Gerald D'Cunha

  “A lighthouse doesn’t save the ships; it doesn’t go out and rescue them; it’s just this pillar that helps to guide people home.” Lea Michele   O ur two-month summer programme (Personality Development) just concluded on last Sunday (9 th June). I am a poor multitasker… I have this huge weakness – or call it a massive strength if you please – of putting all my attention into the task in hand. So, once I enter that zone, I just stay there. As I said, I am simply unable to – or willing to – focus on many other things during this period… One of the things I had to stay away from was my daily blogging… But, it did not mean, that I stayed away from writing. As in every summer, this year, too, I got all our participants to write for our latest book on Values: ‘Some Things in Life Don’t Move’. The title of this book was inspired by the endearing story Dr. Stephen Covey shares in his ground-breaking book - ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. In fact, he claims, tha...

  “How a person wins and loses is much more important than how much a person wins and loses.” Tom Krause   O ne of the things I dreaded, when I was in school, was when I was called to the Headmaster’s/Principal’s office on any complaint from my teachers. The thing, that I dreaded the most, was when my parents were called to school! Both, my father and mother had not been to school like they wanted their sons to… They were simple folks. About my relationship with them – well, I was their favourite… They, always, believed, that I was the good sheep in their pack and wouldn’t let them down. Maybe, this was the reason, why I was most scared to tell them, that the Headmaster/Principal wanted to see them! Did my parents, always, try to inculcate good values in me? Well, which parents wouldn’t? I don’t think, we learn to imbibe good values in life, because our parents, teachers and mentors try to inculcate them in us. I think, we learn to imbibe them, when we learn to...

“Never buy Gold, simply earn it...” -           Mary Kom A week ago, I received a call from a retired school-teacher. I knew her from the days when she taught in a state-board school. She was an excellent Mathematics teacher and was very popular among the students. After her retirement, she started tuition classes from her residence and students from different boards – SSC , CBSE, ICSE, IB, all – thronged to her place for guidance in Mathematics. I always admired this gifted teacher, who, in her late seventies still reached out to young school-students and kept herself extremely positive and productive… This time, the teacher had called me to check if I could do something about her granddaughter’s nursery admission in a certain ICSE school. I was surprised… She had been a very popular teacher herself… had taught thousands of students… knew so many well-connected parents… and, of all the people, sh...

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...