Gerald D'Cunha

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” -           Ernest Hemingway T oday, on my way back from the Tai Chi class, I saw a delightful sight… A young woman, who seemed to be on her way back from the Gym, was playfully engaged with a stray dog… The young woman wooed the stranger doggy, who, was, initially, skeptical and scared to come near the unknown lady. But, the stray quickly got melted by the loving invitation, trust and assurance offered. The dog was, now, wagging its tail in joy… It kept coming closer and closer to the young woman, and, finally, just fell into her arms! It took for me some time to comprehend the silent lesson, which had just unfolded before my eyes on the roadside… I stood a little away from the spot and kept watching the amazing ‘love-scene’… till the young woman got into her car, parked a few steps away… The dog, meanwhile, kept gett...

  It was 1993. A few weeks after the infamous Mumbai-Bomb-blasts, we had received a short letter written my Merlyn, a young British-lady. She had seen the gruesome images of mayhem in this city and she had expressed her genuine concern for us and written to my wife, “I hope, all of you are safe.” Just a few weeks before that, I had taken my wife and our just-a-baby son to the beautiful Keem beach, not very far from Mumbai. MTDC has resorts here; we loved the quietness of this place, the excellent food and, above all, the stay in those close-to-the-Nature tents. We had gone there just for a week-end. But, because we loved this place, we decided to extend our stay for a day more. So, by that Sunday evening, the entire place was empty… The Mumbai revelers go there just for a short week-end to re-charge their batteries…and, they go back to the city so that they can resume to work on Monday. That Sunday, when night fell, we looked around… We suddenly felt we were...