The column – “Write About yourself” in any application form makes me wonder, what to write, how to write, why to write etc., Sometimes they give us lot of space to write and sometimes very less.
In fact, in our membership application form too, I had given very little space for this section. I thought I might have a few people to answer for, about the lack of space, and if they did question, I was prepared to tell them that they could add another attachment along with the application form.
To my surprise, nobody objected to this, and everyone filled in the space allotted. It was very interesting to read their different perspectives. Some people wrote up in detail the various posts they were holding, and some others with just one word: “Housewife” or “Homemaker”.
The main purpose of the column, “Write about yourself” is to know who you actually are, in your own words. Those two above mentioned words do not do justice to what we are and who we are. We can write about what we are good at, and various activities we do socially, culturally and personally.
If you ask me, I’d write: “I’m a fun loving person, who enjoys solving Sudoku puzzles first thing in the morning with a cup of tea, love to watch comedies on TV in English, Telugu & Tamil, enjoy playing and conducting Ek minute games in kitty parties & get-togethers and not to forget Tambola 🙂 etc.,” I can go on and on but the space allotted to me by me is only this much :(.
I am sure all of us have done some things which we are proud of and we should bring it out in our own unique way. It can be humorous, sarcastic, with pride etc., it just gives a glimpse of us.
This actually reminds me of one such instance when I took up a personality development class in the United Kingdom. During the Icebreaker session, we were asked to talk about ourselves for a minute. Unfortunately, I was the first one and I stood up and started saying that my husband is this and my children are that… The Lecturer immediately put me in my place and told me that they were not concerned about the other people in my life, but it was I that they were interested in. That was very stimulating and made me think about myself. Somehow, I finished talking about myself for a minute, but that’s a different story altogether.
So my humble request to each and every one of us is that the next time we need to fill this up in any form, we owe it to ourselves to put down the real information about us in our own style; who we are and what we mean to ourselves.
-Sujatha Ramesh Babu