Social Manners Lessons

I have been thinking of writing this post for a while. I did not write it so far for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to be sure that it’s not just a co-incidence or a behavior encountered by me repeatedly; demonstrated by a relatively small bunch of people. 

2. I did not want to write it in a way that offends certain people.

3. I do not want to be judgmental.

4. To give myself some time to know if there are other people around who feel the same way—and the answer is: Yes, of course, they do!

I like many others around have observed certain traits by lot many folks around; especially at public places, residential societies, office premises and where not, that kind of bothers me. And believe me; it’s not just me. I know a lot of people who show a lot of agitation & opposition towards such behavior of people around them.

Now let me jot down a few of those experiences here:

Just another day; me and a friend of mine; inside an elevator waiting to reach the ground floor; and then we were finally there; the automatic door slid. Before we could step out of the lift, we noticed a bunch of people, around 4 or 5, right at elevator’s exit, so impatient they were; that they just rushed in without letting us get out of it. Maybe they were running out of time and wanted to reach somewhere quickly. But wait a minute … would it have been possible for the elevator to take them to their destination without we getting out of it…food for thought for such people

Similar thing happens while trying to get down from a bus, train and so on.

Another encounter at fast food counter at workplace. We wanted to order something to eat. But there were so many people at the counter that it was certainly not possible for us to even reach there. I could see three groups of people waiting at the counter for the take away.  The one out of the first group finally got the burger and the juice he ordered, but he was still there chitchatting with other five people in the group. Then the other person in the group got a juice after a halt of around 10 minutes, till then these people spent their time at the counter, certainly making it impossible for someone else to penetrate the mob to reach the counter and order something. As soon as this second person grabbed the juice, the bunch of 6 people simply walked away. Did they really need company of four other people to spend 10 minutes at the counter?

Another group had around 3 people, a gal and two guys. It seemed that the gal had ordered something, guys were just there to give her company. Then she got the milkshake and was waiting for something else and busy talking with other people in the group. Finally, she grabbed the sandwich she ordered but she was so very lost in the conversation, it took her 2-3 odd minutes to go away and while she was on the way; she spilled over the milkshake on me.  Above all she did not realize that she needs to apologize for that and was smiling rather laughing for the great job she did.

Another plot: This is an everyday scene at/near all tissue roll holders near a washbasin. Even when people know that there are other people out there waiting for their turn, some people just forget that they are at a public place and there are other people in the queue. They would grab a tissue paper and would stand there till the time they have finished gossiping with someone else near an adjacent holder or would simply cherish using that great piece of paper. Believe me, this behavior certainly irritates a lot of people around you.

These are just few examples and there is a long list to go on. The only reason I finally wrote this is it highlights the need to have those basic social etiquettes which are not taught along with table manners in school but it’s a must to showcase them. Do not annoy people with your carelessness, it’s not that difficult to be a little more responsible about what you do and how you behave..!!

Poetry

Khamoshiyon pe aitbaar karte hain,

Thami ye dhadkan 

Par intezaar karte hain,

Jhuki sargam se

Lamhe bayaan karte hain,

Chalte Chalte;

Manzilon ke paar

Khwaahishon ki bauchaar karte hain,

Bahar-e-gulistaan

Numaaish mein saja

Chipi un surkhiyon ka 

Deedar karte hain,

Tasavvur-e-thikaane mei kahin

Thirkanon ka izhaar karte hain  

English Poetry : Just Another Day

Just another day

Gesture full of wonder 

World still at its pace

Has just life surrendered!

Spirits whirling, abound

Dust plated; sprinkled ash around

Submerged in thoughts

Seems a queue of graveyard surrounds

I walk, I adhere

Tickle; may hurdles like spear

Blindfolded gallop though hard

Scrutiny may never steer

I frown, I drown

Ecstasy may disappear

Gulping herculean oceans in

Cloudy sky; twinkles clear

An Opportunist's Plight

Yesterday night, after having an awesome dinner, I was walking down the street back home. I was half decided on having a desert, so just walked out of the restaurant without ordering one. 

While I was still halfway to reach back home, I got this sudden urge to have an ice-cream, an irresistible temptation like kids do get on a frequent basis. While it seemed too big an effort to walk back to one of those fancy restaurant's in another direction, I decided to try my luck with the super-market on the way nearby my place. Trying my luck, not in terms of whether I will get an ice-cream over there or not. Instead the thought of standing in a long queue just to buy a pack of ice-cream was discouraging. 

So, I promised myself to buy it only on one condition: if I was lucky enough of not meeting a long queue at the billing counter.

With this thought in mind, I soon entered the super-market to see a long long queue at both the counters on ground floor. I was perplexed whether I should be trying my luck with the counters on the first floor. I went to ice-cream aisle, picked one from the freezer. I knew that the queue on the first floor is not gonna be any shorter. Just to give it a try, I rushed up to the first floor to find a queue much much much longer than what it was on the ground floor. I thought of going back to the ground floor and putting it back in the freezer.

When I reached there, I wanted to buy it since I had invested so much of my time on this one ice-cream already. I stood for half a minute on deciding whether I should quit and walk back home or I should give it a try, to somehow buy it in lesser than anticipated time ;)

While I was still pondering over this, I saw the lady at the billing counter. I walked up to her and asked if she could get it billed along with her stuff and I will pay the money to her. She looked at me with surprise for a moment but then I asked her again and eventually, she agreed. All the other people right after her in the queue appeared to be in disapproval of my behavior. Each of these people had tonnes of food items in their basket.

I know that this way of breaking in the queue is not an ideal shopper's behaviour but then it was already too late. The clock was about to hit 10 and I wanted to get that ice-cream.

But this was just not the end. The lady who did this favor of buying that ice-cream to me, had a coconut to be billed at another counter (Alas, I did not notice that earlier). Since the bill was not with me, I could not have walked out of the store anyway. I went back to her. The queue at vegetable counter was too long.  She was an ideal shopper and she waited for like 10 minutes to get that billed, I had no other option but to stand there waiting for her. 

By the time, I could actually come out of that place after thanking her, the ice-cream thawed :(