Social etiquette’s

We were expected to get up when our grandfather walked into our room at home or our senior walked up to us in office. We were told by our parents to eat silently and not to make chomping noise while eating food or slurpy noise while drinking water. Many clubs would bar the entry of members or their guests if they were not properly dressed. Likes of Sabeera Merchant used to conduct classes on etiquette relating to dining table and use of cutlery! All the above are things of yore and though they form my favourite topic, I realise the futility of barking a dead tree! Instead, I am touching an aspect that’s more topical and relevant and this relates to the use of mobile phones!

In an earlier blog, I tried to bring out our obsession with this palm sized instrument called mobile phone and transformation of our lives around it. First thing that we do on waking up is not to thank God but to check WhatsApp messages that might have got accumulated over the night! And then to check all new posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn rather than craving for the morning newspaper . This obsession is fine as it at least does not cause any botheration to others. The question of manners and etiquettes comes in when one is using the mobile while walking or driving on the road (that endangers his/her and others’ lives) and worst when inside the lift or any public place amongst the crowds! The mood of conversation can range from being romantic to obnoxious, but it’s all for everyone’s ears in buses, trains and lifts. Not sure about the user, but sometimes this could be of a ute embarrassment to others. The provocation for this blog ( as opposed to inspiration that drives most of my blogs) was today morning’s incident when a lady colleague was walking in the middle of the path totally engrossed in her phone with her earphones making her deaf to the outside world. When my multiple “Excuse ME’s” didn’t work and I was in tearing hurry to catch up on a scheduled appointment, I had no option but to squeeze myself past the lady and in the process brushing her arm slightly in spite of all the caution! Of course, I profusely apologised to her though inside my heart I was all aghast at her lack of etiquette on using her mobile. She seemed oblivious, too much engrossed in her conversation or video, whatever, but I am still shivering hours after the incident fearing a ” #Me Too” campaign against me! God save this planet from Mobile Phone obsession.