Gerald D'Cunha

  “To understand your parents' love, you must raise children yourself.” — Chinese Proverb   S ome things we understand late in our lives; and, often, we may not understand them at all. One such thing is our sensitivity towards our parents… Well, no matter how our parents raised us up, let us accept these bare facts: They were not trained in the art of raising children; they had watched their parents and, mostly, carried forward what they had watched; they –- whether we agree or not –- had done the best they could in their wisdom… and, this: even though we couldn’t choose our parents, we, by all means, could choose how to deal with our own parents as they aged, and how to deal with our own children as they grew… Having said that, let me add this, too: how our young children deal with us, well, we have no choice on that… Karma or dharma … well, I don’t know. Choices, yes, yes, yes… One, always, has. O n my way home, last evening, I met a parent. He wanted t...

D o you have some people around you who are ‘hell-bent’ to destroy you? There is something in the very DNA – the basic nature – of some people around us, which makes them lust for others’ agony… They just feel satisfied. And, let me tell you this: their academic qualification has nothing to do with how they behave… As it stems from their accumulated and inherited ‘bad karma’… That’s what makes two highly qualified people behave in two extremely different ways: one pens peace and the other, venom! Somewhere, sometime and somehow, one has to become ‘conscious’ of his behaviour stemming from his past bad-karma, and he has to now, consciously, go about doing something good to people around him… The more he does this, the more he gets ‘cleansed’ of his dark nature… That’s my conclusion, Sir. I have realized this: I have to keep doing good and constructive things… I have to trust, love and care more… I have to forgive, tolerate, and adjust more… ...

Pic.: Azriel D'Souza Y ears ago, when I had decided to do something about my poor English, one of the things I did – and found very effective – was telling a nice story in two tenses… the Present and the Past. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of people, who were earnest about improving their English, with the same method… Yes, write a nice story down in both the tenses… and, then, tell it to someone! This little Zen story has always calmed me down whenever I have struggled to understand the good and the bad in me… and in the people around me… DOING OUR KARMA AND DOING OUR DHARMA PAST: One day, a monk was bathing in a river. He saw a scorpion drowning and instinctively placed his hand under the water and gently lifted the creature on his palm. But, the scorpion started jumping and stinging and, soon, fell into the river… The monk, once again, took his hand under the water to save the drowning scorpion. But, the creature continued to be...