“We are interested in others when they are interested in us” (Publilius Syrus)

Aqsa Muzaffar
Nov 5 · 3 min read

Have you ever imagined the situation when there is no one to whom you can talk with? If not yet do it now, because I am going to sketch a picture that would be a reality check for all of us. Let me make it a bit easier for you, when you see a photograph who is the first person you look for or during your conversations who is your subject, I think you all have guessed it, yes it’s “YOU”.

The question here is when did this all happen and we didn’t even recognize when we became so self centered. This can be attributed to the fact that we live in the world full of technologies where we spend the entire day on our cell phones and the thing which bothers me a lot is that we call ourselves an introvert, amazing!. Oh wait a second this all stuff I am writing here wasn’t an epiphany for me but actually I came across to some astounding words by Dale Carnegie where he emphasized on how important it is to be interested in others, those others who were important for us and definitely they are still important but in our believes their love faded away with the moving world. Look behind they are still waiting..

Your mother wants to talk to you she wants to tell you that she get tired sometimes but still when you have conversations with her she tries to rejuvenate you because she knows you are going through hard times but may be she is in the same situation but she has no one. The time made us so selfish that when we talk to our fathers there is our own desire and we never give it a thought may be he wants to share his struggles. I don’t know when we became egocentric and forgot those times when we had long political conversations and argumentation on that “ Khanay ki maiz” with our families. Your family needs you, your “Nana” still wants you to sit with him no matter if it’s 3 O’clock in the morning because he wants to share what he wrote last night about “Takhleeq e kainat”and you want an escape because of the intonations he has.

When I realized this I contacted some of my friends with whom I wasn’t in contact long ago. For the first time during the whole conversation “they” were “my” subject. I came to know that they are also going through hard times one of them is really depressed because she has been giving her exams for almost 3 months and she really wants me to sit with her and that reminded me those long argumentative conversations we use to had on restaurants, ice cream parlors and of course on my sofa. Another shifted her home and I didn’t know once we used to share everything.

Returning to my original idea, you are no one if you are alone your parents, grandparents, and friends are your identity and it’s not only about your loved ones people with whom you interact on daily basis, just cover an extra mile and ask them how life is going. Don’t disparage your employees, your servants or even your audience because what made Thurston one of the famous magicians of all times, was the love and importance he used to give his audience. So, lets become genuinely interested in other people.

Thank You.