Rumor Has It

Should you believe in rumors?

You could throw a counter at me asking how you even distinguish a rumor from one which is not. Truth is, in today’s world especially, there’s no telling where a piece of new erupts from or what the true motive behind that actually is. Well, wisdom still dictates you ignore gossip to focus on the here and now, the truth supported by facts. Like half-baked knowledge, scarcity of intellect or framed notoriety often leads to smokes of speculation from non-existent fires of unsubstantiated reports. No, I’m not talking about politics here but keep reading.

Now, I don’t come from a planet far-far away, so like many of you out there, I too have fallen prey to hear-says. In fact, I have even reacted to some at times. But I’d like to believe, in fact I know that I have never fed the grapevine against someone. Unfortunately though, I have myself been at the receiving end of such scuttlebutts at several times. Destiny’s favorite child, I guess.

Tell me have there been rumors about you as well?

There must have been, maybe in school or college, perhaps even later?

I fail to understand the need which persuades folks to do this. Don’t people know that not all have the strength to refute rumors head on? They have been known to go absolutely wrong at times, causing irreparable damages. Not something to be toyed with, I’d say.

What have some of the strangest rumors about you been?

When S and I started going out in college our batch mates, for some strange reason, found it amusing to propagate rumors about us. To this day the inanity of some of those crack me up. But at that point, the humor wasn’t as clearly visible as probably today.

Remember that couple in college everyone loved to hate? Well, we were that couple. Truth be told, even today we don’t quite know the reason why. But I’m not here to analyze the whys of someone else’s irrationality. I’d like to believe they were envious to the point of loathing us because they lacked something, not us. We must have been doing something right, something different which begged their repugnance.

Why don’t I share some of those silly rumors with you?

If not anything else, you could at least spend some time laughing at their absurdity. So, here goes.

Just a few…

Me: 9 years down the line we seem to be faking it quite well, don’t you think?

Me: Getting caught has never been our style my friend.

Me: Really? You couldn’t stoop any lower than that, could you?

Me: Really? Nobody told us that?

I know it’s pointless to even write about these things but I just wanted to get it out of my system. I don’t know why they disliked us so much or what made them dislike us so much. We are not bad people, really.

What was ridiculous was they even had bets as to when we would split. Maybe S and I should have wagered on never and made some money out of it!

How do you react to rumors?

You might take it lightly at first, maybe even get angry at times but one day it starts to sting. And that’s not a great feeling at all.

S and I being together even now seems to have shut them up for good. What also helped was cutting most of them out of our lives. Yes, deciding to not have anything to do with them has helped us stay unaffected and happy. Why unnecessarily keep people who don’t think well of you in your lives? Though S still is in contact with some folks from college (he's kind that way), I have completely shut them off. Forgiving just doesn't seem to be my style, at least for unprovoked nastiness.

These sporadic episodes of rumors against us has taught me how you can be targeted for no apparent reason at all. It just depends on the whims and fancies of a few people. The rest just latch on and follow the herd.

Another thing to remember is you may not be judged by the same standards as others, so don’t be surprised when that happens. We were an unlikely couple in the eyes of my batch mates so maybe that pushed them to detest us. But then another so called unusual pairing was celebrated by the same bunch of people within the same span of time. So, bottom line is you can never really know. But if it happens, just remind yourself you don’t need to justify your choices to anyone, as long as you are not killing anyone that is! No, seriously, you don’t need permission to live your life the way you want to.

Well, that's all for now.

Before you go though, tell me, do you believe in rumors? 

Or, will you believe in rumors now?