The Curious Case of an Introvert

We never know how your life is shaped and how it is regulated. That’s the reason we all unanimously agree – Life is Mysterious.

This is a story based on true events and what you’re about to witness is a series of emotions overflowing - so sit back, relax and be patient.

It was a rainy Saturday in Chennai. The calendar displayed 6^th of March and the clock ticking 11 in the morning. Majority of the population were in contentment welcoming the rain as it is quite unusual to witness rains during non-monsoon season. But there was a woman who was in the minority. She was in so much agony and when the clock ticked 11:06, the agony paused and smiles started spreading. Yes, a boy baby was welcomed, along with rainfall, with bundles of joyful tears. But little did anyone know the curious case that is awaiting to cast.

A usually born baby will weigh somewhere between 2.5-3 kg, but our hero was 3.5 kg. That was just a beginning and this always headed to an upward rise like gold rate in India and never saw a downward fall like stock exchange drop.

However, the curious case started when he started growing – he has the unusual habit of loving solitude. He never socialized nor did he show any signs of improvement over the years. There was an instance where he ran faster than Usain Bolt when someone sat next to him during an exam in grade 3. As a consequence, his parents were all in worrisome. Thanks to the joint family culture that exists in India, our hero had an opportunity to open up with a bunch of cousins who live in same house.

Being the youngest of the lot, his cousins stepped up and started to brainstorm him insisting on the significance of socializing. To make our hero comfortable, they started to play fun games. They hit the beach every month and play every sport – you name them, they play them. But this helped only in socializing within family. At school, he remained the same, if not even worse.

Every year during Parents-Teachers meet, the usual conversation between teacher and parent would be like – “Oh, you’re his parents, he is such a studios kid and highly intelligent. But does he have any problem? He keeps things to himself and never speaks to any. Worst of all, he runs away from girls thinking they’re all ghosts”.

Yes, you read them right; people like our hero existed. To overcome this fear, his parents tried out a mantra. Hailing from a culture rich country and family, they joined him for Carnatic class. But in 3 months there was a parent-gurus meeting (the first time in history). IT was not a conversation but a monologue which states, “Please do not waste your hard earned money, your son can never be a beginner, let alone mastering music !!”.

Occurrences like these kept recurring and nothing changed until his high school. Securing a good score in a high school exam, our hero entered one of the reputed colleges in the city by 2010. He chose to pursue a career in Engineering, thanks for being born an Indian. He chose Computer Science not because he was passionate but because he was highly lazy and never intended to do any field work.

Joining college, he could not continue to remain in solitude. He had a bunch of guys (their gang was nick names Fire Five Guys as they’re 5 in number). They constantly bugged him, made him bunk classes occasionally, put proxy for a friend who is missing in class, eat food when staff was teaching, make calls within a class room to divert the class attention and what not. At this stroke, he understood the importance of mingling. It saw considerable improvement but even now our hero had the aversion towards girls. It was as if he was born to remain single. Even if a girl initiates a talk, he starts sweating. There was an instance when he cried after a girl accidentally pinched his chubby cheeks.

Although studying in a Co-Ed school and college, all that our hero earned apart from degree was “Unworthy Candidate”. Years passed and he was luckily recruited by a leading IT consultancy company in 2014. During the initial training days, he was very uncomfortable. But thanks to his training friends (both genders), they made him feel home. He started to transform and showed good progress.

It was somewhere in early 2015, he chose to join Toastmasters – a place for public speaking. This saw the peak of transformation. From being an introvert few years back, he completely changed to an extrovert in a short span. It resulted in a situation where almost everyone in his company wave a hand at him. He is now so comfortable talking to strangers and he is now the person who loves to see people socializing. To quote an instance, he was involved in mass pranking his fellow team mates that resulted in back-to-back tummy punches. From being called an Unworthy Candidate, he earned a name “Universal Brother”.

Yes, you heard it right again. Our boss still hasn’t mastered the art of impressing a girl, yet he has earned a bunch of sisters from different mothers. Every sister has their own distinctiveness. One is fond of cooking food for him, one always teases him, one always appreciates him, few slides to his lending shoulder sharing their bitter experience and few more laughing out loud seeing his never growing hard and ever growing tummy. Not just sisters, he earned few best friends who has been thorough the rough patches. They also taught him how to lead a life, both professionally and personally.

If someone was asked to conclude this story, they might say it was Toastmasters who molded him from Introvert to Extrovert; some would conclude it was his sisters-by-bond who played a key role in his transformation. But I have other ideas to conclude. It is not just one person/ entity that transformed a life. At infanthood, his parents made him feel comfortable. During childhood, his cousins made him feel home and gave enough opportunity to express himself. During adulthood, his college guy friends helped him socialize. Finally, his career batch mates helped him to become a master in socializing.

Changing a person from Introvert to Extrovert is not simple. It was a collective effort of all the aforementioned people who played their part in this life changing transformation. It is now safe to say that your guess is correct, the hero is ME. This is a short story about my journey from an “Unworthy Candidate” to “Universal Brother”.

I often wonder about the purpose of living. One question that always lingers in my mind “ Why do we live a life?”. My life has taught me a lesson that answers this question – To make a change in someone’s life. It might be difficult for a single person to change the life of someone completely, but we can play a role and I assure you your contribution will have an influence, even if it is not credited or rewarded.

Life is, after all, about being happy and making surrounding people happy and ever smiling. There were a bunch of people who made me happy and I will continue to make people around me happy. Because if not me, who? And if not now, when?

P.S: I have a crush on a girl in my workplace and I am expecting enough motivation. I am waiting for the bunch of people who will transform me from “Universal Brother” to “Unanimous Lover”!!