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Credit: DH Illustration
This incident is ineradicably imprinted in my memory. During my pre-teens, as a pleasurable pastime, I used to play with a girl in my neighbourhood. Her very strict mother was a stickler for cleanliness. So, any unclean space within their home would soon trigger her outbursts. Her mom’s bugbear was the baleful sight of overboiled milk, spilt all around gas stove burners.
Once, having placed the milk for heating, she had instructed my playmate to be careful and prevent it from pouring down. Her mom, just to be doubly safe, had delegated her domestic help, too, on this duty. Somehow, the strict instruction had swiftly slipped off the minds of both overseers, setting off the milk to slither down from all sides of the vessel onto the stove surface. As expected, my friend’s mother went ballistic with a barrage of expletives. The maid astutely escaped by admitting her fault and apologising, saying, henceforth she’d be careful to avoid such blunders. Whereas my friend tried the strategy of shifting the blame onto the servant, stating she had presumed the maid would be supervising! Lo! To this, she got a bad whack on her back, making her bawl, because of bitter humiliation, before me.
Another incident is indelibly graven in my mind.
A bike rider had pulled his vehicle to the pavement, perhaps to peer into his mobile, and, in the process, unwittingly touched a passerby with his foot. The offended person came charging at him. But, before that, the bike rider, with a beautiful gesture of folded hands, had begun apologising profusely. By this, the indignation of the other person had got instantly extinguished!
This set me into seeing the splendid side of ‘admitting our slip-ups.’ But, sadly, we seldom do that due to sundry factors. One, perhaps, is that we perceive the possible ignominy of our personal image, getting plummeted down. Plus, there is a dreadful fear of being derided or denigrated on divulging our follies, thereby displaying incompetence.
But what we miss out on is that it needs a magnanimous mind, maturity, and courage to admit to our mistakes. When we admit to our mistakes graciously, eventually, we get elevated higher (besides turning endearing) in the eyes of people around!