Echoes Of The Past: Illuminating Childhood Struggles through Adulthood

‘Why do you always do what is told, Naina?’

Naina’s employer’s voice thundered across the conference room.

‘I have been noticing that every time we give you rework, you do only that much. I am not running a charity over here! If this continues, we will rethink the entire team we employed’

A shivering Naina, the Creative Director of the company, froze as she heard the trumpet of the company founder. The loudness of the founders’ voice silenced the answer Naina had in her head ‘ Maam, I showcased a presentation with 26 ideas last month itself. You have given 12 revisions, and since you are extremely specific, I did as told’

Naina had the answer; and yet, she was afraid to speak.

The thunder of the shouting voice echoed a memory from the past;

THE FLASHBACK to the one where Naina was slapped tightly by her teacher for asking many questions in the class. While the entire class nodded in agreement to please the teacher, what irked Medha the class teacher is that why Naina always asked questions that countered the logic presented. Naina was simply a child with a curious mind, and had a different point of viewing things.

Medha teacher continued to slap Naina through forthcoming lectures, every time Naina asked a question; the slap was either physical; or psychological – where she shamed, embarrassed her in front of her classmates; affecting Naina so much that she wanted to stop going to school altogether! The thought of being publicly humiliated kept her awake at nights, even shivering!

When Naina’s parents witnessed a sudden change in the personality of the ‘curious, creative’ Naina to a dull, shocked, silent person; they asked her the reason. Naina was petrified to even mention the name of the teacher in school; but her friend Shelly informed ‘Aunty, Medha teacher has been insulting Naina in class. Now Naina has stopped talking a word.’ Her parents visited and confronted the teacher to behave herself, instead of silencing a young mind.

However, the impression of the slap was imprinted on Naina, decades later,even after adulting physically. Mentally and emotionally, the public slap-phase triggered the trauma and transported her to her childhood, every time someone at work was rude to her, raised their voice. The confident, creative Naina suddenly became a frightened girl who feared someone would suddenly slap her!

Despite knowing the answer, she kept mum and drank the blame despite being impeccable at her work. Not recovered from the incident, her silence followed till her youth. The only way she knew to express her thoughts was through writing! Where no one can slap her words! The words illuminate her bright ideas!

She started journaling her feelings, and started self-healing! She became an author who wrote a book on overcoming childhood trauma through self-expression & happiness therapy! She began the foreword of the book by mentioning the root cause and naming the teacher who inadvertently taught her to stand up for herself!