Since childhood, I haven’t been used to going and living in other people houses. Houses may not a proper term here. It’s any place like a flat, room and/or any other place. But forced to live there, I have great difficulty in getting adjusted with the people. The problem may not be the place itself, but my behavior vis-à-vis the people around. I have been living in hostel rooms and flat rooms for a long time. I am a pretty good host but can’t manage things that well when it comes to playing guest somewhere. I get all the feelings of self-consciousness and anxiety living side-by-side with the people there. I see two factors to it: One my inability to be outgoing with the people around me and secondly the feeling that it may seem wrong to behave in a certain way. This is despite all the special treatment I get in terms of special meals in my “honor” and attendant niceties observed by the hosts. The boredom syndrome perturbs me even when i visit or worse still stay at the homes of my relatives however close they might be.Sometimes i wonder it is too thankless to think that way when the hosts are putting up a good show of hospitality. The problem lies inside me and not the inside in most cases.
Well the only exception to this feeling comes when I visit the places of some of my informal/old friends. I can move around feeling and get clothes tugged anywhere; leave the socks around and/or do whatever I like. Hence another possible reason may be the level of informality one enjoys in any place. Feeling claustrophobic in one place and feeling like a flying bird in the other place by the same individual means that despite all the outer niceties its necessary that an individual feels home inside in any place.
I like living with others only where there is sufficient space to be alone when I need it. Most of the time, 3-5 days is a long enough visit! We have a saying here... "a guest is like fish, after 3 days, they start to smell."
ReplyDeleteI like the image of leaving ur socks all over the place, made me laugh!
I am sure your hosts in Shigar haven't read this blog ;)
ReplyDeleteToo much of anything is bad ..and in this case too much niceties and care makes one feel claustrophobic..
ReplyDeleteI dont think so that one should feel uncomfortable if someone and especially in laws treat you like their own family member...its all about ones mind.
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