Meaning: Being upset for something that happened in the past.
One upon a time, there lived a young girl Meera. She was a beautiful and bright girl. She was very intelligent too and outshined all the students in her class.
Meera was a teachers’ pet and everyone was very fond of her. Most of the students in her class wanted to be her best friend but Meera was introvert. She hardly allowed anyone to come close to her and be her friend.
She often spent her time studying in the library else sitting alone under a tree. Many children of her class often tried to break the ice but none of them ever succeeded. Seeing her condition, Meera’s teacher became worried too. Children of her age were all bubbly and full of life where as she was a total contrast.
One day the teacher called Meera to her room and started to share her own personal experiences about her life. The teacher told Meera that when she was of her age she too was shy and hardly felt comfortable talking to anyone else.
Eventually she realized that conversing with others and sharing ones thought with a friend can help one to grow and similarly even Meera should try to do the same. There is no problem that can never be solved by talking and so she too should try her best to get connected with other children.
The teacher could easily make out that Meera was stressed and her life and chores have an impact on her. Instead of trying to force Meera to talk about her problems, she decided to meet Meera’s parents.
The teacher visited Meera’s home and tried to find out the reason behind Meera being so quiet and aloof. Her mother was little surprised that the teacher showed so much care and concern about her daughter.
She told the teacher about an old incident in Meera’s life. When she was a little girl, she had a best friend Sita whom she loved like her sister. Once they both were playing near the river bed when Meera while playing pushed Sita for fun sake.
Sita missed her footing and fell into river. Sita didn’t know how to swim and hence she drowned and died. Since then Meera started to shrink away from people thinking that she can only cause harm to the people who come close to her.
After learning all this the teacher realized what was bothering Meera. Next day she again called Meera to her room and talked about it and said “I know you have A CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER and feel guilty that Sita died because of you but it was just an accident and you should not stop living because of it”.
After a long discussion with her teacher Meera too finally started to understand that there was no point in having a chip over her shoulder as it will not bring back her friend but she could learn from her mistake and move forward and since then she too started to make friend.
©Ritanjali Hastir
