Preparing For The Imperfection Of Others

At exactly 3.30 in the afternoon, Thatha came out to the porch and sat on the chair, waiting for Ved to return from school. This was a daily routine. He liked to watch the slow transition of afternoon to evening. The birds which would temporarily go silent in the noon would gradually start chirping as the evening neared. Thatha also liked to see the much-visible change in the atmosphere. By 3.30, the noon would start letting go of its orange hue and would take on a gray hue, signaling the onset of evening.

Slowly the kids of the complex started returning from school, yelling in excitement and breaking the silence of the past few hours. Thatha took special delight in watching the kids return home happily.

He saw Ved enter the complex, his posture stooped and a defeated look on his face. Thatha smiled; it appeared as if he would have extra work to do today.

Ved gave a half-hearted wave to his friends and when he reached his home, he sat down heavily beside Thatha's chair.

"Bad day today?" Thatha asked gently. 

Ved searched inside his bag and took out a comic book. Thatha recognised it as the one that Ved had lent to his friend. The book's cover was torn at the bottom. Thatha ran his hand over the cover, knowing how particular Ved was about his books. In all the years that he had read books, none of them had gotten even a little damaged. Even his textbooks and notebooks were always neat.

"Kavish returned the book like this, Thatha." Ved said in a low voice.

"He should have taken better care of the book."

"That's not all!" Ved exclaimed in frustration. "When I asked him how the cover got damaged, he straight-away lied, saying that it was already in this condition when I lent it to him! While I kept insisting that it wasn't damaged when I gave it to him, two of our friends took his side and told me that I am lying. They know how particular I am about my books! And to top it all, the teacher came to our bench and gave extra homework to all of us for misbehaving in the class. I had not even raised my voice. I was just explaining to my friends. For no reason at all, I got branded a liar and also got punished by the teacher."

Thatha allowed a few minutes of silence. He could see Ved calming down after his rant.

"Somedays will be like that, child. People will behave unfairly and you will find yourself at the wrong end of the situation for no fault of yours." Thatha said gently.

"So how do you deal with it?" Ved asked sullenly.

Thatha thought for a while. "The way I see it, you should prepare yourself for the imperfections of others."

Ved looked at him curiously. "How do I do that?"

"When you wake up in the morning, along with some positive affirmations, you also need to tell yourself that the day might not go as perfectly as you want it to be. You may face difficult situations. Sometimes people will behave wrongly. You need to remind yourself to not to let situations or people take too much of your time and energy. You must decide to make the best of the day regardless of how it will turn out."

"I understand the situations might not be in my control. But what about the people? Those who I thought to be my friends? How do I deal with their wrong behavior?".

"Yes, that is indeed challenging. But you need to see that they behave so not out of ill-will towards you but due to their own ignorance. While this realisation may not justify their behavior, it will help you to maintain your cool. Understanding that nobody is perfect, and that everyone has flaws and we need to look past their behavior and not let it affect us very deeply, will make it easier to deal with difficult people and tough situations."

Ved nodded slowly. He took the book from Thatha and gently ran his hand over the torn cover. "Can we glue it, Thatha?"

The old man smiled. "Yes, we can. First things first, freshen up. I have kept chilled lemonade for you. Then we will see how we can give the cover a new life."

Ved got up, feeling a lot better. Thatha followed him into the house, already thinking of ideas to save the book's cover. Outside, the remnants of the afternoon disappeared and evening took over, the birds coming out of their nest for the last meal of the day.