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(This piece is worth digesting)


Last week, I sat in a lecture class with an hajia.


When it got the point of signing an attendance paper, I did and passed the paper to the hajia.


To my surprise, she totally ignored me.


I tapped the table to steal her attention just so she can receive the paper from me and fill her part....but this yielded no positive result.


It was so awkward!!


"Could it be that hajias don't record attendance of lectures?"....


"is there some sort of religious rule she didn't want to flout?"


"wait o..have I done anything wrong?...but I didn't touch her now"


My heart was begging for answers to these questions.


My curiosity almost got me to come and ask about it from you people here on facebook..


...but somehow I didn't, for some wierd reasons.

Then yesterday in another class, I met her seated at the front seat again.


I soon joined her, the seat beside her is actually my favorite. (for real)


But before I did, I stopped by a colleague, to discuss about a presentation to be made.


Then I heard hajia said to a person close to her..


"Please let me know when the attendance sheet passes, I'm visually impaired, most times I miss it"


Immediately, my heart cried. I don't know why I felt guilty.


I advanced towards her and sat at my favorite seat (beside her)


Fast forward to the moment an attendance sheet came. The lecture was seriously ongoing.


This time, I whispered to her left ear..


"Hajia, the attendance is here"


She heard me. She tilted.. and her reaction touched me.


I could tell that she wished I understood her situation... maybe she was going to eventually tell me, but I didn't wait for her to so do.


My foreknowledge of her 'not-obvious' state of sight made me ask her ..


"do you want me to help you?"


"YES", She said embracingly.


she then told me her name, and even spelt it out in a low tone..


I wrote it for her.


The signatures part was another hurdle.


I lifted her hand, ensuring her pen confined itself in the box provided for signature...and she signed.


I felt accomplished.


And when the lecture ended, an 'alhaji-like' man I suppose is her husband came in to hold her by the hands in order to leave the class.


You see ehn, when hajia "snubbed" me last week, I wasn't only confused, I was a bit upset and embarrassed by her 'conduct'..


... even though I DIDN'T REACT, neither did i dive into any unhealthy conclusion on her character or religion.


I could have, but deep in my mind, I CHOSE to help her give excuses....and it was only a matter of time before I had better understanding.


The issue wasn't with her after all...it was merely whipped up from my ignorance of a remote state of affair.


Many times, we judge people with our own dispositions and personal idiosyncracies...


...but if you take a moment to trek in their shoes , you'll realise how much disservice you are doing to humanity by jumping to conclusions about people and consequently misjudging them.


Don't judge anyone today, or anyday...give a special grace.


It Ends Here ...*draws curtain*


(Think about this in terms of a device with which we can win our wars)

#RealpathLawyer