‘outlook’. Shall I say, it is “How we look outside?” Whatever that is and however you define it, in every situation we have the same two options: to see the brighter side or to see the darker one! This lockdown time is not something we have chosen for ourselves; it is something that has been forced upon us… yes, for our own good. So, it’s called ‘quarantine’ and not ‘imprisonment’. It’s like the ‘house arrest’… Right? Whatever… The point I want to make, today, is this: All of us are, presently, looking out from our ‘prison bars’… Some of us see the mud, and some of us see stars… What else is there to see? I have been teaching some of my students online ever since this lockdown started. My students, mercifully, are not the children of those migrant ...

“The gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage.” ―  Mary Stewart O ur strengths have nothing to do with our talents and skills. Strengths are our personal traits… something inbuilt in our system, as our strong characteristics… something unique and inseparable part of our personality. We may be exceptionally talented or skilled, but we may be found wanting in some simple human qualities like initiative, enthusiasm, patience, empathy, ability to adjust and accommodate, sharing and caring, being loyal, committed, focused, ability to say ‘sorry’, being genuinely humble and grateful… I can add another one dozen such simple human qualities, that make us not only fine humans, but, also, fine leaders. Yes, these are leadership qualities… and, our superiors – Teachers, Headmasters, Principals, and Bosses etc – quietly observe these qualities of ours and they, invariably, pick us up to be class monitors, school captain...

I n Napoleon Hill’s famous book, ‘Law of Success’, he emphasized on many principles (Laws) of success. Essentially, they were nothing but the personal attributes, or, to be precise, the attitudes we needed to succeed. The ones that made a lot of sense to me, when I was ‘struggling and seeking’ in my life, were these two simple personal-attributes: Initiative and Enthusiasm. I was amazed to realize how easily these two attributes could be owned by all of us… How important and effective they were . When we are enthusiastic, we simply glow… It reflects in our speech and action… It is simply infectious! The attribute of Initiative goes hand-in-hand with the attribute of Enthusiasm. It is difficult to tell as to which comes first – Enthusiasm or Initiative… They are twins! Initiative is the quality of doing the work without being told. It’s the quality of going the ‘extra-mile’… doing the work with joy, not for money alone… Both, Enthusiasm and Ini...