Gerald D'Cunha

  “People inspire you, or they drain you. Pick them wisely.” Hans F. Hasen   I have, regularly, used the phrases - ‘toxic people’ or ‘a toxic person’. But, I have not so regularly paused to seriously ask - ‘Who are these?” Yes, who are toxic people? Who is a toxic person? And, just as I find someone toxic, do some find me toxic, too? Thus, labelling someone as ‘toxic’ may portray me as judgmental... You see, people behave differently to different people. I try to surround myself with those who lift up my positive spirit, and avoid surrounding myself with those who make me feel low, depressed and drained. We can easily come to know who inspire us, make us feel good about ourselves. Likewise, we can, also, easily come to know who drain us, make us feel low. Therefore, to me, whoever lifts my spirit up and makes me feel good about myself is a positive soul, and whoever dampens my spirit, makes me feel bad about myself, is a negative soul... and, when someone re...

“Whatever we perceive as good in the world   has always endured, and it always will.” Carmen Agra Deedy   L ast evening, while returning home, I met a stranger. Though I just said, he was a ‘stranger’ to me, I wasn’t a ‘stranger’ to him. “I read your blogs regularly, though you do not know me,” he said enthusiastically, “I look forward to read them every time... How do you find your topics, the simple but touching stories?” Obviously, I felt nice on what I had just heard from a person, who, without my knowledge, was reading what I have been writing, almost every day. I had to answer his question: “How do you find your topics, the simple but touching stories?” Well, I do not know whether or not my answer to this question was what I will be writing in this Post, today... W e all step out into the same world, each day... and we only find what we all are looking for. I do not know what you were looking for in the world outside as you stepped out of your house, this m...

  “Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” Helen Keller   A few weeks ago, I was watching this intense English movie at home, with Harry Connick and Sandra Bullock as lead actors. Though the subject of the story was very intense and heartbreaking, I just loved the title: ‘Hope Floats’... Well, this Post is not about the movie... It’s about ‘Hope’ and why mankind has placed its trust on it so much and for so long... Desmond Tutu said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”... Yes, hope is something that makes sense just because there is this thick smog of darkness around us. Else, why would we ever think of Hope? Why would we ever say – ‘Hope Floats’? Hope does float... Therefore, Martin Luther King Jr. said so strongly , “Everything that is done in this world is done by Hope.” You and I will never be able to comprehend the times this charismatic leader, who fought and died for the c...

  “You will never be the person you can be if pressure,  tension and discipline are taken out of your life.” James G. Bilkey   I  remember what great Albert Einstein once said: “Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing, that it’s stupid.” Well, with the permission of the great scientist, I wish to replace the word ‘Genius’ in this quote with ‘Champion’... T his morning, I was teaching this batch of twelfth standard. Two days ago, one of the students, Maansi, who has been always regular and committed to her studies, had requested me for a leave. “Sir, I will be leaving to Chennai for my tournament (Rifle shooting), early tomorrow morning. I will miss a couple of classes. But, I will try to attend online.” I sent Maansi the zoom link. But, due to a weak network, she had to miss one of the sessions while she was travelling by train. “But, Sir, I will make it up... Solve the sums a...

  “Life is the soil, our choices and actions  are the sun and   rain, our dreams are the seeds.” Richard Paul Evans   “I really don’t care how much you score in your exams;” I keep screaming, with all my temper and passion, each day in my class, “but, I seriously care about the basics of your life... the foundation.” Now, when I scream like this before a young college student, why do I remind him about the ‘basics of life – the ‘foundation’ – now, when he/she is in his mid-teens? In this Post, I wish to touch upon only two such fundamentals: keeping an unbiased mind, and keeping our commitments. And, I wish to single out two of my students... O ne was very close to me when I started teaching here in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1980. This young boy, now is a retired person (from a government organization). He got reconnected with me on FB, some years ago. I have been able to scan the kind of mind he has developed over these years... It’s very, very narrow, extreme...

“We worry what a child will become tomorrow; yet, we forget that he is somebody today.” Stacia Tauscher   H is name is Namoh. They say, he is weak in studies, a slow learner, a tortoise. But, those who are very close to him – his parents and coaches – say, that he is strong in gymnastics... he is excellent, a Champ... So, the battle rages on: People like me, who coach Namoh in his academic subjects, often worry about his attendance... Every time I start a new chapter, Namoh has to proceed on a long-distance tour, often forcing him to miss his classes for weeks... We worry, saying that he is not good in any chapter... “How will he clear his 12 th Boards?” Yes, this is how the world wonders and worries unless it takes notice of the ‘good’ that resides in the young kid, right now... The world is a stereotype... I am no exception... Unless, the young kid is me... Stacia Tauscher’s words come to remind me: “We worry what a child will become tomorrow; yet, we forget t...

  “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself.” John Steinbeck   E mpathy, it is said, is not a noun, it’s a verb... It’s a word in action. As a teacher of college students, I tend to get impatient quickly... When students struggle to answer, yes, I tend to forget, that I, too, struggled to answer once; often, I was worse than how I find my students now... Ditto is the case when it comes to parenting. Do you and I expect too much and too fast – and too good – from our young children. And, how cooly we forget, that we didn’t live at all up to our parents’ expectations! And, yes, the same impatience is very, very visible at work place, even. When we be come bosses, we forget our days as beginners... Days as novice, filled with many mistakes... It’s often said, that employees don’t quit their companies; they quit their bad bosses – the ones who lack empathy, if I were to paraphrase that... W hen I migrated to Mumbai in October, 1979, I had carri...