Blissed # 44: The queue narratives
Some personal and funny observation while getting bored in endless queues
Hello, Blissed community!
Lately, I have been in a lot of queues for different reasons:
Queue of faith — while visiting places of worship
Queue of urgency — while visiting places like the passport office for document verification
Queue of criticality — while visiting the doctor
They all had different reasons to be, but there was one thing in common — the WAITING TIME.
The beauty in waiting
Something about the wait time intrigues me. It automatically draws my attention to the people in the room, who are a mix of anxiety, restlessness, frustration, social bonding, or maybe just being silent.
It’s very interesting to see these multiple emotions transpire in a room full of people waiting for the same thing but having many different perspectives.
It’s like filling a jar with bees that buzz in all directions, crisscrossing each other aimlessly but trying to create a rhythm in that randomness.
If I were to put myself into one of these emotions, I would earlier put myself in the category of being frustrated, where I would crib about the long waiting time, nagging people around me, and annoying voices hitting my head while I constantly kept checking my watch to see the time fly. It was like an unending wait to hit the highest levels of frustration.
But one fine day, when I was in a positive state of mind (which I am trying to maintain these days), I thought to utilize the unproductive time into something fruitful. Upon immense speculation, I concluded that I can use this time wisely to do what I love to do — OBSERVE.
And so the people became subjects in the room, an assorted mix of talkative and quiet, restless and calm, curious and dull, aggressive and patient, and all other variations the human species could possibly illustrate.
Typical traits of queues
Each queue, has some typical characteristics, which I will detail individually below:
Queue of faith: This queue is by far the longest and the densest. In India, places of worship are visited more than any other place in the world, especially the ones with histories of ancient gods embedded in them. Thus, this line has people from all faith, religion, age, size & shape, economic background etc. making it the most important queue.
Typical characteristics:
Generally, move in groups or herds
Tend to push aimlessly, in the hope that it would help them reach their destination faster (this is specific to some places of worship where the monitoring is not done effectively)
Are often seen singing divine songs in large groups to create an ambience
Sees some regular visitors who know the drill and manage to manoeuvre their way through their acquaintances
Queue of urgency: This queue is the most frantic as one needs to know the drill. The fact that document verification process involves paperwork, which can become overwhelming for certain people, the queue has it’s own set of problems.
Typical characteristics:
A person with no knowledge of the process who is constantly seeking help and guidance from fellow queue members becomes the center of attraction
A know-it-all person who happens to be a pro with the process and thus flaunts their skillset
Families who have come together for the process and decide to make it a picnic spot with their paraphernalia of edible items
A person who fights with every possible staff member about the mismanaged process and threatens to file a complaint
Queue of criticality:
This is the most interesting queue as nobody intends to be a part of it willingly but is forced due to the nature of the situation. It includes patients and their accompanists, who are all waiting for that one door to open and let them in. That call from the doctor feels like a victory, as the waiting times are long enough, while the situation is critical.
Typical characteristics:
The attendant who is constantly making rounds of the reception to know the status of their appointment
The restless patient who wants to jump all protocols and barge into the doctor’s chamber
The medical representatives dressed like corporates, waiting to sell their products to the doctor
An odd patient who decides to discuss all their life problems with a fellow patient sitting beside them, as they do not get to make these conversations with anyone else back home
No matter which queue we are in, at different points in our lives, they become interesting places to be, where one is expected to collectively see a variety of human emotions and characteristics packed together.
Next time, try playing this game of observing different characteristics of people in the room. You can document by writing, drawing or even for that matter interacting with them; you never know you might make some unanticipated friends in the process
Emotions are the language of the soul —
Peter Scazzero
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Till the next time - Stay Blissed ✨
Parul Kapoor
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Love the post!
Interesting..