Shutterbugs stay away 🚫

Few years ago i had attended this session in Agile India where the speaker presented a topic on Agile for introverts.. i walked into that meeting room because I was curious after reading the title and got completely mesmerized by the story line he presented. The speech went around how to respect and include your introvert team members and make your team a self empowered one.. well, am not here to write yet another Agile post and share the link in LinkedIn.. there are already a zillion posts in internet regarding the same topic and i as a humble agilist will not contribute to the already overwhelming Agile information overload in internet.

Introversion is our topic of the day ☺️

And introverts are often people who gets misjudged and unnecessarily showered with sympathy and extra efforts from others in the group for inclusion. But as a society,  are we human beings having the capability to realise who is an introvert? An introvert is not only that person who is with a shy smile and sits quietly through a loud group chatter. At times, they are the ones who have trouble fitting in to your crowd. Introverts are not always soft spoken or always in loss of words. That all being said, i did my own analysis after that session and found out my personality has a lot of introvert traits than that of an extrovert. I cannot always fit into my circles as an individual and I get lost or feel abandoned during many conversations - but as an introvert i will never ever have the courage to speak up, yell at my ftiends and  say " include me please".. i am that person who had gone alone to Indian weddings , sat at the seat farthest from the aisle and left silently without eating a morsel ( because I was intimidated by the idea of eating with a whole bunch of strangers).

Is there any specific group of people introverts like us hate and /or fear about? Oh yes,  those are the shutterbugs.. in the era of smartphones where every other person thinks of themselves as Serve MCcurry, we live in total fear.. Can you remember a recent family gathering or a friend's get together where you have not bothered to pull out your mobile phone and click those selfies and groufies?  In this era where everyone tries their best to squeeze in and put out their best smiles, have you ever noticed a face with a forced smile?  Well, not everyone among us would be comfortable smiling for a camera.  And clicking pictures even if it's your own family or friends should be treated as heavy breach of privacy. I may have my own thousand reasons for not being comfortable to be captured by someone else's camera. However I will surely reconsider my hatred if someone ever had the courtesy of asking me if am ok to pose for a pic rather than pulling me blindly into their camera's focus. 

As always, my camera shyness or rather hatred has a small history associated with its origin. The event dates back to 1998 when i was homebound after undergoing chemotherapy sessions.. one of my mom's cousin and her family was visiting from the United States and they came home to pay me a short visit during their trip.  It was those days when Mom had resumed work and started going to office after exhausting all her earned leaves to be with me during the hospital visits. As Mom wasnt there, it was my grandma's turn to give me company during the day.  By that time I was already getting used of walking around the house with my bald (post chemo) head - even my neighbours had almost ceased give me those sympathetic looks. But i usually tie a scarf on my head whenever visitors come announced.. and i had the same scarf on when this aunty n family came in.. the visit was a rather short 10-15 minutes one, but the most unexpected thing happened when they were about to leave. She pulled out a tiny camera from her handbag and said let's click a picture .. i was screaming inside my head " WTH !!! "but would have been too exhausted even to deny ( or my introvert self would not have dared saying so to her)..  i put that forced smile on my face and posed for a pic for the first time after my diagnosis.. can't recollect exactly what itvfekt like during that moment, but am thankful to Lord that these experiences did not turn me into a serial killer.. well, the NRI family left after the photograhy session but all hell broke loose when my mom returned from work that evening. I told mom about the visit and mentioned to her that aunty clicked our pics.. rest is history.. Amma gave my poor grandmother an earful about not speaking up and protecting my privacy ( that moment i realised Amma was a law graduate and still remembers her lessons 😃)..

Years had passed and a similar incident happened recently when a cousin of mine visited us here at home and wanted to click pics while leaving..  we as a family had turnes camera shy ages ago and i could clearly see annoyance written over my mom's face all over again 😃