Telling another girl she looks good in some dress, or her hairstyle suits her was so easy earlier. Nowadays, you get strange reactions that I think twice before I tell it. I am surprised how something complementary is taken the other way around. Sometimes people think I am sarcastic. Please, I don't need to be complementary to be sarcastic( I am bad at being sarcastic, rather, I am good at being blunt).
Telling a boy, even if much younger, that he looks good or his hairstyle suits him or anything is to get seriously into trouble. As a teacher, for me students of both the sex are the same. Just like I would complement a girl, I used to complement boys too. But, when I continued that after I became a student again, it got me in serious trouble. There were all sorts of expressions - wide eyed, wondering, non-understanding to say the least.
Should I say it is my mistake ? With my students, our roles are defined I guess. Me the teacher, and them the student. Gives me the liberty to complement and it will be taken in the right way as long as I don't go overboard, I guess. But otherwise, just a 'Good Morning' at a nice face in the morning gets you into trouble, for here, me as a girl better not look at a guy. I am solely defined by this garb, this dress I wear, of a woman. Even if they are 15 years your junior, it's trouble. For me, I am what I am. I like something and I tell it openly, without anything more. And that is it. I forget it after that.
What's happening with this generation ? Why is a little curtesy like a 'Thank You' with a smile at a door or a threshold crossing seen differently, with astonishment and smirks that too in an educational institution. Is being polite so out of fashion ? Or is it that I am expected to be stern faced all the time, as though I could kill someone with my looks. That would be so difficult. Think of passing life concentrating on keeping a stern face most of the time. But, here I am learning to be that nowadays. So sad, this world doesn't care to smile.
2 comments:
well... to share my opinion people are not used to it or they are not brought up this way... more a cultural difference from what i have experienced...
Well Balaguru
If you ask your grandparents, then they will tell you that a 'Vanakam' in the morning or a nodding of the head was done even in our culture. Just that we are losing it or rather lost it already. How many times have you come across your neighbour turning his head off so that he doesn't have to acknowledge your presence. It starts with that.
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