Gerald D'Cunha

  “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,...

  “There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.” G.K. Chesterton   “I am a human, not a stone.” I keep reminding it to myself, whenever I feel bored. Like everyone else, I, too, had invested so many years of my energy and time pursuing things dear to my heart. And, suddenly, like everyone else, I, too, felt disoriented and helpless during these uncertain months of   pandemic… But then, is my situation as bad as so many around me? I am 63. What about those kids, young ones and the middle-aged? What about the very elderly and the sick? It’s easy to say “I am bored” or “Life is boring”… Very easy. But, what benefit does it serve? Boredom is a natural state. As I said, if I am not a stone, I would experience it, now and then. But, if I complain about being bored, endlessly – and whether during the pandemic or normal times -   then, I say, that it’s sheer lack of zest for life… Life is unpredictable. If we just accept this truth with o...

  “There are some of your graces which would never be discovered if it were not for your trials.” C. H. Spurgeon   T o survive calamities beyond human control, it takes God’s grace – His mercy.     What else can we call it? Luck? Co-incidence? Whatever that is… Once we survive, Life still goes on, right? So, what does it take to make Life worthy of that Grace, Mercy, Luck, Coincidence, whatever that is? On this Easter morning, I came across the story of Kechi Okwuchi. At 16, she was a school student in Nigeria. On 10 th   December, 2005, she and 60 of her schoolmates were on their way home for Christmas. The Sololiso Airlines Flight-1145 had 109 passengers including five crew members, Kechi and her 60 schoolmates. Due to a terrible turbulence, the plane crashed while landing. Only two passengers survived… Kechi was one of them! Kechi, in a state of coma, was airlifted, for immediate medical attention, to a hospital in Johannesburg, South Afric...