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Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
November 9, 2013
Let’s say at an average we collect five insults a day from different sources. These are the ones we hear about, they bounce back, the slur, the contempt, the scouring hurtful remark, the cruel comment. The other 90% don't reach us. That, even so, is nearly 2000 a year or say in 45 years or by the time we reach midlife 90,000 poisoned arrows aimed at us, through gossip, malice or intent.
So why is it then that only half a dozen stay with you all your life? Like they were the defining features, you cannot get rid of them, they pierced your armor. The other thousands are mere dross. And it isn’t as though the little clump of survivors are special or come from loved ones, they could be random and not even dramatic but something about time and place and your state of mind at that moment and they can never be forgotten.
I remember when I was 14 the school bully called me an acne covered moonface. I spent days looking in the mirror stretching my face to make it look Oval. He was no one to me, I don’t even remember his name and folks have called me much worse but he left a permanent scar.
A colleague of mine said what he never ever could let go off was overhearing his editor tell someone that this chappie thinks he is a good writer, he sucks big time. It even fragmented his career it blew his ambition.
What is it about the insult that sticks and why it does? Maybe because it makes us feel small, and feeling small is something we cannot forgive. You have a better answer.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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