Social Etiquette is a standard way of behaving in some social situation. The way we eat , the way we sit and walk are all determined by social etiquette. But the question is, why do we need this Etiquette? The answer is simple, Because we have forgotten our true nature of being human. That is why we need a rule book to act according to it. Social Etiquette are ‘Man – Made Rules’, which are made to control man and make him different from the animal world. But we were not born with these, we were born with natural values like honesty, truthfulness and so on . Such etiquette’ were only there to decorate our basic nature. But as usual we humans always move in wrong direction and we have started giving more focus to social etiquette’ while compromising our basic values.
Everyday new rules are being added to the market and we are madly running after them. We all do make up, right? What will happen if we only look after our cosmetics and not our skin? We will become artificial . We will always have to wear the mask of makeup before going out and in fact we will be hiding our true self. But if we look after our skin, we will glow naturally and just a touch up will do wonders to our natural beauty. This is exactly what we need to do to focus on our natural values and then using ‘Etiquette’ to make them glitter more.
Here are some questions to analyze our own self and have a reality check.
- How many of us talk softly but criticize others?
- Do all people who wear the best of clothes have the best of heart?
- When we ask a person how are they, do we really mean it?
- How many of us get up early on Sundays and if not then why do we blame people who get up late from Monday to Saturday?
- How many of us say good morning to our loved ones before sending a wish in a whats App group?
- How many of us focus more on crockery than quality of food during a feast?
- How many of us feel gratitude while saying ‘thank you’?
- How many of us really feel bad when we say ‘ sorry ‘ and really mean our sorry ?
If the answer to most of the questions is “ NO “, then my friends, we are on a ‘Wrong Track’.
There is nothing wrong in following ‘Etiquette’, but we cannot compromise with our basic values .
Here are few things that we do everyday unknowingly when we compromise our basic values for Etiquette such as:
- Doing our prayers every single day but refusing to help beggars.
- Saluting a corrupt person who holds a high position.
- Holding a PhD degree, but throwing trash on roads.
- Passing gifts of each other on festivals.
- Preferring a lie over painful truth.
- Talking of compassion and ill treating maidservants.
- Talking of equality but most of the time men paying the bills.
This is what we are moving towards . We are living in a world where we are compromising truth for flattery, honesty for diplomacy and compassion for a practical life. Yes by doing all these things we will be achieving a lot of wealth and opportunities but will be losing on the way god has made us. You don’t have to learn Etiquette because they come naturally with a good heart.
These are some points to be kept in mind and taken care of always:
- If you want to be courteous, you will have to love other beings including poor and animals
- If you wish to speak beautifully then first we need to think beautifully.
- If you don’t repeat a mistake, then you must speak sorry.
- If you are grateful , then say thank you.
- If you really want to know, then ask how the other person is.
- If you wish to look beautiful then focus on creating a beautiful heart.
- Offer gifts from your heart , even if they are cheap.
- Have a exciting life than faking it on social media.
- If we leave our values and give all our attention to our etiquette, then we are only pretending to be humans in body of animals.
‘So nature and etiquette must always go hand in hand’.
