Gerald D'Cunha

Pic.: Chetna Shetty T oday is ‘Dhanteras’. It’s believed to be an auspicious day. Laskhmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity, is worshiped today. People buy gold and silver on this day and believe it would multiply many fold in their lives… But, what is interesting is that this lucky day comes on what is, also, believed to be an unlucky day – thirteenth day of the dark night. ‘Dhan’ means wealth and ‘Tera’ means thirteen. Brought together, it means wealth comes on thirteenth day… Luck comes on an unlucky day! Dhanteras is the first day of the five-day festival of Diwali. It starts with prayers for prosperity… I n life, everything hangs on our beliefs. People believe, today they should buy assets and should not sell them. In the morning, I met a jeweler-friend, who was so happy for this day… He expected a roaring business. For him, sale of gold – loads of it – brought loads and loads of prosperity. For his customers, a few grams of gold-purchase meant prosper...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda A lady – who must be in her mid-thirties – was trying to meet me and discuss something, as she put it most convincingly: ‘SO, SO important to you sir’. She was referred to me by a person I knew very well. But, even before meeting this lady, I could sense, that the lady was trying to ‘sell’ to me something… and, she was doing it the way a hardcore sales guy did… Yes, she was trying to tell me how ‘important’ her product, her idea, to me was… how incomplete and unhappy my life would be, if I did not go for it… I told the lady over the phone itself, “Ma’am, you are coming from so far… I do not wish to disappoint you… Why can’t you let me know what is that ‘so important’ to me?” “No sir, that’s something we cannot discuss over the phone,” the lady said with all the charm in her possession, “We will discuss it over when we meet.” And, I knew, that I would not allow this lady to make me feel how incomplete or unhappy my life was without the stu...

The idea of a new year is not new to us. There are so many of them… The Christians, Hindus, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Muslims… all have their own new years. Again, among the Hindus too, there are different new years… Like today is Gudi Padwa. It is the new year of Maharashtrians. There is Yugadi for Kannadigas. And so there are for people from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Punjab… and for people from every other state… their own. This Post is about the essence of the idea called a new year… and not about who celebrates it… when, where and how. No matter who we are, we all need to end the old to pave way for the new. Our old ways of going about our lives, our relationships, our pursuits of success and wealth, our expectations from others or our grievances about them… the way we look at our own selves and the way we look at others… our fears and anxieties, our despairs and hopes, our envy and rejoicing… Yes, all of these need to shed their oldnes...

The less you hold on to things, the more you own them! It is, indeed, a great paradox of life. One reason why we constantly experience lack of money in our life is because, we tend to hold on to it, hoard it, are suspicious about it. When money comes in, however small in quantity, do we feel grateful for the inflow? When we pay our bills, do we pay with blessings to the payee? The answer is obvious. When money comes in, we take it for granted; we assume that we are 'entitled ' to it. And, when we pay our bills, we grumble, we resist, we feel robbed by some one... and there is a nagging sadness, sorrow and even anger inside. So, how can we ever experience prosperity? How can we ever feel content and happy over money? On 31st of December, a surprise envelope came to me by post. I wasn't expecting at all the IT refund that day. For a moment, I paused and thanked. I could feel the gladness, fulfilment. It had nothing to do with the size of the amount; but, certainly, it had a l...