Gerald D'Cunha

  “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” —  Aristotle   I had taught Naresh in his T. Y. B. Com. It was forty years ago. We have remained as good friends ever since. Some months ago, his daughter Debanshee got married to her sweetheart, Sooraj, in a simple temple ceremony in America. Naresh and his wife, Sangeeta, attended this simple ceremony alongside boy’s parents. A couple of days ago, Naresh had shared on WhatsApp a beautiful invite for the reception they have planned here in Mumbai (on 13 th of this month). I, immediately, thanked him for the invite and confirmed, that my wife and I would, certainly, grace the occasion… Yesterday, early in the morning, there was a call from Naresh… “Good morning Sir; hope, it’s not too early to call you.” “Not at all, Naresh,” I said. “Sir, though we have sent you the invite on WhatsApp, Sangeeta and I wanted to invite you and Anima, personally.” Then, Naresh and Sangeeta invited ...

  “Values aren’t buses. They’re not supposed to get you anywhere... They’re supposed to define who you are.” Jennifer Crusie   I n his last episode of KBC, I saw Amitabh Bachchan calling on stage his loyal hair-stylist, Deepak Sawant, and speaking about him (Deepak Sawant) very emotionally. It was, most probably, Amitabh Bachchan’s last KBC episode. Considering his age (83), I don’t think, he might take up a high-pressure assignment like KBC anymore. But, who knows about tomorrow? During more than half-a-century of his career – from acting to hosting, from voiceovers, commercials to trying his hand in politics and business – I have seen, more than once, Amitabh ‘stepping aside’... calling it a day... only to reinvent himself – and make a triumphant come back! And, through it all, there was one man in his life who stood behind him, like his constant shadow – and, that man was Deepak Sawant... Yes, though thick and thin, as it’s said. In professional life, Loyalt...

  “There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; two, that you can boast about it (on Goodreads).” Bertrand Russell   A week ago, a friend of mine, who lives in London, messaged me saying, that she wanted to send a good book for my wife to read as she (my wife) was recovering from her two back-to-back angioplasties. Without checking with my wife, I wrote my preference: ‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’ by Arundhati Roy (Penguin Random House)... Only after the book arrived home, my wife learnt about what my   London friend and I had agreed upon... My wife was disappointed – not with the book, but with the ‘acclaimed’, 'Bestselling' author and the Booker Prize winner... “Whatever that is, I don’t care,” my wife blasted, “I don’t like her.” Period. ‘Mother Mary Comes To Me’ (374 pages) was destined to be my cup of tea. I had already heard about the storyline, through several rounds of promotional interviews. So, it became easy for me to navigat...

  “Spoon-feeding, in the long run, teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” E. M. Forster   T here are two students of mine. Let me rename them, for this Post, as ‘Sanskar’ and ‘Dhruv’. Trust me, I am not renaming them according to   the meaning of these new names, or the actual names. They both are fine students, brought up by fine parents, and, yes, being sent to fine schools and colleges. Presently, they are in their final year of college. I had requested one of my friends, a Chartered Accountant, to teach these young boys ‘GST’ (Indirect Tax). As my friend is a busy professional, I did not want my boys to disrespect his time… I wanted to ensure, that the boys had discussed the timings for this week-end with my friend. So, I sent this message to my boys, last evening: “Hello Sanskar and Dhruv, I hope you both have discussed the timings with Sir for this week-end. Please do, if you haven’t.” “Yes Sir, done,” replied Dhruv, immediately. There was no...

  “Politeness is the first thing people lose once they get the power.” Amit Kalantri   Y ears ago, I had a student, who I had taught in his Junior College. He must’ve been 15 or 16 and I must’ve been 23 or 24 at that time. He was raised by his elder sister as their parents were no more. The sister, who was slightly older than me, would call me by my first name – Gerry. So, her baby-brother, my student, too, started calling me by my name. I had no problem with that at all. Yes, whenever he would do it inside the class, I would feel a bit awkward (Shall I say ‘hurt’ or ‘small’?), but, I would wear a comfortable mask before my other students. After this boy completed his Junior College, he joined Mumbai’s (then, Bombay) famed St. Xavier’s College   to pursue B.A. One day, he took me around his new college campus and proudly described the great heritage of this educational institution. Now and then, I would hear him greet someone passing by, with – ‘Hi Victor’, ‘Hi ...

  “Some things are better than winning.” Claire Annette Noland   I enjoy watching important matches, including cricket. So, I did watch the last few overs of India Vs. England ODI-series decider. My 28-year-old son and 85-year-old father-in-law, who are greater cricket enthusiasts than I am, had watched almost the full match… It was truly a tough match, well-played by both the sides. There was heavy suspense till the last ball. And, finally, as is the case in every well-played game, the team which manages to hold the nerves better, walks away with the trophy… Indian boys did! But, certainly, the England boys – particularly Sam Curran – deserved praise for their fighting spirit… They went down gloriously, like heroes! I am not writing this Post to add my own expert-commentary to yesterday’s game. My knowledge, and update about all sports are very limited. But, I am, always, moved by some subtle things while watching sports… Some little gestures by the players, ca...

W hat we hold as valuable in life is what we call a Value in life. Whatever we hold important in life, we always cherish as our Value. And, it all starts with small things… daily, routine things. And yes, many of these things, we simply observe and learn… Parents, teachers, elders do make a conscious effort to inculcate them into us. But, if we do not consciously accept these things and embrace them as our own, then, they will never be… I have in me many Values which I have embraced from my own simple, barely educated, village- parents… Some Values I have observed in others around me, over all these years, and, consciously woven them around my heart. But, when I reflect on this phenomenon, I realize that a Value cannot be imposed upon us… It can only be embraced by us through our own choice… It’s a very conscious act… We like it; so, we embrace it. Period. “A Value is a Value,” Swami Dayananda Saraswati would explain, “only when we realize that the value of the partic...

“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.” - Kinky Friedman O ver the past twenty-eight years or so, ever since I started writing and publishing on behalf of THE DAWN CLUB, besides the inspirational magazine ‘The Bloom’ and the poetry magazine, ‘The Pearls’ (no more being published presently), I have written, edited and published more than 30 inspirational books on behalf of our club. And, on all these books, I have bravely written ‘This book is not for sale’. “Bravely’? or ‘foolishly’? Well, whichever way you wish to see, you can see. One man’s food is another man’s poison… Someone else in my place would have made – what they colorfully describe – ‘Pots of money’… ‘Loads of money’… As a young struggler in Mumbai, this city of dreams, in the early eighties, I had found on the roadside a copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic, ‘Think and Grow Rich’. The author had said clearly this: Money is a shy bride… You have to woo her. ...