How about you start reading this post by not reading my
personal views, but answering some very short questions? How about, do you like
to eat alone at home or at restaurants? Or, do you like to watch movies alone
at theaters? Or, do you like to take long walks or destination-less bus rides
al by yourself?
If the answers to the above-mentioned questions are in the
affirmative, and you are ‘single’, then it’s a pretty common habit that you
have. And even if the answers are in the negative, the society is not realy
going to bash you up for wanting human company. However, if you are engaged or
married, and yet you enjoy your own company, there are chances that sooner or
later, you’ll be termed ‘selfish’, ‘loner’, ‘strange’ or even ‘abnormal’.
I enjoy a lone meal, may be at KFC or Domino’s or even a
restaurant. I don’t feel guilty having a long walk with a cup of ice-cream or
frozen yogurt and wondering about the workings of the world. And I definitely don’t
mind travelling by myself, even if it’s for the first time and it’s a long
journey. It doesn’t always have to be the company of headphones to avoid
unnecessary conversations. I can simply look out of the window and be lost in a
different world.
But is this behaviour accepted? Once, I had heard a
gentleman commenting about youngsters listening to music on their journey
saying that if you are out in the world, you need to interact with the people
and not hide yourself behind the headphones. I was too young to protest back
then. But today, I would like to pose a question – Why should everybody have
the same personality or attitude towards the world and interaction with it? It
may so be that I am out in the world as a compulsion, and would very much like
to sit back at home and read a few pages from n old, torn book. It may so also
be that I enjoy my own company in such a manner that I don’t need anybody else
to enjoy a good meal, or a good movie. I would rather watch a good movie
separately and then discuss with someone interested about it, than gather
people to watch a movie I am interested in but just afraid “What would people
say!” if I go alone.
Also, why is it a ‘crime’ to be fluent and well-versed and
comfortable in a different language than your mother tongue? Does it only
signify how snobbish you are? Or can it also mean that your medium of
instruction has been different and you are simply mean that you are more
interested in the beauty of a particular language, without demeaning any other
language of the world?
Why are we so quick to judge? Why are we hell-bent on
believing and arguing and proving that what we know and believe is the only
correct way? Why can’t it be an open-forum discussion? Why does always have to
be a win or lose situation?
