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Values

It’s strange how I never noticed it before…the guard standing at the entrance of the office parking area saluting me as I entered and left each day on my bike. I guess he salutes everyone, every day. Last week I suddenly noticed it and felt some odd feeling arise in me…a niggling feeling. I couldn’t put my finger on it but it stayed with me the next day too, enforced by that day’s salutes. From the second day I started acknowledging the salute by a nod and smile. The third evening as I left office, as I nodded and smiled at him when he saluted me, it struck me what had been bothering me.
 
It bothered me that he salutes me as if I were superior to him. Just because I work at a better paying job than him or am better educated than him doesn’t automatically make him inferior or me superior. One could argue that it is a part of his job. I don’t think so. His job as a Security Guard for the parking lot is to watch over our vehicles and ensure that they remain safe at all times. Perhaps it wouldn’t bother me if saluting people as they enter and exit were an additional service that the job profile entails and that he provides gratis. But it is not. It’s servile behaviour. I feel it has been ingrained into us for generations by our society. I think he doesn’t mind saluting us at all. That is the extent to which we are conditioned.
 
I have observed that behaving rudely with waiters, maidservants, drivers etc. is quite common since it is considered that they work at ‘inferior’ jobs and are less educated. I just don’t think it is right.
 
I think that as a society, our ideas of superior and inferior work are pretty flawed. I will not deny the broader outlook that education can bring to the table, but it is not a one hundred percent guarantee of wisdom or even a broader outlook for that matter. Also, I think that the respect accorded to a person ought to be from one human to another and not because of or despite factors such as financial, educational, hierarchical etc. status. And what about kindness ? Why does it have to depend on superficial parameters ?

I spoke about this to a friend and she remarked that I am blowing it out of proportion and that I should try to ‘keep it light’, as she puts it. I agree that thinking overly about all this will only use up all my mental energy and there will be no difference in how others behave. I can only try to model my own behaviour on values that I find important. To that extent, yes, I will try to limit my thoughts. However, I consider respect and kindness to be basic human values. I take them quite seriously.

What is your take on the whole thing ?

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Comments

Swapnali said…
So very true. I find Canadians very 'well-behaved' in this matter. People usually do not judge a person from what they do for a living. They tend to maintain the formal 'at-par' treatment whether it be a door-man or cabbie or a higher official. However, over-doing respect for higher authorities, could also be a problem.
17 September 2010 at 01:09
aanand said…
hey nice blog.i dont know u but still i like ur blog.Life is all abt giving repsect to others. n u did rieghtly so.once i was chatting with canteenwala. he told me 1000 people come n go.. but only few people talk.thats what he matters.Respect.thx
29 September 2010 at 15:45
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