With the advent of technology and smartphone, most of us are almost entirely cocooned in our social media bubble. Communication and interaction is today limited to the virtual world.
There was a time when all of us spent time getting to know our neighbours and socialisation was almost like a norm. Alas, this is now history.
We decided to check this reality with Puneites who felt that it was more a lack of time, while a few others blamed it on their indifference to socialisation beyond the virtual.
Suvidha Alankar, 26 says that work pressure and a busy lifestyle is what prevents her from talking to her neighbours. “I literally have a 9 to 5 job which is super demanding. Sitting in my cubical staring at the desktop drains me, after which I barely have the strength to even cook for myself. Also, most of the weekends I am off to Mumbai to be with my parents, and the rest of the time, I am lazy to get out of bed, or am out for a short getaway.
I have been living in this apartment for four years and the only person I know here is my landlord,” she adds.
“It’s not that I don’t know who lives next to me. Sometimes I do go next door to get some newspapers and always try to start a conversation, but those girls have attitude issues,” chuckles Mainak Mukherjee, 25.
“I try my best to talk to these three ladies who live in the flat next door, but they are reluctant. They offer me newspapers every week, but never ask why I want them.
It is sad to have such beautiful but straight-faced neighbours and unfortunately, they are the only ones I want to talk to “ he winks.
Prashant Manik, 24 shares his part of the story. “I don’t know why, but people in my apartment are not very welcoming.
When at first my brother and myself shifted to this society, we tried speaking to many people in our society but their reactions towards us were far from warm.
Either they were not okay with talking to bachelors, or they have some local versus outsider issues. Ever since, we stopped talking to any of our neighbours,” he complains.
“I am personally like that. I don’t like hollow conversations,” opines Soni Dhillion, 26.
“I don’t like talking to those quintessential aunties always waiting to fix me up with a guy or giving fake smiles to the person living opposite them. I hardly know anyone in my locality hence when I go back from Pune, my mother always complains on how I ignore people. That’s when I put on my earphones and decide to ignore the world,” she exclaims.
“For me, its better to talk on chats rather than meeting personally,” shares Bidisha Shah, 22. “For some strange reason, I feel comfortable talking to people over text messages or other social media.
It puts me off when they insist on meeting for a coffee. I can talk my heart out and chat for hours but when it comes to meeting someone, I feel unnerved. My cell phone is my escape from the the human race,” she shares.
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#All views expressed in this article are those of the individual respondents and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.
Reach her at loveleen@pune365.com or tweet @KaurKaur18
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