YOUR SHYNESS WILL FOLLOW YOU LIKE YOUR SHADOW










Pic.: Anima D'Cunha


“I'm still shy," I admit, pulling the sleeves over my hands,"
and I might always be,
I don't know, but I think you can be shy and still feel okay
about yourself at the same time.” 

A ten-year-old boy’s mother said to me, this morning, “Sir my son is an excellent cricket player… He goes for coaching and plays matches… He loves cricket and the happiest when he plays or watches cricket.” But, then, this lady was anxious… She continued, “He is very, very shy sir… I am a bit anxious.”

I smiled… “Don’t be anxious ma’am… Shy people are beautiful people… They are very sensitive.”

“I know that sir,” the mother blushed, “Even I am an extremely shy person… But…”

“There it is, ma’am,” I exclaimed, “If shyness has remained in you even at your age, it will remain in your son when he grows up, too… Yes, it will follow him like his shadow.”

Shyness doesn’t go… It is the core of our personality. God has placed this core in us… just like He has made a Touch-me-not plant… It is something beautiful about us… something special, unique. Everything we do in the process of expressing ourselves – as we succeed - happens only around our shyness… not ‘without’ it…

Shy people, therefore, will always remain shy people… Yes, just like a Touch-me-not. “So long as your shyness doesn’t come on your way of success – doesn’t stop you from achieving what you really want to,” I remind all my Touch-me-nots (and their concerned parents) “You need not worry about the shyness… It will only inspire you to succeed well, live your dream well… You need to know how to use your shyness to your advantage… as an asset.”

Haruki Murakami said: “Deep rivers run quiet.”

Last morning, when an eight-year-old shy girl was on stage to speak, I could sense the sensitivity and uniqueness she was endowed with… “What shall I talk on?” her shy look asked me…

“I AM A TOUCH-ME-NOT”… I prodded.

GERLALD D’CUNHA

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