Silent, Yet Rude

I let my Instagram post themed ‘You Could be Rude Without Saying a Word’ sit for a week before diving in to this explanation.

As always, inspiration comes from stories told to me by friends and family or from my own personal experiences. This time, it was my aunt. At times I accompany her on her extremely rare shopping jaunts where she hesitates a million times and nets at most two tops and on a good day a pair of pants or a skirt, but this time around, she had ventured off on this adventure alone. Seems that she had not enjoyed it as much as her escapades with me – well, she clearly opted out of good company (ya, ya, being self obsessed is not what people full of etiquette should be).

Anyway, she started narrating her experience and the immediate pronouncement was ‘these people were so rude’ and I was bewildered for a moment. She continued ‘not the sales assistants, the other shoppers’. Then it dawned on me what her complaint was about. It had nothing to do with disgruntled shop assistants who kept grabbing clothing items from her hand and folding them back or lazy ones who said no sizes were available without bothering to even look up.

Instead, it was other bag laden shoppers obstructing aisles, hogging racks, ignoring others, holding up fit on room queues and the works.

Not a single one of them had had an exchange of any sort of words with my aunt. However, she had been denied the privilege to explore the shop at her own will when her ‘excuse me’s went unheard, when her movements near a shelf or down an aisle were unacknowledged and shoppers seemed to meander to and fro paying no heed to the presence of others. No sane shopper expects others to clear aisles and worship the ground they walk on, but it is only fair to expect that one would step aside when they hear someone say ‘excuse me’, that one would move their carts and bags off aisles, that one would promptly finish up in the fit on room and at the cashier.

By living in bubbles, distancing ourselves either purposely or absent mindedly from what is happening around us, we are unconsciously becoming a nuisance to others. There is no pride to be taken in being oblivious to sounds, movements and requests from those around us. Make it a habit to keep an eye and ear out for those around you when you are out in public places – it could be the mall, the grocery, the bus or even the road. Let our body language, mannerisms, words, expressions and gestures reflect that we are indeed full of etiquette.