A bright Sunday morning; you are sipping a hot and refreshing cup of ginger tea; sun rays are giving you the warmth you really need in winter; those small conversations with your husband - a perfect day and a perfect way to spend some quality time with him. Just when you are enjoying yourself thoroughly; your doorbell rings. You open the door, spot another smiling face that says:
"can I get a cup of sugar please?"
Sigh!
Just because your neighbour does not want you to think that she is here only for some work, she will start talking to you. Your five minutes are gone, husband has a newspaper in his hand and your sink awaits for your ice tea.
We usually associate neighbours with either gossips or our SOS when we do not have some ingredient that's is essential for cooking. We count on them for a tomato, or a cup of milk, or a needle; but we do need them.
But they needing us? - hmmm, that can be a bit frightening; especially when they leave their kid with us for a few hours; who has a tendency to break anything and everything he touches; or when we have to take care of their dog when are are away on a few days trip; and the dog loves to pee on the carpet.
We loathe them when we happen to be a teenager; parents are out of town and there is a party at our place. Few guys and girls are about to enter when Mrs. Sharma opens her door; looks at you and gives you that "I know what you are upto" smile.
Zynga Company - the makers of farmville game - has studied the behaviour of neighbours pretty well; for, they have made sure that you have to ask for something or the other all the time from your farm neighbours.
Real world or virtual world; neighbours do matter to us all the time.
Sometimes we are jealous of them when they upgrade themselves; we compete with them just to prove our point to them; we stand by them when a tragedy has struck them; we dance with them if there is a wedding in their family.
We need them as much as we run away from them.
The great cliche applies here about our neighbours:
"You love them or you hate them; but you cannot ignore them"
Image Source: http://www.digitalrampage.com/images/neighbours.jpg
Definitely neighbors are important as in bad times they surely come out to help and socialization is important as human beings are social animal...both need each other.
ReplyDeleteVirtual world thesedays are sometimes more real:)!!
As always nice n diff post from u :)!!
tc
Nice that you wrote about our need for neighbours and how we depend on them... Good work..
ReplyDeleteSo true..."Love them or hate them...but can't ignore them!"
ReplyDeletePredominantly you will experience the latter variety!!
Like today, while I was deep in thought and was in midst of writing something, there comes our neighbor and asks me to search for the train schedules of a X and Y and Z and A and B and C trains on the web!! Gosh!!
Of course, there are good kinds too!
Haha. agree gal :) But it's opposite outside India. You dont even know who your neighbors are :))
ReplyDeletehi... this is the first time ..reading your blog ,its interesting ..sometimes people bug us during odd hrs..no doubt
ReplyDeleteand the best part is we cannot do anythin about them..
Nice one. Very well said about the neighbors. You can't live with them. And, you can't live without them.
ReplyDeleteIn our household we have a balanced mix. I never talk to my neighbors. But my wife is friendly with all our neighbors and talk them.
Yes the neighbors...are an interesting lot...every one is different....and well havent played farmville yet so dunno much abt it...but yes u cant ignore neighbors!
ReplyDeleteWell said...love them or hate them, you really can't ignore them. Often, when no one is around to help, it might be your neighbour who turns out to be the angel in disguise:)
ReplyDeleteI never ever talk to people around where I stay. dont know if its good or bad. But my mom is just opposite to me. She knows everyone and anyone!!
ReplyDeleteI get wary if someone knocks on my door, I am like "My privacy is being invaded"..
Interesting..neighbors are necessary evil :-D
True that! But did you notice most of the time Sharma surname is used in all the examples or the commercials...how popular is Mrs./Mr. Sharma in neighborhood ;)
ReplyDeleteMy Uncle and Aunt (Dad's bro and his wife) are our neighbours, so its family. The other old couple hardly stay in the country, they are always away to meet their songs/daughters in US. Yeah but having family as your neighbours is even tougher. Everything you do pops up in family meetings and everyone goes like , "You are a gilr". See, if not for then i would not know :P. But yeah there are upsides too... when were we something they are right there to help :P.
ReplyDeletereally ..neigbours are very important specially in today's world when families are staying at long distances.
ReplyDeleteAll my life I had good neighbours and tried to be good to them:)
Nice one!:)
ReplyDeleteWell its so boring without neighbors.
In case of any small festival,there is food-transfer to and fro from neighbors' house to our house.:P
And of course,all the gossips are so important...and neighbors are the greatest source for that! :P
nice read Neha... was surprised with the farmville reference... but that was nice parallel u drew there...
ReplyDeleteits a strange situation with neighbors... u need then when u have an emergency... u need them when u need some sugar or milk(which could fall under the category of emergency too)... but then when they get after u for all these things it does getting bugging sometimes...
Cheers!
Tavish
Latest Blog post: Desperation
Ha! I've never experienced such things at all. But I don't mind if a neighbor leaves his dog with me. I'll happily oblige. :)
ReplyDeleteSeems like farmville has made you very experienced in these things, eh? :P
Strong walls make for better neighbours they say !
ReplyDeletehaving good neighbours is a matter of social connect and something that is inherrently present with all of us !
Well, the gossip is a sidestory ! :)
Love this post! Yes neighbours are important. I have one great neighbour with whom I have nice conversations but then I have another neighbour who is a psycho and opens my mail and I feel is sort of spying on me...
ReplyDeleteSo good neighbours make all the differenc and bad ones can make your life really miserable. Who hasn't experienced the busy body neighbourhood auntijis?
Yes need them but there are few types who will make life miserable
ReplyDeleteBut i do agree with you, yes we need them as they also need them.
Did you see the movie Babies day out
i like that movie.
Sure, neighbours are an essential part of ones surroundings, especially if so if one stays in a condominium.
ReplyDeleteI think one must stand to help the neighbours but a reasonable distance must be maintained.
Well, we have our neighbour working with Pepsi. She comes to us only when she goes out of town expecting us to take care as her maid is alone at home.
We have not yet ever refused.
Neighbours are one of best things God made. They add the masala to life. Nice post
ReplyDeleteYeah I like what THE HOLY LAMA said .. neighbours are a blessing .. especially if they ahve a beautiful daughter tooo...
ReplyDeleteyayyyyyyy...
on serious side neighbours are indeed a blessing if you get a good one, or if you are good to them.. Sometimes its them who are there inspite of all the relatives or friends we might have...
Back home. our neighbours had 3 kids and in our house we had at one time 7 - 8 kids.. We were in city and all my massi's, chacha's kids came to stay with us at one time or other.. for there education.. So we had a dozen or more kids.. it was FUN TIME for me...
and yes.. Sukhi the daughter was Beautiful... sadly she called me Bhaiya all the time so :(
But then on other hand seriously.. these have become such good relations now..So neighbours are indeed a good thing ...
:)
I miss this about India.. in Sweden, one hardly talks to his neighbors... though recently in India as well I have noticed that people dont even know who their neighbors are!!
ReplyDeleteMy no. 1 priority when i shift back to India would be live in an apartment complex which has nice people, so for me neighbors matter a lot
So very true :) Neighbors... can't live iwth them , can't live without them ... :)
ReplyDelete@ NR, thanks..virtual world neighbours are indeed more real these days thanks to zynga :)
ReplyDelete@ Communi, thanks :)
@ Shilpa, lol..poor you..but yeah; there are good types too :)
@ Avada, yeah; it's different everywhere..
@ Harman, welcome here..we cannot do anything about them and without them :)
@ SG, nice...your wife balances it out for you :)
@ Shahid, you indeed cannot ignore them :)
@ DC, you summed it up well - angel in disguise :)
@ Insignia, same here..i find them intruders sometimes :P too mean na :D
@ Nu, what a connection..hats off :)
@ Harini, that means no late night parties or coming late for u in ur parent's absence? poor girl :P
@ Samvedana, wow...you are indeed a nice neighbour :)
@ Anu, food and gossip - exactly..we do need them :P
@ Tavish, glad you liked the FV connection..and as I mentin..its fine if we need them; but not otherwise..hmmmm
@ Karthik, farmville has definitely helped :P
@ Kavi, gossip part is really interesting when it comes to neighbours na :)
@ Panorama, poor you..a spy in the neighbourhood is the worst thing one can ask for..
@ SM, yeah, we do need our neighbours..I have seen baby's day out..very hilarious movie :)
@ BK Chowla, you are a very nice person and neighbour :)
@ Holy Lama, so true..
@ Bikram, wow..you must have had great fun na..so many of you..bhaiya? hahahaha
@ Merlin, to have good neighbours is a blessing trust me :)
@ Adisha, welcome here..thank u for your comments :)
Man!! I know I am repeating myself.. but you HAVE become a blog celebrity!!!
ReplyDelete@ Merlin, even I am repeating - I am no celebrity re.. :)
ReplyDeleteit feels nice to see you writing often now..I am ur fan :)