Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Mobile Misery


If you want to know more about the soft skills of educated software engineers, you should stay in paying guest accommodations.

About 6 to 7 girls under one roof……..Loud blaring harsh ring tones. ….. one after the other, the phones begin to ring… mercifully, one of them is a wrong number….the girl hangs up. Mercifully again, the next one is a boyfriend; the girl leaves the hall and goes to some remote corner speaking in a soft voice.

But most of the others are friends or relatives….
The average length of talking is 40 minutes…they don’t care for the fact that you are watching a television program interestedly and their chattering is disturbing you… they don’t even get up to go to their rooms or outside the house, they don’t even talk softly …shout into the mouthpiece incessantly ….
Whether in a public place or in a private room…they are the same.

I plead for mercy…..and the response is quick. “It’s my life. It’s up to me to decide how long to talk, whom to talk to, what to talk and where to talk. How can anyone dictate the rules to me?”

Haven’t these girls heard of “mobile manners”?

“You are depriving me of my right to silence and peace, forcing me to hear all the gory details of your daily routine that are completely useless to me…..

Why should I not watch television, not listen to music, not sleep, not read, not sit quietly just so that you may tell some friend what dress you wore to office, how many emails you had to read, how bad the traffic was, who complimented you, how terrible the food was…who your latest crush is?

Why should I make so many sacrifices for you? WHY?”

Never before did I realize that upbringing matters SO MUCH!

1 comment:

Anupama said...

It is strange that even I realized how much one's upbringing and background matters only when I came off away from my family and had to put up with what the rest of the world comprises of...zombies who have no idea that their actions - whether they like it or not - affect others and that is how we share space. They carry on with their dull, uninspiring lives in a most robotic fashion and curse you for being different...for being human.

And although these people are a daily annoyance, I am sometimes thankful to such characters for showing me everyday that I have a lot to be grateful for - manners and etiquettes imbibed by my family, sensitivity towards others and for many other things they gave me that I always took for granted. Now, I say a daily prayer - heartfelt thanks for having such wonderful parents and a fervent wish that I never even unknowingly cross over into the other category :)

A nice post that echoes my thoughts...