Mirrors don’t lie...

“The mirror of this new dressing table has some fault. It gives a little distorted image – a little horizontal distortion”. My wife chuckled ,”Mirrors don’t lie my dear – you have put on weight” Well, I hated hearing this but I guess she was right! Sometimes it is really difficult to accept what you see in the mirror –it contradicts the image that you have in your mind. If you think you have a great voice as you merrily sing – just record your singing next time you sing and try listening to the recording – you will exactly know what I mean!

The mirror took me to an incident long back when I was studying in final year graduation. Though I studied in one of the best schools that time, I studied in vernacular medium. Conversing fluently in English had almost become an ambition that looked more like a mirage. I was literally wrestling with English language – I had aborted reading about 25-30 novels after struggling with first twenty pages, I had developed a strong nausea for news-reading as I struggled with the pages of Times. Otherwise life was pretty alright, I had great friends and couldn’t have asked for a better quality of student life. I was also the elected secretary of my college which had given me rights to strut around like a proud rooster. Even when I sat in the library, it was not without the group of friends. It was one of those lazy afternoons in the library. My friends and me were sitting around in library with books in front. I guess no-one would have turned more than 2 pages in an hour. We just loved to idle away in the library discussing life! “Hmm, I don’t know – I am still not happy with my English speaking” I almost said to myself. A friend sitting next to me looked at me and started laughing. I asked her “what’s funny?” “Your problem is you think in Marathi (my mother tongue), then translate it in English by checking grammar and all. By the time you are ready to speak its too late.” As she said this in front of so many, my pride was hurt. When you are 19-20 years, what hurts you is not only the content but also the fact that a girl speaks to you like that in public, especially when I had a reputation to defend!! I was almost stunned – but something in me stopped me from reacting back – I just kept quiet. She was a very dear friend and couldn’t have meant bad! What happened in a few months that followed is really hard to describe. Around six months later as I appeared for one of my MBA admission interviews, a lady on the interview panel asked me “Are you really from vernacular medium?” I was so pleased that I was not even bothered about the result of the interview!!

..... I have thought about this incident many a times in my mind over past few years but I am yet to reach any definite cause-effect relationship between the incident in college library and my progress in spoken English...... I have speculated but no clear answer yet......

.....May be more often than not I was always surrounded by friends whom I completely trusted...... we never bothered about being politically correct to each other....we just used to speak out our heart....

Many a times an awareness about a problem solves more than half of it.... the trick is you need someone to tell you the problem bluntly....As the years pass by sometimes our ability take feedback diminishes ..... its our success, growing pride.... insecurity whatever it may be.....but more often than not we surround ourselves with people who are politically correct with no sharp edges...... I think this is where we start losing the game. Actually you always need people around you whom you can trust and who can call spade a spade..... simply because mirrors don’t lie!