Greetings…. Now don’t assume that I have planned to make my hand-made greeting card to gift to someone special…. No… It’s not what I meant when I said greetings… Let me narrate on what made me to think about the general gesture to greet people…

Yesterday, Monday – I happily entered the office with almost 8 tasks in my mind to be completed by end of the day…(Yes, I do make a list, so that I don’t miss out few things of high priority).. As I entered my cubicle I wished my colleague who sits in the adjacent cubicle… I said, “Good morning” with a broad smile.. He wished me back… I have a hurrying feet, so dint chat with him.. I logged in to my pc and before even I opened my mail box, my friend pinged me in the communicator as “Early bird!!! GM”.. I greeted her GM… After I finished checking my mail box, the chat window again started blinking in orange… I knew someone else had pinged to say “GM”…. But no.. It wasn’t for that… My colleague pinged me with the usual phrase “Hello… How was the weekend madam?”
I knew he would ping the same…I gave the usual reply as “It was fine”.. He asked, “What did u do?” (This question sometimes makes me feel guilty as sometimes I spend my weekend doing nothing) I replied him, “I saw a movie – The other Boleyn girl”..
And so our conversation continued for next 5 mins…. Frankly telling, I lied to him about the movie as I had seen it a week back….
I simply don’t understand y some people simply greet us and ask few question which hardly matters them…

One of the questions is “Had lunch???” Sometimes, people ask this question with so much energy that it sounds as though they are planning to treat us… But its not true.. They would be waiting to tell us what they had for lunch!! Generally if this question is asked by someone who is close to u, then it sounds like concern, else its sounds strange..

The other question is “What have u bought for lunch?” If this question is asked by close friends, then it seems like they are concerned about our health or may be they want to share the lunch… But if this has been asked by a stranger, then it sounds as though they are eying at our food!!

The most common question, “How are u?”… The common reply is “I am fine”.. No matter if they are fine or not.. the answer remains the same… This is just like – question & answer which we have in our schools… Ppl are acquainted to tell “I am fine” that ppl never bother to say the truth even if they are unwell..

Ppl or colleagues who meet u after a long time tend to ask the question, “How is work going on?” Most times, they wouldn’t be knowing what ur actually working on… and in case they are really concerned, they will give u time to speak abt ur work else most times, there is a spontaneous change in the question…. The most common reply to this question is either “its going on well” or “as usual” with a pale voice :( ..

Other most common question as the weekend approaches is “So…. What’s ur weekend plan?” When a stranger asks this question, perhaps seems like they want to take us out or spend time coz they also don’t have any plans…. And close friends never ask this question coz they know the first thing that ppl would say is “sleep till 11am”..

Once the weekend is over and when ur back to office on Monday, the first question is “So… How was ur weekend?” 65% of ppl reply as “as usual…. Nothing spl”.. 10% of ppl would lie when they reply to this question as they don’t want to feel guilty for not doing anything.. 10% of ppl would tell the truth (only if they have done anything good) and remaining 5% of ppl would start thinking on how exactly did they spent 48 hrs!!

And the question will start cycling every week :) It all depends on how we consider these questions… and who asks these questions…. It can be either considered as question out of care & concern or simply nose poking behavior….

8 comments:

swati said...

i wish that poor guy..who fell for that movie name doesnt read ur blog.. :).
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and thats the same i feel for HAD LUNCH question thats most nonsense question uve ever heard that too asked wen coming back from cafeteria....
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I feel like saying no i am just coming from a beach party...
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and 2nd most annoying is wat did u do in ur weekend...after actually tell them wat did u do(cond: i shud hav gone out that weekend..)...they vl share once in a life time weekend that they wud have spent long back...
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point is they dont even notice if show a completed disgusted look on my face..
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:) that was nice blog..dear...

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Keep on writing love to read you..

mritunjay said...

It was really nice..

the line "remaining 5% of ppl would start thinking on how exactly did they spent 48 hrs!!" was great.....


it was such a nice collection of thoughts..
after reading this article i started thinking abt my situation when such questions are pounded to me.

i always have a diffrent set of answers for the question "How was ur weekend"

for boys:-- i had whisky or vodka last night..(thats true)

for girls:-- i was sleeping till 11:30..then was watching TV.(also true)


After readig ur blog these torturing questions have become funny for me..

from 2moro if any of the questions will be asked to me whatever u have told,definately i will remembre u and ur blog...

Keep writing such lovely lines....

Suresh Kumar said...

We effortlessly and without thinking answer such questions as if we have been programed to answer.

Even though I have a severe cold with a irritating nose now... I end up saying 'I am fine' when asked How Am I?

OMG! I lie a lot...

gautam said...

:) nice one blogger :)

Sunitha said...

I guess i have to think twice before asking any of these above questions :)

Anil said...

Good one.. I like the way you write. Waiting or more from you :)

Prathima Bhat said...

@Swati: True....Most of the times ppl hardly see our disgusted face when we reply them sarcastically !!

@Mritunjay: Yes, i come under the 5% category who start thinking what they did :) and since the other person will be waiting for my reply, i will land up lying!! Goshhh!!

@Suresh Kumar: We have the spontaneous, predefined answers when few common questions are asked...

@Gautam: Thanks dear :)

@Sunitha: If these questions are asked to ppl whom u know very well, it would sound good...:)

@Anil: Thanks dude :)

Niveditha Shekar said...

Sometimes we never mean something when we ask such questions.They are just out of courtesy.
For example, When you ask some one "How are you?", are we really interested in knowing how good/bad they are? We assume that we would definitely get a positive answer. In however bad or pathetic situation that person might be they would reply "Fine". Atleast that is what we want to hear.
I've always encountered such typical questions as How are you? I don't say it is wrong to ask such questions.Yes, it's good. But we all think it's courtesy or manners to ask others such questions while we really do not mean it when we ask. We aren't actually bothered (atleast most of the times) about the other person when we ask such questions.
This annoys. It shouldn't be this way.
Any question when asked should be really meant. Like asthough we really want to know about the person. These kinda questions which are asked for the sake of asking is utter nonsense.

On the other hand, we can actually reply such kind of questions in a funny way and surprise who so ever is asking it. Just change the way you reply. Don't go ahead with the usual answer.
Give ek dum mast answer...that they are surprised and would be incusitive to know more.
For example, if someone asks.."How are you?" Just go ahead and use all the possible adjectives and tell them how you are actually feeling. Let them hear. Atleast let us be true in answering.Firstly, they would be surprised.
Secondly, they may not ask that question again(possibly).

A good post. I loved the way you have written.

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