Gerald D'Cunha

  “Perhaps, the earth could teach us… everything would seem dead; then, be alive.” Pablo Neruda   A ll of a sudden, since yesterday, I have been getting on my phone some old funny scenes from the popular TV show of the fifties – ‘I Love Lucy’. I don’t know how this ‘feeding things’ happen on our phones; but, sometimes, they happen for the right reason… I remembered my wife the moment I heard ‘I Love Lucy’. For, she really, really loved Lucy and her hilarious escapades in her New York middle-class, rented apartment. Well, when the ‘I Love Lucy’ show was first aired in America (CBS) from 1951 to 1957, I wasn’t even born. And, my wife was born more than a decade later. The show began to be aired on our glorious B & W DD during the eighties, when my wife was a school girl… She just loved Lucy! Thus, this morning, the first thing I did was to tell my  wife about her favourite Lucy… “Show me, show me,” she jumped. I showed her some scenes, and my wife was jumpin...

    “The more you believe in yourself, the more the world believes in you.” Isa Zapata   F aith in one’s abilities doesn’t come overnight. If it does, such faith in oneself – such self-belief – can be dangerous. Self-belief should come gradually, through great deal of self-awareness, and lots of self-introspection… Else, it’s overconfidence… As I said, it can be dangerous. What one is good at, what work one can do exceptionally well – yes, the sooner one gets this awareness, the sooner comes one’s self-belief. T wo days ago, I was holding a programme for the students of a premier Architecture college in Mumbai. The subject of the programme was ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’. Towards the end, when I asked those young kids to ask me any question that bothered them, many did. But, two questions from these two girls, particularly, carried a worthy response from my side… O ne of these two girls gathered her courage and said, “Sir, I am a shy perso...

  “The dream in your heart may be bigger than  the environment in which you find yourself.” Darren Hardy   I came to know about Darren Hardy’s book – ‘The Compound Effect’ – while searching for an appropriate quote for today’s blog. You see, my world has been revolving around the young college kids… for nearly five decades that is. Yes, I started teaching while I was in my first-year B. Com… and, once I made that conscious choice to become a good teacher and a good writer, the rest happened around that robust choice… I stayed committed and consistent throughout. There were bleak times when I did worry about my future… “Did I make the right choice?”… Yes, this question has come to hit me hard countless times, making my heart shiver. But, then, that solitary choice which I made while still in college – yes, at the end of the day, it has helped me stay faithful to my commitment, stay consistent… and, come this far. So, when I came across a good review on Darren Ha...

  "I dream my painting and I paint my dream." Vincent Willem van Gogh   C larity is a powerful aide in life. A confused mind only takes us in circles… It makes life a clutter. I am a dreamer… But, I do not wish to get trapped when I dream. As Wilfred Peterson says, I like to see big, and keep it simple. One of the challenging things for every dreamer is not to lose his soul under the weight of his dreams. Somewhere, along his path, man, often, compromises – forgets the very reason why he dreamt so passionately… Therefore, the wise counsel: “Keep it simple, Keep it honest, Keep it you.” Let me read it backward… Most of us dream with our pure hearts and   fine intentions. We are honest to the core. But, along our paths, we tend to get entangled and lose sight of our basic objective. Yes, we lose it in the complex web of confusion… Never to lose your soul… Never, ever. That’s what ‘Keep it you’ means… What we think, we create; what we feel, we attract; what w...

  “It’s so simple really: If you say you’re going to do something, do it. It you start something, finish it.” Epictetus   R ome was not built in one day. Well, nothing is… Yes, in life, every thing takes time… Everything wants us to wait… But, then, just wait without doing any efforts? That’s what I want to write in this Post… Don’t just wait waiting for the heavens to manifest everything for you. No Sir… Heavens support you only if you start something – however small it is – but, keep doing it, with more and more and more dedication and passion… “Success is all about consistency around the fundamentals,” stresses Robin Sharma W hen I came across the phrase ‘bulldog determination” in Napoleon Hill’s books, I remember falling in love with it, instantly… That bulldog grip is too powerful… That little dog doesn’t give up, once he gets his grip on it… And, we? Yes, we give up easily… when there is the slightest challenge before us… You and I – we all have t...

  “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C. S. Lewis   S ome days ago, I had wished a friend of mine on her birthday. I was not in touch with this friend for quite some time. The friend, while thanking me for the wishes, casually asked: “How’s life treating you?” I do not know, how many of you are familiar with this expression, which, essentially, means, “How’s life?” or “How are you doing?” … “All well?”… etc. During Covid times, some, who live in America, had asked me, “How’s Covid treating you?” That’s when I had realized, that it’s the modern way of asking - “Kya haal, chaal hai?”… So, the other day, when this friend asked me, casually, “How’s life treating you?”, I replied: “No complaints… Can be only grateful.” “Excuses and complaints are signs of a dreamless life,” says Bangambiki Habyarimana. Well, I know the significance of these words of wisdom. I use them, every day, either in my classroom or in my blogs to tell, “Stop giv...

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” Norman Vincent Peale   I was lucky to have found at a young age, among many other authors, these three self-help authors: Napolean Hill, Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale. All three of them were dead by the time I picked their books – sometime in 1979-1980 – on the footpaths of Bombay (It hadn’t become Mumbai yet). The copies I had picked on the footpaths were over-used copies… And, because I was jobless and restlessly dreaming to find my way in this big city – where I wandered as a stranger – the ‘How-to books’ came very handy for me… I needed the inspiration very, very badly – and quickly. Yes, I was lucky to get it when my heart and mind were hungry for it… It's about forty-five years since then… I found my way, thanks the self-help philosophy. But, despite being massively influenced by Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’, I haven’t amassed wealth in all these years. I will b...

    “When the spirit shines, even the foggy skies make pleasant light.” Abraham Isaac Kook   B oth, joy and despair, are contagious… They spread very fast. But, in my experience, the despair spreads faster than joy. That seems to be the reason why we have so much negativity – the dark sensationalism – on our television news. Even on social media, what mostly gets viral is the negative content… This human psychology is manipulated to the hilt by the brains behind the social media algorithm… Just watch one video or post, that’s enough to open the floodgates of similar posts and videos. The mind is simply manipulated by this dangerous engineering… One happy video will be followed by a hundred more, and one gloomy story will be followed by not hundred, but a thousand more! T wo nights ago, our son explained to my wife and me the meaning of these two terms (apparently popular in psychology): the ‘triggers’ and the ‘glimmers’. On finding us, that evening, repeated...

  “Money doesn’t care; your tears don’t add value.” Kevin O’Leary (on reality TV show – ‘Shark Tank’)   T hose of us, who started something on our own, to earn our bread and butter – yes, we were always called ‘Self-employed’. We were the traditional entrepreneurs who ran some businesses or professions, and went about making them grow slowly and steadily. And, yes, while most of us went about slowly and steadily, like the proverbial tortoises, some shot up with lightening speed… These Hares were hailed as ‘tycoons’ or Business Mughals’… That story sounds like a story from the B & W movie era in this world flooded with new vocabulary – ‘Start-ups’, ‘Dragon’s Den’ and ‘Shark Tank’. Young boys and girls are hooked on to this kind of – often brash, ruthless – TV shows. So many of them swear by these shows or the men and women that host them… Well, I haven’t watched even a single episode of ‘Dragon’s Den’ (Canadian TV show) or ‘Shark Tank’ (American TV show). But, I h...