Freedom of Expression

I am a fairly tolerant person.

I don’t mind people around me having some fun or enjoying what they do.

I am not one to question the source of pleasure for other people.

And yet, every afternoon a little before I start my lunch in my cubicle, with my friend - the PC, when I hear the heavy thunder, or what sounds like it, I wonder whether people in this country (or any other) take the term ‘Freedom of Expression’ too seriously.

Now before you start wondering about the source of the thunder (or what sounds like it) and what freedom of expression has anything to do with it, let me clarify. This noise was nothing but my next cubicle neighbour having her daily pack of chips or something like it. It is a wonder how some small thing getting ground within a small grinder(the mouth) can create so much noise !

I was born with extra-sensitive sense organs (I wish I could say extra-sensory perception instead - that would sound so much cooler !!) . Consequently if I have to chew something crunchy, that causes a lot of noise, I would rather do it in an open space or within a room without anyone around, so that I dont have to subject others to the torture that I go through ! Not everyone is as considerate as me though.

In our country, being loud is considered indecent and people who indulge in it are ridiculed - not that people stop being loud because of it. During my first trip to the US, I was shocked at how normal it was for people to blow their noses loudly in public. In the client place, where I was the only Indian, I used to shudder in my cubicle, when someone in the office suffered from common cold and made no secret of it. They would blow hard and seemed to be taking a perverse pleasure in inflicting pain on my poor ears ! If one person sneezed, the entire office would loudly utter ‘Bless You’ - the idea being to drown the sound of the sneeze with their voices.

People here are loud in their normal talk, mistaking decibel levels for enthusiasm. The louder you are, the more enthusiastic you are perceived to be. So I now know that my colleague in the next cubicle went to watch an opera last week, has a baby, plays on the playstation and other well-known secrets of her life. I sometimes think I know more about her, than she would probably know about herself and that too without even bothering to know. Not just my next-cubicle neighbour, I know a little about all the colleagues sitting around me (within a 1/2 mile radius), without even knowing how they look like!!

If assaulting the ears is the Americans style, assaulting the eyes is ours (not that we are bad at assaulting the ears - just drive in India and you will know what I mean). It is a pain to watch people partaking their meal with pleasure. They are under the mistaken impression that food can be ingested through the skin too. Some seem to be of a kinder nature and prefer to reduce the effort of swallowing food by directly placing the food in their tummies instead (just watch them putting their hands well inside their throats !!). Their idea of enjoying food is to make a lot of weird noises while eating (and I am not even talking about the loud belching after food !!). I have also seen people eat food - fruits like mangoes usually and let it drip all over their hands and lick them - it made me stay away from mangoes for some time !!

I now realize that the trouble is with me. I am too finicky and too fussy. I wish I can do something to reduce my sense of hearing for such things and don’t get offended by the sight of others having their meal with relish. Or I wish I could become one of them !!