Apshagun or Shagun

When I was a little girl my sibling used to call me apshagun (a person born with bad luck).

When I entered the room her juice cup would fall (mostly because of the wind), she would lose in a game (mostly because she didn’t know how to play chess), and many times it was just coincidence that light used to go off when I entered the room (because the tube light had not been repaired).

But somehow her unintentional comments convinced my then innocent mind that I was born with bad luck and that there was no way out.

It affected my little self’s confidence negatively.

I used to get selected till the finals in running but end up falling down.

I worked hard to solve the sums day and night but still failed in Maths.

I always chose to clap in the audience unlike my sister who was forever ruling the stage.

I was a failure as a child because I was convinced that I was born to fail.

But as I grew up I realized that being apshagun or ‘bad luck’ is a myth as I am now the rank holder in the Humanities stream in my college (Maths was never my thing).

I have won more than thirty stage programmes in state-level competitions in just two years and the list of achievements continues…

I have different interests than my sister or anyone whom I thought was more talented than me.

This journey of apshagun to shagun made me realize that we are born with different talents and abilities.

This journey of apshagun to shagun made me realize that we are born with different talents and abilities; if I am good at dancing you might be good at speaking and that’s that.

It’s the environment you live in and the people you surround yourself with who make your mind convinced that you are not worth anything.

I want you to do something. Recall from where you got those thoughts of self-doubt. Be kind to the little you who was made to believe that he/she was not worth it, go and achieve that prize, because now we know how to subtract shagun from apshagun.

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it was born apshagun.”