Etiquettes – Where do one draw the line?

So when does something inappropriate becomes ok? Throughout our childhood years we are taught to not pick your nose in public or fart  in public or may be not fiddle with your panty stuck between your butt cheeks!

Yesterday while entering the office restroom I was accompanied by 2-3 other women from my office one of them being my manager. We proceeded to the respective stalls and one after the other started our business. In the pee noise filled restroom I started wondering where do the boundaries of etiquette or decent conducts change? You would not talk to your boss (in most cases) about peeing or farting or fart a noisy one in a meeting filled with people but with same people present in the restroom the pee sounds, farts and blows are not embarrassing or taken offensive! So when does the boundary change?

Is it when that you don’t see people you feel it safe to do what you need to do? The stall partition door isn’t really a sound proof door, it does not keep the noise or smell locked in your stall! So, is it ok to do noisy,  smelly things there just cause you cant visually see people. Have you lingered in the stall a little longer just so that the restroom is empty when you leave? Or have you actually done the opposite, just lingered a little longer in the restroom or outside to see who was making those crazy noises inside. Its stupid and crazy but I will accept of being guilty of both the crimes above :P…. I have actually purposely avoided being in the restroom with certain people, just cause I do not want to witness their not so appealing behaviors. May be I am being a little too opinionated here…. huuhhh ….but thats ok I guess…..

To the rescue and being a little fair I think that when one has to attend to nature’s call or cater to the itch…..one just has too!!….. probably the boundaries of etiquette or division between decent /indecent just does not seem that important in the pseudo privacy (of the stall or when no one is looking) just because holding in that stream of pee or that big stomach aching, bloating fart is impossible to hold anymore!

 

 

 

 

 

Almost Home….

A couple of weeks back when I was getting back from a work trip to New York I re-experienced something I have often felt when I am reaching my home….. a sudden burst of energy ……….as if all my tiredness has just vanished in thin air. Have you experienced this? If you have had a long day or been out of town for a few days just getting back to the airport of you home town suddenly brings this shot of energy as if you are at peace. I have wondered a lot of time is it just me or may be others have also felt it…….

Perhaps its the feeling of being in familiar surrounds, of knowing the routes, the street corners and buildings. May be its because I am getting back to the piece of space that i can somewhat call my own that gives this feeling. A safe corner where I can be myself, where I dont have to look over my shoulder or have to be cautious of the passer-by.

Another interesting aspect of this feeling is the notion of home itself. I have lived a kind of nomadic life for last 12-13 years moving away from my hometown in India to Delhi to now in US. In India, living in Delhi the feeling of home was my hostel (dormitory) that I lived in not the City itself. When talking to others home was always my parent’s place where I grew-up. First few years I would still relate to my childhood home as the home but probably the associations weakened up sometime down the lane.

Living in US (eventhough my childhood home is THE HOME I say), my apartment here is what gives me the feeling of home. At times being out of your city for a long week or a long travel day just entering the city can make one feel the joy of reaching  home. The city isnt my home, my apartment is! But this changing parameters of home keeps me intrigued

Its probably just the feeling of belonging to the place, something that is your, something that you know, something that you can relate to that gives that burst of enthusiasm and energy of being home……….Perhaps its just the difference between living in a space and making your space!