Our lives are never private. There are people all around us
trying to poke their noses into everything we do or don’t. They are so
interested to know every little thing that goes on in our lives that it becomes
a pain answering them.
Are you
free? they will ask. Your time is never your own. You will be
expected to run errands, complete their child’s project, or whatever. But if
you refuse to help, saying you have your own work to complete, they have the
next question ready.
How much
do you earn? they will want to know. Hah! They really expect
you to tell them the figures? Don’t answer it, but if you did, well, God save
you. If they think you are earning well, they will pop the next question.
Why are
you single? What a waste of your life, if you aren’t yet
married by the ‘correct’ age that society has set for you. Perhaps they will
give you a cursory look and try to reason why marriage has evaded you.
Why don’t
you do something about your colour/ size? Poor souls. Don’t they
know that one can do absolutely nothing about the colour of your skin, height
and err…weight? But when you eventually
get married, you know what they will ask next...
When will
you have a child? As if having a child is the sole reason why people
get married!
After having given you the headache of a marriage and a child
and seeing you run around like a headless chicken, will they get off your back?
No! They will come back to question #1.
Are you free?
So, here are 5 ways to tackle these irritating questions.
Use
humour.
Find a funny way to reply back to irritating questions. If
someone’s pestering you with the why aren’t you married question, roll your
eyes and say, ‘Oh my, are you jealous?’, or wink and say, ‘Amn’t I lucky?’, or
better, ‘Because I love bread pakoda more’!
Ask
another question.
It always irritates people when you answer a question with
another question. If someone’s asks, how much do you earn, say, ‘Why is that important
to you?’, or ask them the same question, ‘How much do you earn?’ or even tongue-in-cheek,
‘Why, aren’t you paid enough?’
Be vague.
Giving vague answers which give out nothing about what they
want to know is a clever way of getting them off your back. If someone asks, ‘What
price did you sell your house for?’ say,
‘Even a million bucks would not be enough payment for this lovely home,’ or ‘Money
is just a number, can it buy happiness?’
Give them
an irrelevant and lengthy explanation.
If people have come looking for spice, give it to them. Take
them round and round in circles, giving them all sorts of irrelevant information
and take up so much of their time that they will think twice before asking
personal questions again.
Refuse to
answer.
Just refuse to answer. People aren’t expecting you to refuse
to answer them. Knock them over with a refusal, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t want to
answer that.’ Simple.
What's your trick?
