I can't take this aggro any more
It has become a daily occurrence to see people shouting, swearing and generally being unpleasant to each other on the tube, in stations, on the road.
Today when I came home from work I realised I didn’t have my key. I had given it to someone yesterday and forgotten to take it back. I called my sister, who was nearby, on her mobile and also went to try my neighbour’s house to see if she was there and to get her copy of the key.
My neighbour wasn’t answering the doorbell so I walked back slowly, in case she did open the door, as she sometimes takes a while to open it. While walking back I stopped to smell the honeysuckle that grows over the fence off our front garden. Suddenly this young girl dressed smartly in jeans and nice top, with a careful hairstyle, passes by and yells out “What the fuck are you doing?”
Smelling the flowers of my own garden,” I shouted back angrily. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
“Is it your garden then”, she says and saunters off without an apology.
By this time my neighbour had opened the door and was demanding to know what was going on and the girl took the opportunity to walk away. If had had the opportunity, I would have shouted some more at the girl and asked her to smell the flowers herself.
Maybe she thought I was a thief or something-but you can ask what someone is doing without swearing.
Secondly, passers by are entitled to stop and smell honeysuckle from the pavement. That’s what its there for. It’s not there for its looks.
Hmph
I have had a few similar experiences in my two-month stay here in UK, but it’s not the ‘people’ in general here, it’s mostly the younger ones.
Ojas, I blame the parents.
Can I ask you:
1)Why I live in the fast lane?!
2)Do you know a good Marathi-English dictionary?
Oh gosh MG, why do these things happen only to you ??? I agree though, dont understand these children’s reason to swear AT all… you can just as easily say what you want to in a polite way…
I take the overland these days and its soooo nice to not be on the tube and face those nasty tempers and dirty looks of people.. Bliss I tell ya…
I don’t know, maybe I walk around with a big sign on my head!
One of the reasons TG hated it here was all the aggro on tube.
I’m sorry that girl talked to you like that. I want to smack her. (There’s the aggro again!)
x
Broom, thanks! It’s nice to have people who want to defend you!
The worst thing about the aggro is not that moment, but how it sinks your spirit for an hour or two after that. I can’t usually kick it out immediately..
Neha, neither can I. This is what I most desperately need to change about myself!
I had an experience in Montreal last year. I was skipping along on the road with my hubby (I was extremely excited that he had decided to join me there on a holiday) and there was this guy who shouted from behind me – something about not knowing how to walk in a straight line. Now if it was a small footpath I would have accepted it but not when all I was occupying was one portion of the lane! I did shout back at him saying no i cant walk in a straight line and he should use the rest of the footpath. He shouted back some more and it was only my hubby’s restraining arms which held me back. It spoiled an entire morning and afternoon for me
What a jerk! Maybe he wished he could skip too but was too uptight to do it!
1. Mumbai or London or NY.. it’s always the fast lane!
2. I don’t know much since I never had to use one. There are quite a few online dictionaries available and most of them are pretty decent. Checked a few, and thought this is quite OK:
http://www.khandbahale.com/englishmarathi.php (you might have to install the font they have).
Cheers
Thanks Ojas, that’s a useful link. I didn’t mean for you to spend time researching the matter. If you come across one the other way around let me know. There’s something called Molesworth online that I have been using.
Hey… i read this yesterday.. and last evening my hubby and me went out for a walk and we saw these beautiful white roses inside someones fence.. and he bent down to smell them and my instant reaction was to stop him as i thought someone will yell at him too and hes like what wrong with you and i just smiled .. seems like your post was stuck in my head
Bug, we shouldn’t let the flower fascists stop us from smelling the flowers!
Yikes, is this what happens in big cities abroad? In my 12 years in a U.S. suburb, only one jerky neighbor objected when my dog lifted his leg on the Stop sign in his front yard.
What sickness, u.
You have to remember that it’s the perpetrator’s problem, not yours! That silly girl and others of her ilk are adding to their bad karma.
Dipali, wise words that I shall heed.