Gerald D'Cunha

T he building, where my office and classes are located, is almost forty-year old. So, efforts are on for its redevelopment. Series of meetings, heated discussions, trust and distrust, allegations and counter allegations… and, above all, the endless human greed – yes, all these make the redevelopment proposal a frustrating experience… Even though the present market conditions are volatile, and even though the condition of our old buildings is pathetic – and yes, even though many of our residents are senior citizens and are no more in a position to wait for years and years for their new-house ‘dream’ to come true – when it comes to trust and greed, it is the greed that seems to overrule trust. Why not more? Yesterday, one of the prominent property developers had invited us for a site-visit. The sites were around Thane’s Ghodbunder road. One of the sites bore an exotic name. The sales executive literally ‘air-lifted’ us to the 26 th floor to show the sample flats… From ...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty Y ears ago, when I had decided to do something about my poor English, one of the things I did – and found it very useful – was telling a nice story in two tenses… Past and Present. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of people who were earnest to improve their English with the same method… Yes, write a nice story down in both the tenses… and tell it to someone. This popular Aesop’s fable was one of the earliest childhood stories I had heard. But, the temptation seems so familiar and lifelong! THE GOOSE THAT LAID GOLDEN EGG PAST: I n a certain town, there lived a man and his wife. They owned a goose which was special. It laid a golden egg every morning. This made the couple reasonably rich and happy. But, one morning, after the goose had laid the day’s egg, the wife said to her husband, “This goose just gives us only one golden egg a day. Just imagine how quickly we can become wealthy if we could have all ...