I, The Wise

Somebody has just dropped a bombshell on me. Well...not exactly just. This happened a couple of days back, but Abhinav Bindra was too important to wait, at least in my opinion.
The point is, I have been called Wise!!! Or at least, that I look Wise. Now, I have been called a lot of things/names in life. My immensely creative family (esp. my sister) and friends have ensured that I have never been short of names. On top of that my actual, official name! It’s a mathematical improbability that somebody who is not a Bangali like me, (the race of all races, we always get everything right), will get both the spelling and the pronunciation of my name right: at least not the first time. So that serves to add a few names by default.
But coming back to the point: Wise? What on earth has the words wise and wisdom got to do with me? Or for that matter, with the way I look?
Now most would say that "Well, that hardly is the worst thing that you have ever been called or will be called” and I for once will not disagree with the statement. The point here is my comfort level. It’s a bit ridiculous, well not for people who know me, but I would rather be called those names, than being called wise. Firstly, I would be sure of how to react to these, cause I know whether they are compliments (well, they can be called complements too: 'harami' is a case in point, among friends it was more like 'clever you' than 'you bastard'; or maybe it was both, 'you clever bastard'!) or not. Secondly, these would either be coming from friends, so I am happy or I don't mind; or they are from people I am not fond of anyway, so I don't care.
But wise? It’s something I have not been called before, for sure. And neither have I been accused of looking wise either. For the majority of the population I look like some kid, slightly studious and largely lost in life, which makes one out of the two readings right. Was it a back-handed compliment? Unlikely. I back myself to see through those, at most times.
What is actually bothering me, are not the 'who?' and the 'how?' or even the 'was this person lying?' questions, but the 'what?' of whatever that was said. Fact is that I have been anything but wise in my life. I have had enough opportunities to learn from my mistakes, but I have generally shown a strong aversion towards learning from these past experiences (there was one thing this person surely got right, unintentionally it may be: "You look like a person with plenty of heavyweight experience"). And I do not see myself wisening up either. I don't know whether I would like to have it this way or not, but it’s the way it is presently and I don’t feel like helping myself out of it. I would love to remain like this, like Dorian Gray. Being haunted by my own self.
‘Wise’ will haunt me and taunt me for the days to come for sure. What would I give to be actually wise!

P.S.: Do not bother to ask the person’s identity. It is not very important for either of us. And yes, it was a female. Who else could come up with such gems?!