Never believed more in the statement that history repeats itself till the time my elder daughter resisted using spectacles.
I was around 14 years old when I was hit on my left eye with a stone by someone in school. Post the medical treatment doctor had advised me to wear spectacles only for my left eye. My right eye was normal. My parents had insisted hard to ensure that I wore spectacles always. But the reality is that I was never true to them nor to myself.
Key reason for not being true was that I was very shy both in my childhood and in my teens. I symbolized an average student who is low on self confidence highly conscious about his looks. Exactly the same is my elder daughter, Jassica today. She mirrors my looks and personality. How can this be possible? Quite surprising!
While we (my wife and I) came to know two years back, sometime in early 2008, that Jassica needed to start using spectacles to cure her illness immediately, we were not tough on her to get to wear them regularly to school and at home. Back in year 2008, we were over protective and parents of single child and hence not strict enough on Jassica to wear spectacles regularly. This may have been the reason.
Finally, first week of October of 2010 when we had almost wasted all those critical years (early years) of getting her eye cured, we decided to be very strict and uncompromising. Strict, because persuasion, as it failed in my case, had failed with Jassica. In Jassica’s case there was a great support from her teachers as well when she was in Mumbai, to ensure that she got accustomed to wearing spectacles. I recall, cake was cut to celebrate the occasion of Jassica being ”a special child to wear spectacles”. I am appreciative of the effort on part of all those teachers. Really, greatful for the effort since it was much more than what we can get from professionals in today’s world. A true testimony to the tradition of teacher being a ‘Guru’ in Indian culture.
Jassica was getting ready for school, morning of Oct. 29 2010, when I happened to over hear her hesitation of not intending to go to school. I woke-up and ended ‘preaching’ her, as usual. Gradually, I shifted the discussion to make it more exciting and make her laugh on some of the past instances when we as a kid did not wear spectacles and often use to fail to recognize friends as to who they were. I think that effort on our part, despite of it being untrue, finally has helped her overcome all the barriers in her perception as to not wear spectacles. Reason, she calls me in office to state “Papa I had my glasses on for the whole day.”
Is it true that a lie for benefit of others is far more rewarding than being true always?