It is always nice to have guests at our place on weekends, get togethers as we believe that presence of others make a difference. When I recently saw the trailors of upcoming Hindi movie - "Athithi tum kab jaaoge?", I got reminded of some occassions where I had felt - why I invited certain people? It is sheerly their behaviours at that time which made me think like that but not having any hatred towards them. Sometimes certain people come to a get together but behave as if they had come for watching certain TV program alone, or having glued to the mobile making the rest's presence not mattered. So this post is about a couple of incidents where I felt when this guest will go?
Recently I invited a friend to stay at our house over the weekend. When he came I felt bit happy that his presence can break the monotony of the weekend - how long we can keep seeing the faces of our own family members on a leave day? But this guy came with his laptop, accessed my internet connection and upgraded his softwares etc, and kept on chatting with his friends on the Gtalk & Yahoo! Messenger. After a certain point I got irritated and the way I reply had changed. Still he didn't get the message across and literally was awake doing things on his laptop for the whole Sunday night. Being the host I couldn't say anything but I had decided that I am going to tell my guests that laptops or iPods are not allowed in my house.
Another thing happened in our house warming ceremony with my nieces. They came, they were with themselves with one niece playing with the video games, whereas another one was reading a novel. While the whole household was busy enjoying themselves by mingling with others especially the kids, these girls kept aloof. After a while I had to snatch the video game and the novel from them to make them come out. It worked also. Once they overcame the initial resistance, they enjoyed the presence by playing, clicking photos of the function. But at the same evening the book engrossed niece logged into her Facebook account and started getting into her own world. Again we had to pull her out and she sang some songs for us.
I can accept the behaviours of my nieces as they are school kids (Infact when I was a school kid I used to get into some corners with my Ambulimama & Chandamama collection) and they can be changed once they are made to realise what sort of awkwardness their actions will create. I really hate some oldies who can give up the whole world but can't give up even a single episode of their favourite shit TV serial. Some other kind of people are there who are glued to their mobiles. They may be physically present but more intrested in acknowledging somebody on the other end of the line. Of late I have learnt to ask people to cut short the mobile conversation.
I am learning to accept the invitations only which I am comfortable honouring them because I see no point in going reluctantly and irritating people who invited me. Else trying to restrict my visits only to the time I can hold my attention span. Why can't be forthright in saying that I am not comfortable to visit at that particular day / crowd rather than going and messing the life for others? In fact that is better. Hereafter I have decided to ask the guests leave early if I sense signs of discomfort. Initially it may be shocking or sounding rude, but once I make the guests see my point I hope things will be amicable.
{oshits} readers asking the guests to be present where they are!!!
