Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Internet “One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.” - Johann W. Goethe T he youth of our housing society have planned night cricket (under-arm) for three days, starting from tonight They want all of us – the old and the young, the ladies and the gents… and the little-ones all – to take part in it…. Yes, just for the fun of it… Just to let our hair down on these three nights, at least… Life can be as serious, as grim as we want it to be. And, the same Life can be as fun-filled, as playful as we want it to be… Yes, I know that I haven’t held a cricket bat in my hand for over forty years now… I was 17 when I played some gully cricket, back in our village… So what? Yes, so what… These young-guns are telling me: “So what, sir… You can hold the bat now, at 57!” Sandeep, who works as a senior executive with an Insurance Major - and who has two lovely school-going kids - posted this on our community group, late la...

“The best way to bring down our suffering in life is to carry our crosses… gladly!” I came across this line, this morning, on a waste paper!  I stood there, still, for a while… and read it, and read it again and again and again: “The best way to bring down our suffering in life   is to carry our crosses… gladly!” “So simple!” I really felt like as  though I had just discovered a new continent! As a small child, every time I resisted the work given to me by mom, she would scream: “If you do your work happily, you will have more time to play!” This meant: if I resisted more – complained, grumbled, argued, fought and postponed – I would simply add more trouble in my life… waste away my time… ruin my joy… and, yes, I would have less time to play, enjoy. My stress would deprive me of my joy, my playfulness. The rule had applied everywhere - from my school homework to every other wo...

So, Paul’s prediction, once again, have come true! Spain won the football World Cup as predicted by him. He is an Octopus, and I think, he lives in someone’s home aquarium. Wise fellow, this Paul. “Do you believe in such predictions?” a friend of mine asked me last evening. The Finals were a few hours away. Paul had predicted the German doom; before that, of Argentina. Naturally, some fans are so angry with this Nostradamus that they have sworn to deep-fry him for their dinner. I watched the match last night. Spain won. Paul, too What difference does it make if I do not believe in such predictions? Normally, I don’t. But, I don’t tell this to any one with all my convictions,  whether any one – least of all an octopus or a parrot – can predict some one’s future. I have not laid any importance to such predictions… It is better to be anxious about our future and remain humble, slog it out… rather than ‘knowing the out come’ and going off to sleep. The hare l...