A few months back I asked a friend, if he read something new in a book or listened to someone talk about some nerdy stuff that he is not aware of, would he feel that he must compulsorily have some previous knowledge about it, if not would it make him feel insecure (Remember when Joey from "Friends" buys the V volume of the encyclopedia set?!). He said that he was dumb and that he would appreciate it if people made him feel dumber. I was confused and said " What on earth do you even mean?"
He clarified that dumb does not always have to be seen in a negative connotation and that realizing you are dumb is the least you can do to catalyze your growth in any sphere of life. He continued by saying that the more he is made to feel dumb by others the more is his opportunity to learn from them, hence he aims at becoming dumber and dumber.
This felt nice! While there are so many empty vessels making noise in this world (Like a big empty gundaan like myself), this guy casually takes pride in being a silent empty vessel. After that whenever I would remember this conversation, I would affirm that I was dumb.
Let's all proudly be dumb like my friend and I'd like to end by quoting the great poetess, Avvaiyar "கற்றது கைமண் அளவு , கல்லாதது உலகளவு” which can be loosely translated as "what we have learnt is equal to a handful of mud, what we haven't learnt is of the size of the world"
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