Face your fear to overcome it

At the end of my November blogathon, I intended to continue sharing the stories of real-life heroes who had written to me about their life experiences. However, there were other things that took precedence and so, I had put this feature on hold.

Here’s one such story from my husband’s cousin Hema Venkatesh. Before I share what she wrote to me, a small glossary for those who don’t get Tamil

Manni : Sister-in-law…brother’s wife
Akka: Elder sister
Kannu: Term of endearment..like say “dear” in English
Chithi: Aunt … in this case, father’s younger brother’s wife
Anna: Elder brother

Over to Hema....

Hello, Manni...

I am going to describe about a decision which changed my life. I studied in Tamil medium till my 12th standard. I and my twin sister Usha had decided to study B.com., but my twin sister wanted to continue in Tamil medium. I was a little bit confused whether to change medium or not. If I changed, maybe my percentage would become low. After my 12th standard, I got a job because I took Secretarial group as my course in 12th standard.

A day before my 12th standard result, Geetha Akka, my cousin who lives in Bangalore, came to Salem and told me to take B.com. in English medium. She also told me, “No matter how much you score in your degree, you will get knowledge. And I am sure you will get marks, Kannu. If, for some reason, you don’t get this time, next time you will surely get.”

That became my inspiration and I took B.Com. English medium.

Geetha Akka also told me that when she was in 10th standard, my father had told her to take English medium. So, she was giving same advice now to me. I am proud to say my father became her inspiration and Geetha Akka became my inspiration....

And to the astonishment of all, I passed B.Com. in my first attempt itself with 78%. Some days later, Indrani Chithi and Suresh Anna came to Salem. That time Suresh Anna very proudly said to me, "Great, Hema....you took English medium confidently and along with your job, you also passed B.com ... Really great!" Geetha Akka had also accompanied them and she told me, “Superb Hema! You overcame your inferiority and scored very good marks.”

I was really happy that day. I considered this as my achievement and I was very glad that I had overcome my inferiority complex. From that day till now I have never felt low about myself. Thanks to Geetha Akka, I learned this important lesson that is still helping in my life.

Now, Hema is a dynamic, go-getter who dabbles in many things. She is a great networker, the admin of our family WhatsApp group (and around 7 other groups, too I believe), plays matchmaker for the young men and women of marriageable age in the family, is the life of any family get-together and also finds time to spend on creating beautiful Tanjore paintings and writing Tamil poetry and participating in her area temple activities regularly.

This story that she has shared reveals the secret behind her chutzpah.

If you understand the spirit in which she’s written this, you will realize that it’s not about the fact that she succeeded in English medium…rather, it’s the attitude of accepting advice, taking challenges head-on and persevering for long enough to win over her fears.

Even as I prepared to post this on the blog, I felt, yet again, a sense of immense gratitude, to have been parachuted (by marriage) into a family like this where the members stand by each other, with love and affection, always encouraging and helping each other …