Gerald D'Cunha

  “If everything is amplified, we hear nothing.” Jon Stewart H uman mind is wired to take sides! Confused? Imagine you come across a game on TV, social media or even at a local playground… You know nothing about the teams or players… Totally strangers… But, as you keep watching the game, watch you mind, as well… Are you rooting for one of the teams? Can you remain totally neutral? Similarly, imagine this: you are watching two people fighting along the road… Why? Even two bulls, dogs, goats, cats are fighting as you walk by… Is there a favourite out there? And, imagine this: you and I are watching on TV or social media so much of ‘fighting’ – mostly political – and allow ourselves to be affected by what we watch… what happens to our thinking? I don’t know about you. But, whenever I get drawn into this cesspool, I end up getting depressed – irritated, angry and very, very touchy and reactive. The worst part of this is: I am ready to spoil my close relationships for the ...

  “Believe half of what you see and nothing you read online.” Pablo Reyes N ow a days, it’s senseless to say, that we don’t watch TV news. The TV news has come inside our mobile screens. So, wittingly or unwittingly, we consume it in, like – yes, drugs.   It’s pointless to blame the media for its greed… We need to blame ourselves for our own greed… What else explains our obsession with the lives of SSR, Rhea or Kangana? By default, if I get into even two minutes of watching news about these people - on any channel, my head feels the spin and my heart behaves abnormally… And, I am 62… I am decently educated, informed, well-read and spiritual… I like to stay away from gossip and toxicity… And, despite these proud credentials of mine, if my head spins and my heart behaves abnormally, after consuming just two-minutes of TV news, via my mobile phone or laptop, imagine the state of those who are glued to it in their drawing rooms or bed rooms 24 x 7! Imagine the impact...

"You become what you think about  all day long.” Ralf Waldo Emerson N eed I ‘investigate’ into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput? Let me admit at the outset: I have watched two of his beautiful movies – ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ and ‘Chhichhore’ – and, after coming home from the cinema hall, hugely impressed by the movies and Sushant’s acting both, I have written lovely Blogs. I have, also, watched a couple of his interviews, as I, often, watch others’ too; and, yes, I have been impressed by that, too. And, with that – and, maybe, some Magazine articles on him - ends my affection and loyalty to this fine actor. So, when the news broke about his unfortunate death, like so many around me, I, too, was saddened… “Was it a suicide or a foul play?” Yes, this thought, too, was planted into my mind by the insane media. But, here is what I did: I completely insulated my mind from further poisoning on SSR… One death was enough… I did not want the ...

“There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son; I wish I could keep ’em all away from you.  T hat’s never possible.” Harper Lee W hen our innocence is lost, our ability to live – enjoy life – is lost. And, I think, to lose or not to lose our innocence is the choice each one of us make, each morning. Let me take this morning as an example to check if we all have a choice in this regard … ‘Vikas Dubey is killed’! That’s a ‘big-breaking news’ right when the Sun was coming out in the East, today. For last one week or so, there was too much news about this man from Kanpur – call him a criminal, a gangster, a terrorist or a friend-of-the-powerful – whatever… yes, that’s irrelevant. What was expected had just happened. I, for one, was not at all affected by the cat-and-mouse or hide-and-seek or chor -police drama… Not a bit when he gunned down the cops, not a bit when the cops gunned him and his men down. I could sense, quite clearly, that the moment I ...

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” -   Napoleon Bonaparte I think, one of the most ‘toxic’ things that we consume every night, before we go to bed, is the 9-p.m. News. Obviously, ‘good new’ is no news, at all… It doesn’t sell, you see. Only bad news – dark, gory, brutal, hate-filled one - alone sells… And, that’s something so sickening about human psychology… We know the toxic news are not good for us when we go to bed. Still, we crave for it… We willingly drink the poison! There is so much good in this world. Yet, many of us choose to ‘misuse’ and ‘mis-interpret’ the stories relating to rape, corruption and other crimes. It’s funny – in fact, foxy – that, we misuse them to suit our prejudiced religious, political or ideological leanings. Our reactions to these rapes, scams and crimes clearly reveal who we are! I repeat: there is so much good in this world, there outside… It’s not rapes, loots and...