To me!

On my way to a hog joint this afternoon, I was listening to a song very close to me. A song which forces me reminisce about achievements. Of failures which made me face people I had left behind while going up the ladder. It's strange how a song, and that too a 3 minute long ranting of an obscure singer, make a person so overwhelmed.

This post is an outcome of nothingness, and thus, on a selfish note, I am addressing it to me!

Of all things people say, perceptions are the only facet that determine a person's response towards you for a good sometime. They do change, but how often? How many times have I gone up to Person X, Mr. Y and Ms. Z to tell them I am NOT the way the think I am. I am different. I am not arrogant. I am not a tyrant. I am not a slanderer.

Being branded a certain way is born out of people's need for comfort. We compartmentalise you in a certain category and voila - the work is done! You remain 'there', wherever 'that' is, for me and I know how to behave with you accordingly.

My question is 'Why?'

Why can't you let your attitude, and consequently your behaviour, be decided on a mutual consensual platform. Don't you think, well put yourself in those very shoes, don't you think that you'd much appreciate not being called a 'loner' when you know that you are very amicable and gregarious?

Point two, success is ephemeral. So is downfall. A crest leads to a trough and vice versa. I have been overjoyed with the high points in life and have been bogged down with failures. In retrospect, they seem very trivial issues. More trivial than the trivialities of our everyday existence. But then again, there's always a time when the pettiest matter seem to be of such paramountcy that we let our existence be guided by the circumstances.

Thirdly, we as human beings - creatures with the strongest tool, yet making us weak, emotions - never learn. Once bitten, twice shy is an adage, a hackneyed adage. We never seem to remember it at the right time. Because then, what drives us is this very tool. All practicality fails. All wisdom is futile. Every saying is unlearned. We, at the end of the day, are emotional fools.

I am not complaining. I don't want to complain. I am proud being a fool. I am proud of my failures. I will still try to make X, Y and Z get to know me. Know me to such an extent that they are able to decide, without biases, about the future course of action towards me. So yah! I am at it. I am going to be a part of this rat race and I am going to win some day or the other.

Till then, as any other rat would say, who moved my cheese?