Sunday, April 17, 2011

I know..

Most of my conversations start with this phrase. An egoistic 'I' followed by a strong emotional verb. I remember my father  telling me not to know a lot in life, because that will lead to less learning. He always told me that women should not be educated too much and even if they are they should not gloat their intelligence because the world is not ready for it . I found it extremely offensive and was inspired to grasp, absorb and inhale every ounce of experience that life threw at me. He had once told me that it would be extremely difficult to find a husband for me if I achieved too much .. that a woman always looks for a companion who is stronger, more intelligent, more experienced and wiser. They were all said in jest as he has always been supportive and proud of all my choices in life. Not entirely happy or accepting but he has let  me make my own mistakes and learn from them and I  love him for that :)
Recently, a dear friend of mine told me that it is very difficult to share any of his experiences with me because I claim to know all the details already through past experiences. Personally, I felt that his experiences are  new and was eager to listen to his thoughts but unfortunately I had projected myself in a manner that did not invite him to share. I would have probably ignored if it was some random person saying this but it was my dearest friend expressing his honest view.Angry at myself , have been contemplating on this behavior of mine.
I have always had amazing teachers in life. Selfless , giving and eccentricity personified. My Bharatnatyam teacher,  music teachers, my father and my friends. They were teachers eager to give away all their years of experiences wrapped up in a magic match box to me . Every moment of discovery was announced to me , an invention experimented on me and success shared with me. Simple things- like my teacher never wasted paper, she recycled all old invitations and cards to doodle her daily tasks and thoughts(I do that too), she would tell me what was the trick to do my elaborate hair-do within a few minutes and also explain to me nuances of shringaara and abhinaya drawing experiences from her life. My music teacher would teach me all the nuances he/she would have taken years to master though I would take years to learn them. They would talk about travel about places they had seen, people they met, crazy anecdotes, food, languages, music, painitings , monuments, trees, snow in winters, children, jokes, goof-ups and more and more and more.. I loved it ...every moment of it and when I went to these places I could relive their past .. I saw what they saw, listened to life through their ears and shared my new experiences with them with all the changes time brings and loads of masala added to it .
All these selfless teachers have imbibed in me a sense of sharing without fears of copyrights, patents, possessiveness , ownership or ego.. and there is an unquenchable thirst in me for knowledge  and every person and his experience is a great teacher. I am bit too loud and sometimes might come across as being intimidating , proud, self indulgent etc. I thought it would mellow down with time and age but its been like this since I can remember. So my dearest friends , I want to listen .. 'I know' simply means I want to share. I will make an attempt to stay quiet and listen more. My father was right , If I say I know .. I will never give myself space to listen and know more... here it is people ... ' I do not know' because every experience of yours is new to me , Please tell me.. I am all ears :)

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