Gerald D'Cunha

  “Rivers know this: there is no hurry; we will get there someday.” A.A.Milne   I admire people who show grace in waiting… There is tremendous amount of strength in waiting… and delaying the sensual gratification… This the Navratri time. People, who seriously observe the essence of Navratri, I think, know what I am saying… Fasting is waiting… Delaying the sensual gratification… It’s a fine spiritual exercise... Walking barefoot for nine days is, certainly, tough for people like me. So, when I see someone sincerely doing it, I feel in my heart true admiration for that person… Patience is waiting… Patience when provoked, ridiculed, belittled etc… It is not easy at all to delay the reaction that is stirred inside… Patience is strength. It is prayer… L ast afternoon, I was scheduled to meet an important government officer between 3 and 4. Another government officer, who was known to me, had arranged for the meeting. It was an important work. So, I had cancelle...

“If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?” Unknown   M y friend, and a fellow-learner in our Tai Chi group, Venkat, had shared this gem, one Monday morning: ‘Written on the board of a cemetery: “A LOT OF THE FELLOWS HERE BELIEVED,  THAT THE WORLD, OR SOME PART OF THE WORLD,  COULDN’T RUN WITHOUT THEM.”     This friend of mine is in his mid-forties. Apparently, he and his wife had made a conscious decision, early during their married life, that they would stop working before they were forty… Would have reasonable amount of savings… No children to raise… A few simple (crumpled but clean) clothes to wear, and, above all, backpack to every remote corner of our country and some neighbouring ones. So, they have been, literally, living their lives without any baggage…   (My friends Venkat and Priya presently backpacking at Kumta-Belekhan-Gokarna trek.) Well, to most of us, such a life seems either an ideal or outright i...

  “If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why should anyone else?” John C. Maxwell   A week ago, a young girl, who was scheduled to face interviews for MBA programmes from some premier institutes, contacted me. She wanted to refer my name to these institutes as her ‘Teacher’. I was more than delighted. This girl, who I had taught for three years during her degree college, had many strengths. One of them was, that she was very ‘dependable’. She was committed, punctual and communicative. I was just a teacher for her. In this respect, her commitment referred to each of her session with me. She rarely missed any. And, very rarely, when she had to, she would communicate with me beforehand, negotiate; sometimes, try to reschedule with mutual consent. She always showed up before time. Again, very rarely, if, for some reason, she found it difficult to be before time, she would call me up and let me know about it… She did her assignments within the scheduled time period… I never had t...

  “The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience.” Leo Tolstoy in ‘War and Peace’   “I t takes twenty long years to become an overnight success!” This was how my dear friend, and a fellow-trainer, Dr. Deepak, would tease the young ones in our Personality Development sessions… Yes, to drill into their semi-hard heads, this: “My young friends, you need to have loads and loads of patience… You need to wait for the harvest!” Yesterday, another friend of mine shared this conversation on WhatsApp: Reporter : “Sir, the farmers’ movement has met with the government 10 times so far and now they have given yet another date for meeting. Are you not tired? Not losing heart?” Rakesh Tikait (Leader of farmers’ union) : “Farmers are an epitome of patience and optimism. We sow seeds and wait for 6 months to see it grow. And then, when hailstorm destroys our crops, we are broken, but we don’t run away. We stay back and work on our fields and prepare for the nex...

“ One minute of patience, ten years of peace.” Greek Proverb L ast night, a group of my ex-students – who graduated about thirty years ago - arranged a video conference… Yes, just as is the trend during these ‘locked-at-home’ days. I don’t think we have had such get-in-touch moments ever in the past! Well, most of us have been fortunate: We have a steady roof over our heads, enough food and drinks stocked in our houses, sufficient money to sail through this period, and, above all, healthy people at home to shoulder this sudden load. Last night, each one of us  shared our quarantine experiences… Who is entrusted with what household chores…   We were all men, and, most of us, including myself, had a similar chore to take up: cleaning our bathrooms and vessels… Only two chores? Not at all. These were the two major chores. What was that one major ‘personal challenge’ that each one  has been facing? It differed fo...

C oming back to the demonetization issue (I have already blogged a couple of times on this issue), I, too, have no doubt about the good intentions with which our PM, Modiji, had resorted to it. When it was first announced around 8 that night, my wife and I were in Wayanad, Kerala, on a holiday. When I heard about it, I went into a sudden panic mode… We had carried some cash and card would not be accepted, everywhere. When I told this to my wife, she gave me a good sermon, “You always panic,” she declared, “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.”  When she learnt about the argument in favour of banning of old notes – to weed out black money – she was very happy. “It is a right move… a bold one… There will be inconvenience for all of us in the short run… But, in the long run, all of us will be benefited.” I kept quiet during my wife’s sermon. I only prayed in silence, “God, may my wife not have to stand on a long, long queue.” But, then, God did n...

Pic.: Varsha Chitnis Junnarkar R ight at this moment, a couple of things in my life are not going right… Some dreams remain unrealized, some problems remain still unsolved… and, some relationships still remain unreconciled…. So, a thought does cross my mind: “Why can’t it all happen in one go? How peaceful my life will be, then!” Yes, I want my dreams to materialize… I want my problems to get solved… I want my relationships to get reconciled… and, yes, I want all these to happen quickly, so that I can live a peaceful life… But, then, it all doesn’t happen in one go… Peace doesn’t come in me the way I want it to… And, when I stand aside and see all these, I understand how true what Kabir had said: “Dheere Dheere Re Mana, Dheere Sub Kutch Hoye Mali Seenche So Ghara, Ritu Aaye Phal Hoye” “Slowly slowly, O mind, everything in own pace happens; The gardener may water with a hundred buckets, fruit arrives only in its season.” I need to remind my mind abo...

Pic.: Chetna Shetty L ate last night, Amit, who was my student, some twelve years ago, had shared an inspiring post on FB. Amit has a wicked sense of humor, and regularly writes with his tongue firmly in cheeks, either about cricket or about politics... but, never ever without making you laugh... So, last night, when I first sighted the post he had shared, I read ‘Rahul Dravid’, and assumed in my mind, that it would be something to laugh at before you went off to bed... Well, it wasn't something to laugh at; it was something to give you goose-bumps as you went off to sleep! Here it is... as it was: “When I’m requested to speak to youngsters, I like talking about this phase of my life and liken it to the fascinating plant: The Chinese Bamboo. You can take a Chinese Bamboo seed and plant it in the ground, water and nurture the seed for an entire year and not even see a single sprout! In fact, you’ll not see a sprout for five years! But suddenly, a tiny shoot...