OR ELSE, WHAT WILL YOU DO?

Pic.: Sudha Ahuja

Bullies suffer from a low self-esteem. Often, to deal with them, our simple assertive skills may not be enough… We may have to stand up to them, look straight into their eyes and yell, “Or else, what will you do?”

In a small village in South, there lived this typical bully, a male chauvinist. Every night, as soon as he walked into the house, his wife would hear him scream, “You dumb woman, keep the hot water ready… or else!” (In South, hot water is preferred for bath at night!),

This would go on and on, every night… “You dumb woman, keep the hot water ready… or else!”

Poor wife was so frightened of this man, that she had lost all her self-confidence. Without uttering a single word, she would go about obeying him, suppressing all her fear and pain for years.

Then, one day, looking at the distressed state of this woman, a neighboring lady asked her, “What is wrong with you, my friend? You look shattered.”

The woman began to cry uncontrollably. She described to the neighboring lady the way her husband treated her every night… “You dumb woman, keep the hot water ready; or, else?”

The neighboring lady was furious, “And, you obey his orders like a dumb woman, don’t you?” she shouted, “Now listen to me. Tonight, when that bully makes his demand, you look straight into his eyes and yell back, “Or else, what will you do?”

“No baba no,” the woman reacted to the suggestion, “he would kill me.”

“Kill you?” the neighboring lady laughed, “let me remind you my friend, if you let him continue with what he has been doing, he will surely kill you!”

Finally, one night, the woman gathered all her courage and decided to confront her bully husband. As usual, he stormed into the house shouting, “You dumb woman, keep the hot water ready; or else!”

“Or else what will you do?” the woman blasted with the force she had suppressed for years and years!

The man was frozen… “I will take a cold-water bath!”

Today evening, my dear friend, Dr. Deepak, will be taking for our young-ones his popular Workshop – ‘HOW TO BE ASSERTIVE’!

But, all are invited!

GERALD D’CUNHA