Gerald D'Cunha

  “Maturity comes not with age, but with acceptance  of responsibility. You are only young once;  but immaturity can last a life time.” Edwin Louis Cole   N irav* is a bright kid. Why did I call this 17-year-old, who has joined one of the ‘best’ Commerce colleges in South Mumbai, a ‘kid’? Well, the ‘kidhood’ – I mean the ‘childhood’ – as Edwin Louis Cole says has nothing to do with our age… Some of us stay ‘kids’ for our entire lifetime, you see! Poets and spiritual teachers sing praises about ‘being childlike’. Hope, we never hear it - ‘Being childish’! So, our smart kid from one of the ‘best colleges’ in South Mumbai, is not the one the poets and spiritual teachers sing praises about… He is ‘Childish’, plain lazy. Laidback! Am I making a big deal about it? Weren’t we all been there, done that? We are lying, if we say ‘No’! We all loved to sleep like logs when Sun was almost halfway to mid-noon. I am talking about the days when there weren’t any ga...

\ “You can’t do big things  if you’re distracted by small things.” -      Anonymous L et’s accept this fact of life: In a running race, a tortoise can never win, unless the hare gets distracted… Yes, distracted by his overconfidence, by his underestimation of others, and, above all, his laziness. We all have in us something of these two famous characters – the hare and the tortoise. Most of us are endowed with the speed and competence of the hare… and, we are aware of this strength. But, often, we are unaware of our weakness… that is, our tendency to get distracted easily. Some of us are endowed with the focus, commitment, consistency and patience of the tortoise… And, because we are equally aware of our strength and weakness, we tend to get less distracted. So, as the hares go off to sleep, some of us – tortoises – make it to the finish line! The slow and steady have, always,...

There is heavy leakage out side my office. A crack in one of our building pipes is responsible for this. It is one week now, since I lodged a complaint. Our plumber has come, at least four times, to 'see' the problem - the mess the leakage has caused out side my office ... and, on each of his visit, he has been extremely courteous to me! "Plumber bhayya, dekho kitna gandha ho gaya hai; please, isko teek koro." "Ji sir." After two days: "Plumber, kya hua?" "Sir, aaj pakka kar ke dhoonga." "Pakka?" "Ji sir, bilkul." " Pakka khabhi?" "Aaaj gyara bhaje, pakka." The next day: "Dekh, tumara jabhan ko koyi respect nahin ye kya?" "Sir, aaj teen bhaje tak, aap ka kaam ho jayega." "Dekh raja, tum jawan ho. Aisa kaam karoge toh, kaun rakega? Achcha kaam karoge, toh achcha hoga life." "Ji sir, bilkul sahi kaha aap ne." Three days are over. The 'jawan raja' is stil...