It had been a usual Sunday afternoon with me at my computer and my little brother sleeping, well at least until last I had checked. Now, I was hustling from room to room in search of my brother’s cricket bat. I had searched the places where my brother would generally misplace it, but without any luck. He hadn’t told mom yet because he knew the inevitable scolding that he would get for losing it. Nevertheless, he couldn’t shut his big mouth and mom got to know about it.
After fruitless searching for an hour, I started doubting if my brother had left it at his friend’s place when he had been there a few days back. But as I was about to catch hold of my brother for questioning, I saw our afternoon helper pass by with a pile of clothes for drying. Somehow it then struck me that perhaps it was stolen. I had overheard a conversation between my grandmother and our neighbour about the helper stealing stuff from their house. I started suspecting her and followed her about as she carried on her duties. I had read that a thief has a usual characteristic tendency to look about for the things around, so I was watching her every move.
After she left a few hours later, I told mom about my suspicion. She immediately threw out my suggestion stating it to be ridiculous. I didn’t bother persuading her as I had nothing to support my suspicions, apart from the random chit-chat of grannies. So the next day I started observing her closely hoping that it would provide me with some clue about if she really had stolen the bat. Three days had passed since then and I had nothing in my favour, when I found the stem of the bat poking out behind the suitcases above the cupboard in grandma’s room. That’s when I remembered that last week grandma had asked me to hide it there before my brother came back from school because he had kept on banging the bat on the bed, just for fun, even after she had asked him to stop.
The next day when the helper came on her usual time in the afternoon I felt ashamed of how I had accused her simply because somewhere I had randomly heard that she stole something from someone. I couldn’t look straight into her face even because how rudely I had behaved to her for the last few days. It was at that moment that I realised how a simple accusation against someone you barely know can trigger the brain to suspect the person and judge his/her moves and ultimately point the finger at that person for a deed they didn’t do or more so had no idea of. I made a mental note then and there that before I believed what I heard, I would make sure if it was just a rumour or actually true, especially if it was related to things I wasn’t familiar with.
It didn’t matter who I heard it from because whosoever it was I can’t always be sure if that person knows it for a fact or has heard it as a rumour or simply has a suspicion on the fact a similar way that I did. The least I could do to break the chain of whispers, because as the saying goes
“It is harder to kill a whisper than a shouting calumny”.
This article has been written by our guest : Swayam Vaibhav
MBBS (2012 batch)
Edited by Nishant Gaurav Pathak
Be the first to comment