Uncomfortable moments

Uncomfortable Moment 1

It so often happens in the workplace when you see this other colleague walking your way, both of you know each other but not enough to stop and have a conversation. That leaves just a smile and a ‘hi’. But the important part is the timing of when you do that. If you have eye contact too early when the other person is still a distance away, then you will be forced to say ‘hi’ much earlier and then keep smiling on and off till you both pass each other, an awkward situation for both. So we normally pretend that we haven’t seen the other person and continue to walk towards each other, developing an interest in the paint on the walls or a new found fascination for the shape of the tiles on the floor and then when we are close enough, acknowledge each other and get done with the mandatory smiles.

Uncomfortable Moment 2

How many times have you spoken to someone but for the life of you cannot recall the person’s name. But by then you have spoken long enough and you have passed the moment where you can ask their name. So it would continue when you meet the person again, since you did not ask the first time, it would be too embarrassing to ask for their name now. In my case, I would meet this one person on the bus whose name I could never remember. Once I asked him for his email address, hoping that it would have his name and not some weird id like voodooprince@yahoo. It worked, the id did have his name that I promptly forgot soon after. I met him again on the bus a few months down the line, now I could not use the email id trick, so this time I asked him for his visiting card, it worked again but I soon lost the card (seriously how many visiting cards have you retained) and forgot his name yet again. I don’t know what I would do if I bump into him the next time (one can ask for visiting cards and email addresses only so many times without sounding creepy)

Uncomfortable Moment 3

This is another incident on the bus where I saw this young lady boarding the bus and as all the seats were taken, she remained standing. I was seated and on seeing this women, I was in a dilemma of whether to give up my seat for her or not (hold your thoughts, it had nothing do with trying to get attention alright). See, this lady had a slight paunch and the problem was that I was not sure whether she was pregnant or she was merely skipping her gym classes. If I did give up my seat and the lady was not pregnant, she would feel pretty bad and I could end up feeling stupid (it’s not like I gave up my seat to a senior citizen). So considering the pros and cons, I decided to remain seated and hoped I was right. Well, a few months down the line, I saw this woman again and it was apparent she was indeed pregnant. I still feel bad about not having given up my seat that day.

So much for those uncomfortable moments we all encounter. Do you have any?. By the way, come to think of it, voodooprince is a great mail id to have.