Talking to someone you don’t know can make us feel happier, more optimistic and less lonely
Talking to someone you don’t know can make us feel happier, more optimistic and less lonely
There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met yet.
— William Butler Yeats
I remember that day I was in a hurry to reach the ground floor of my apartment building to buy some essentials at the neighborhood store. As I entered the elevator, I was trying to push the house keys into my handbag, oblivious to anyone else there. “Hello!,” said an elderly gentleman in his late seventies when he held a toffee for me. “Why?” I was weirdly blurred. What he told me was commendable! He said, “People greet only relatives and friends but not strangers. I thought how good this world would be without strangers.” I thanked him for his kind gesture.
This small and sharp incident made me think. Do we really care about strangers around us, especially in India? Aren’t we afraid to wish strangers because they can’t respond or give us the cold shoulder? Another reason for us not to want strangers can be the fear of being deceived.
But in countries like America it is common to greet a stranger. A casual gesture or a little “How do you do that?” Will always make a day for a stranger. As Gillian Sandstrom, a psychologist and a senior lecturer at the University of Essex, rightly put it, “People feel more connected when they talk to strangers, as if they are part of something bigger.”
how true! I felt the same way when I talked to that old stranger. But, when will we as Indians be bound together even as a stranger? This is really a great question! We have been taught since childhood to be wary of strangers. But do we know that, according to some authentic research, talking to strangers can improve a person’s self-confidence? Plus, interacting with someone you don’t know can make a person feel happier, more optimistic, and less lonely.
Small talk with strangers is generally despised in public places by the current generation. In buses or trains, they are confined to their own world with modern gadgets in their hands. Lack of communication skills and being introverted can also be another reason.
Why do people in many countries start a conversation or simply greet a stranger? Why is it not seen in India especially in urban areas? Worth considering, isn’t it?
priyasri_m_1976@yahoo.com