Gerald D'Cunha

  “In learning, you will teach; and in teaching, you will learn.” ―  Phil Collins   S ome days ago, I saw this little girl (first standard) waiting for the lift to come. She was being brought home by a house-help. We were there waiting for the lift for a couple of minutes… and, the little lady initiated a discussion with me… “What is your flat number? Mine is …” I gave mine as innocently as the little one had offered hers. “I like my school… Did you like yours?” I was caught off-guard by this angle… Can I afford to be absolutely honest in my answer? I was swiftly thinking, “At her age, I did not like to go to school… I was scared of some strict teachers and I was weak in studies… So, how would I answer this little lady? Should I tell her “No, I did not like… I was scared of my teachers? Or, should I sugarcoat my answer… ‘Yes, honey, I liked my school’”? Mercifully, the lift had landed on the ground floor and we rushed inside… The question was left outsi...

  “Don’t tell your friends about your indigestion: ‘How are you?’ is a greeting, not a question.” Arthur Gulterman   I do not know the context in which Arthur Gulterman said what you read in the above quote; but, every time I send greetings to others, or receive them from   others, this quote pops up to make my heart smile… During the Lockdown, like everyone else, I couldn’t go to a barber shop (You may call it a Salon or Studio)… the Urban Clap sent the barber (Hair stylist) home. Mine was this young, enthusiastic man called Saba Ansari… I stuck to him... I never saw a barber shop ever since… Saba was with Enrich before joining Urban Clap. But, he is on his own, now. He has built a strong base of loyal customers, that he doesn’t need the shoulders of Enrich or Urban Clap, anymore… He is not even 25…. Married, has a little kid, and works from dawn to dusk… Yesterday, when our doorbell rang and I opened the door, I was pleasantly surprised to see Saba… He ...

  “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, courage is the quiet voice, at the end the day, saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow’.” Mary Anne Radmacher   T here are two kinds of reunions… The first kind is the one we get to do after months of meticulous planning. The other kind is the one that just happens, without any planning, just spontaneously. The second kind is what I cherish the most… It springs from a clean heart… simply childlike. On this Sunday, my wife and I had to attend the Month’s mind mass of one of our relatives in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. After the   mass, we had to join for a simple lunch at the residence of the deceased family. I had informed friends of mine, Dr. Kumar and his wife Yashoda (a student of my first batch in Atomic Energy Jr. College, sometime in 1981), that we would be paying a visit to them. They lived just a minute away from my relatives’ place. As we were relishing the aromatic filter-coffee, I remembered another friend of min...

  “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? if God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31   W hen Lord Shiva – Mahadev – leaves in his blue, chic Ferrari, He says, “I have to go… There is another ‘mareez’ (patient/needy) waiting for me,” we smiled and left the cinema hall, convinced, that OMG3 will come soon… Lord Shiva – Har, Har Mahadev - will return soon… to help us through our distressful times… So what, if Lord comes in in the body of Akshay Kumar? Is not the promise same? Most of us have come this far, believing, that if we have complete faith in God, He will protect us… help us through our most difficult times… I loved the line in this second avatar of OMG: ‘Shiv ke das, Shiv ke paas.’ How innocent, how clean that promise can be! O f late, I have come across many young men and women who have been drawn towards Lord Shiva’s enigma… They are awestruck by everything about Shiva – His wrath, dance and destruction … what He wears on and a...

  “The final stage of wisdom is becoming a kid again.” Mixime Legace   A dear friend of mine called me, yesterday. He and his elderly mother had been to their native village; and, when he called me yesterday, they had just returned from this trip. My friend was excited to tell me about a good cause, with which he and his mother were getting involved. The primary school, which my friend’s mother attended over seven decades ago, still functions in their village. But, the condition of the school remains much the same… The medium still remains vernacular, the condition of the classrooms still remains basic… The midday-meal service and dependency on the government dole draw only very underprivileged kids learn in this school… The world around this school has changed beyond recognition. Little kids know what mobile phones and computers are, what the internet   and a television are… My friend is a fairly-successful industrialist in Mumbai. He wanted his mother to in...

    “With life as short as a half-taken breath, don’t plant anything but love.” Rumi   O ne of the things I have been poor at – and blissfully ignorant about – is how to make the best use of changing technology. I used to write   my daily notes in dairies. There was an office   assistant, and hence, I never learnt to turn on and off the computer. Then, one day, he quit to join a better job. I decided to turn on the computer… So, since, 2008 or so, I have been directly typing my daily notes. I began to call them my ‘Blogs’. That’s, also, when I decided to join FB, with the sole objective of sharing my Blog posts through this platform. A couple of my students had helped me to start my Blog, while my son had helped me to join FB. I remember his words: “Dad, you are joining Facebook when our generation is quitting it (to join Instagram).”   Well, I did not know what that meant… It’s about fourteen years since I joined FB… and, I still continue to ...

  “Children see magic, because they look for it.” Christopher Moore   I had been to a friend’s place, last evening. As I got off the lift, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my ex-students (she had also attended our summer programme on Personality Development) with her little girl on a three-wheeled cycle. “Hello sweetheart,” I greeted the little child, “can I sit on your cycle?” The little girl looked at her mother! I did not know, that my ex-student lived on the same floor as my friend did. After chatting with her for a few minutes, I proceeded towards my friend’s flat, which was on one end of the floor, while my ex-student and her little girl on cycle proceeded towards their flat, which was on the other end of the floor. It was a large floor with at least eight to ten flats on it… As I was waiting for someone to open the door from inside my friend’s flat, I overheard a conversation between my ex-student and her little girl on cycle… “Mummy, who was that ...

  “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worry and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.” Roy T. Bennett   G loom is contagious. So is happiness! These nearly-two years of Pandemic have taken all of us through this roller coaster of happiness and gloom. None has been spared. None. But, then, we all have relied on our respective coping mechanism. Getting into gloom may have seemed easy… Rather, automatic. Most of us have found ourselves simply slipping into the gloom – feeling overwhelmed by anxiety and worry about our future. From there, fortunately, many of us have bounced back. But, some of us have remained stuck, and some of us have, unfortunately, perished! I believe, this has been the familiar scenario during these unusual times. It’s tough to stay optimistic and motivated when gloom surrounds us from all sides. The more the mind focuses on ‘what we have lost’ and ‘what may happen’… yes, the more pessimistic and dejected we become. A person like me,...

  “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” Philip Pullman   M any of us know Admiral McRaven as the gutsy Commander, who oversaw the secret military operation of raiding the hideout of Osama Bin Laden and killing him. Some of us know him for his forthright and fearless criticism of former American President, Donald Trump. But, many, like me, know him for his inspiring speeches… Admiral McRaven is a great storyteller; by his own admission, like his father. In fact, like most men and women from the armed forces are. I have shared Admiral’s famous speech – ‘If you want to change the world, start making your bed’ – many times, before, in my Blogs. If you have missed it, here I share it again…   Today, I came across this one: “Life is all how you remember it.” How true that is! What are stories, after all? Why are they passed on from one generation to another? Today, when I heard Admiral McRaven recall...