Vanishing Dream

Coming from a small town, I had never been to such a place before. From outside, I did not find it more than a big market in a building but my better informed friends preferred to call it a ‘mall’ and told me to call it with this name only. They were quite indignant when I referred it as a big market.

Once inside, I could clearly see the difference. The difference was not much intrinsic but extrinsic. Obviously, there were a few differences of the former type too; like it was cleaner and that the people here were wearing dresses which in my place, could wear only in the privacy of his/her bedrooms. However, the differences that left me more shaken were concerned with people’s behavior. A couple which was walking at a comfortable distance of a few feet from each other outside, suddenly came so close inside the ‘mall’ that it seemed they were protecting each other from the killing cold of Antarctica with each other’s body heat.

It’s not that I found it bad in any way, but I was shocked with the whole difference from my place where couples behaved much like strangers, in the market, talking with each other in such a manner that they have known each other only for a few minutes.  

The other thing that left me perplexed was the behavior of a few groups of young men. All these groups sitting there were looking at the members of the female species as they were judging them for a beauty contest. Again, I am not judging this behavior as right or wrong. In fact, I do not at all think myself wise enough to do so.

However, my sense of what is right and what is not has now become a vanishing dream…