An Eye for an Eye

(This story is about me and it involves a few others too. Any similarities found are purely co-incidental.)

As the blog title goes, this is not about some grudge story that I encountered in my life or some memorable tiff I had with my colleagues. This blog is purely based on the fact that how I had to overcome a mountain of judgments and condescension to get accepted by the society and reach where I am right now.

The Incident

Born into a middle-class family, I was never encouraged to follow hobbies but rather pushed into studying like any other South-Indian child. Our family used to take annual trips to our native place to visit our family deity and village lord every year and believe me when I say this, travelling all the way to Chennai in the sweltering heat of 35 degrees in a 2^nd Class Compartment of the Indian Railways was no vacation to look forward to.

During one of such trips in 1996, I was sleeping on the upper berth of the 2^nd Class Compartment of the Chennai Mail. Being a 6-year old boy, I was not of the proper height to be allowed to sleep there. The result was that I was found on the floor of the train compartment the next morning with my right eye bleeding and my parents were horrified at that sight. On cleaning the wound, they heaved a huge sigh of relief when they found out I had a deep cut on my eyebrow and it hadn’t affected my eye. We went to Chennai as planned and consulted a doctor who stitched my eyebrow and planted a huge bandage on my right eye which made sure that my eyesight would be comprised.

And in the subsequent weeks, I used to roam with that which disabled me to use my right eye. As my eye recovered I slowly got smaller bandages through which I could see out of my eye but the bandage weighed down on my eye. As a result, all I could see was below the waist or neck level and I had to make a real effort to see someone in the eye.

The Aftermath

I recovered completely in a month or so but I never realized the disease that was spreading inside me. My eye contact was never the same as I used to look down and speak. As time went on, people started realizing this and girls especially complained to the concerned teacher. Here, I was never punished for the same thing which right now I believe would have helped me in a big way. But rather, I was never corrected and I went into adolescence with the same issue.

Imagine you are a teenage girl and you encounter a guy who looks down at your chest when he speaks to you. How would you feel? Creepy is a small word for such acts and it also guarantees a horrible first impression. Never mind girlfriends, even getting a friend would be highly unlikely. And I was placed center stage in this hell without any idea of such a problem.

The problem finally came to my notice when a few of my friends confronted me over the issue and asked me to stop doing so. I was shocked at first as this made me come as of a pervert and a lustful person which I wasn’t. I had no choice but to overcome this problem asap. I started doing so by practicing in front of mirrors and with close friends who were kind enough to oblige. Slowly, I started talking normally but the damage was done. No matter how much I got through this to the people, they won’t change their judgment which only made it difficult to adapt to any old or new place.

The Purpose

Even today, there is 1% chance that I might not be looking into your eye while speaking to you but its not for lack of trying but an occasional slip up and no one feels more embarrassed and disgusted than me when that happens. I have revealed all this not with an intention to show how great I am and how cruel life has been to me. This blog post is for one and only sole purpose – Inspiration. You, like me, can overcome anything in life provided you work hard and dedicate time on it instead of giving excuses.

Instead of sharing such problems on Facebook and garnering sympathy, try solving your problems and share the story to inspire people. The whole world is waiting with bated breath for such inspirational stories and make sure you don’t disappoint them. They need you.