Solitary Soul

  WEALTH OR TIME? YOU CHOOSE Mario D’Couto We can all earn money or at least have the potential of earning money and maybe even recover money lost but none of us can earn time or recover time lost. We are all given 24 hours each day whether it is the president of the United States of America or the janitor sweeping the corridor and thus how we spend it matters because while it’s tiny increments may be something small, it nonetheless actually amounts to something very large. Time may just be humanity’s greatest creation because it is the way we measure the only truly non-renewable resource we have, given that no one can make more of it and once lost, it cannot be recovered. The opposite is equally true as well wherein it can be a powerful force as anyone who has ever watched small amounts of interest applied over a long enough period, the effects of compounding can be enormous. As humans, we all crave for meaning and purpose and strive to find it in whatever we do and w...

  ARE YOU DOING YOUR BEST? Mario D’Couto                   In his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul urges his readers to live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way (Colossians 1:10). He uses the Greek word ‘ergon’ meaning ‘work’ in this passage which basically means ‘employment’ . In essence, what he is referring to is the fact that one of the ways we please God is simply by doing quality work, by seeing others through the ministry of excellence. This can be seen in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14 – 30). The excellent work of the first two servants leads to joy in the heart of their master. Likewise, our excellent work leads to joy in the heart of our True Master. However, there are two points of nuance that are important to draw out of this parable. The first is, Jesus’ definition of excellence is much different from the world’s . While the world tends to define excellence as being the best a...

  THE VALUE OF SILENCE Mario D’Couto             As someone who has been working in the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry, interacting with customers is my daily bread and butter and yet while work can take its toll as in the case of back – to – back calls with no space to breath, when the time for avail does come, a lot of my colleagues get into chit – chatter and gossip just as a means to avoid boredom. This is not to say that having conversations or speaking with others is a bad thing. We should interact with others and make time for it since it helps to break the monotony and builds social connections. Yet what is equally important is the content of our conversations. Perhaps a good way to evaluate our conversation is to ask ourselves, is the conversation with the other constructive or destructive? Does it build or destroy? If all our conversation is going to be about one’s activities over the weekend or gossiping about someone,...

  RETHINKING EDUCATION Mario D’Couto “A jack of all trades is a master of none but often times better than a master of one”     There used to be a time when it was alright to study and get good grades and you would be assured of a decent career. Today, the situation is different. Especially in India (and also in some other parts of the world), where unemployment seems to be already creeping in where engineering graduates are unable to find the desired career they studied for and people being laid off because of A.I. taking over jobs, the question that comes up is whether is it worth investing all the money in the current education system. Now before you raise your reservations, my hope is that through this blogpost/reflection, I may be able to sow a seed of thought to rethink how we view education. The purpose of this blogpost/reflection is not to discard what has been handed down regarding education but to take it a step further, so as to enable the current g...