Gerald D'Cunha

  “Stop pushing so hard on the door looking for happiness… It opens inward.” Unknown   N ot many years ago, the wedding videos used to run into hours. Now, they don’t even run into a few minutes. But, the cost of making these 2-minutes-long wedding- videos is phenomenally higher than making those hours-long wedding-videos of yesteryear… Not that there has been inflation in cost; but, there is an unbelievable deflation   in our attitude towards happiness in life… So, each wedding video that we come across gives us the same high as watching a well-crafted movie – Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood or even Bhojpuri… It’s all the same. Made to create an impact… But, then, a wedding is a day, an event… Marriage is a long, long journey together. A lifetime! Thus, every time, I watch a surreal wedding-video, that exports us to a fantasy land, I reflect on my own three-decades-long marital journey… I ask: Has it been so perfect and glossy as it is made to look...

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda “12% of employees eat because they are hungry. 88% of employees eat because it is 1 o’clock.”   ―   Mokokoma Mokhonoana (on herd mentality)     Y esterday, a young boy had come, accompanied by his parents, to get himself enrolled in my class. He had got online admission in one of the best Commerce colleges in Mumbai through a special quota (Caste).  He had scored 72% in SSC. A dear friend of his, who had scored 85%, was unlucky. Forget the ‘best’ college in the city, and forget the online, this girl with her 85%, had landed in one of the remotest colleges, whose name I myself had not heard of! So, this young-man, on the one hand, was ecstatic about his own ‘good luck’ and, on the other, was feeling sad for his best friend. Over decades of teaching these young boys and girls – who went to the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’ colleges in our city – I have formed my firm views over this i...

“What will people think?” For many of us, this is the biggest fear… The heaviest burden!   Now, I hear some saying, “No, I care a damn to what people think.” I can only smile when I hear that! The father of a young-girl was there in my office, this morning. The girl, who currently is in FY B’Com, had cleared her CPT (CA entrance-exam) smoothly and had joined a reputed coaching-class for preparing for the IPCC exams (Inter-CA exams). Along the way, the pressures had gotten the better off of this girl, health had deteriorated and she couldn’t attend the coaching. The parents advised the girl to take good rest, focus on her college exams and just enjoy her college life, presently… They were very supportive and told her that there was no hurry at all to complete her CA; that, she could give exams, gradually in installments, as and when she felt she was able and ready. The girl was just in her 3 rd standard when...

There is no need for any of us here, on this earth, to pretend! There is no need to be anxious. No need to desperately impress some one… Yes, no need to over do, over sell… show off. Rest assured! How to sell yourself? How to leave the best impression? Well, the subject sounds quite fascinating.  Many believe that to sell yourself well, you have to walk into someone’s cabin - like a Tycoon… Once in, all that you have to do is: place on his table your BMW keys along with your sleek Blackberry. The rest will follow! There is some truth in what is being believed here. “Jo diktha hai, who  bikta hai.”   Yes, to sell, you have to show…  Therefore, they show in style! Hoping that it will help them sell… Believing that, selling is very, very important! Selling is, in deed, very important. But, I believe, we should sell ‘substance’ more than the ‘style’. And, to sell ‘substance’, we should possess it, in the fi...