Life lessons from a leather bag

 

“Lemons or lemonade” was the first thought that raced across my mind as I stared at a screenshot of my email shared in Whatsapp. The story begins with the announcement that I had won prize in a virtual quiz held by a prestigious organization. I was thrilled and at the same time satisfied that my efforts didn’t go down in vain. After a week of suspense, I received the prize- a leather bag. It was a disappointing sight and the stink was abysmal. Even today this bag hasn’t been moved an inch from its place on my porch. This ruffled my feathers and I thought of emailing the administrator regarding its poor quality and how such prizes tarnish the image of the organization. I sent a strongly worded mail in the most polite manner and two days later I came to know that my mail’s screenshot is being circulated in the Whatsapp group of my professors and future recruiters. If the leather bag gave me a bad migraine, this gave me a thunderclap headache.

After this devastating twist of events I was informed that comments were pouring in either in support or criticism. I was dejected and was confused what my next step should be. Since I was playing chess with the devil* , it was necessary that my next move should be calculated and redeeming. Soon my professor received my call in his mobile screen and I explained my version asking him for word of advice. He heard it, thought for a second and told me,” Not everything in life requires a reaction. Some things are best left ignored.” After a few hours, the perpetrator himself deleted the post and the hatchet was buried.

* inspired from the famous painting “The Chess Players” by Moritz Retzsch

This incident taught me a few lessons which I felt are worth sharing

1.       Lemons or lemonade – life always throws us a surprise every now and then. This can look like a lemon at one time but later may turn out be a lemonade and vice versa. In this story getting the first prize was my lemonade which soon turned sour but it inspired me to write this piece.

2.      Consent and privacy- In the online space where forwards and shares occur in a whiff, consent cuts a sorry figure. When screenshots, personal messages are shared, the consent of the sender is neither thought about nor sought after. A personal message is meant to be personal. If it’s planned to be shared, prior permission should be sought also known as manners. In this incident, my personal mail shouldn’t have been shared without my knowledge or permission

3.       Every coin has two sides- in the era of online discussions and rebuttals, every issue will have its supporters and detractors and the majority decides the righteous of the matter. However if we can prove to do something without a guilty conscience (the third side of the coin) one shouldn’t be dejected

4.      Ignorance is a bliss- not every issue in life requires a reaction. Some things are best left untouched and time has a way of healing things. So give time some time to heal your wounds.

5.   Reflections- this is very true in the virtual world where screening/censoring measures are bare minimum. Our actions and comments should always reflect the person whom we want to project. In this instance, since my mail even though was strongly worded but not offensive, I was able to save my face even when the mail was widely circulated.

         dedicated to Dr A.A. Harris who helped me through....

 

 

d