Judgement Reserved.....!

"Live and let live...let them be! ".....no never! how can you NOT make an observation about an individual, whoever it might be, whether or not you really know him/her? So let's engage ourselves in our favourite pass time - randomly pick an unsuspecting character; refer to his/her reaction to an isolated (un)situation; elaborate & exaggerate - the more use of imaginative skills, the more scope for analysis (& longer hours of discussion); and it's now time for the 'jury' to pass multiple judgements as and when the analysis unfolds.

Sigh! here's an incident from my obscure past that i believe can give an idea about the perils of reserving judgements prematurely....

Good that I have a blog space to crib about my deprived childhood (aint i glad that my folks arent familiar with the ways of the web) - i know this comes as a shock to many but yeah, i was a deprived child - deprived of my right to talk! no it's not funny....i mean, when i explain you might begin to understand my emotions..sniff... yeah so i was this kid of 3, & unlike kids of these days, that was the age when most kids begin to put words together and make cogent sentences. I was almost confident of announcing to world that i had arrived and what better timing than when we have guests pouring in for tea one sunday evening? My parents proudly presented their offsprings to the visitors & my old(er) sister who needed no "go-ahead" signs from my mom promptly launched into what she is still good at - conversation (putting it mildly, coz she reads my blog). Being the polite one, urs truly patiently waited for the lull in the conversation/the awkward pause/the pointed questions to launch herself in style & it came....- "So this is the little one? She doesnt talk much does she?" - "NO!" screamed a voice, in my head :( & before I could disprove the theory, my sis made a declaration (that sealed my freedom of speech in my family circles for a long time to come) - "yeah she is kinda uhh...reserved " (she had chanced upon the word that morning) & mom (whom I had laid all my hopes on for my maiden attempt and had chosen to mention first during the acceptance speech) seconded it with an impulsive "yeah yeah", lest there be a break in the flow of healthy exchange of pleasantries.....

It took me more than a decade to find my voice and drive a point home (pun intended)...all thanks to an egregious judgement passed by my gregarious sibling....

On that note, here's a picture of my niece taken when she was 3 - the same tender age, yeah. She opened her mouth for baby talk when she was about 18 weeks and hasn't closed it yet....genes I guess.....