Hug the World

No matter how much you hug your money it never hugs you back. Try hugging a person, you will get it back right away.  And what more… it changes your metabolism. Scientists opine that hugging increases oxytocin which may make us live longer than those who don’t hug and hence feel isolated.

Hugging is not easy. It takes a lot of courage to do so. I was very talkative and an extrovert even as a kid. But I was extremely clumsy in hugging. I was the kind In school when the teacher asks us to hold hands, I would say “No thanks I’ll just hold my own’. That may have well have been the beginning of my aversion towards human contact. As a kid, I remember grandparents, aunts and uncles giving me those horrible hugs. If I didn’t blatantly push them off or try to wriggle away, I stood there stiff as a board till the torture was over.  .

Let me take a moment here and put fears to rest. I was never touched inappropriately by anyone…. No uncle. …No neighbor

I actually wasn’t touched at all, which may be part of the problem.  I come from a close knit family which had 2 daughters who they sent to ‘Only- girls’ convent school run by ‘untouched’ nuns. We went for movies, dinners and picnics. It is just we have never been close in the physical sense. In fact I don’t remember my parents being outwardly loving with each other, besides a little smile and an awkward hug on their anniversary or birthdays.

I somehow managed to escape hugs in high school and college. Then when I came to Hyderabad and had to make new friends, hugging and its close relative air-kissing became mandatory. It was then that I realized that my hugging repugnance was not about how I felt. I was just scared that I was incompetent in this area. Then I started working towards being a better hugger consciously. and this is how. 

Step -1 I let myself being hugged by females. Sometimes it was a just a hug and sometimes it  was more. I was squeezed between Victoria's Secrets Miracle bra, way too-much- Mac make-up and all kinds of French or Arabic perfumes. 

Step-2 Moving on hugging members of the opposite sex. Hugging smart, toned and successful guys was actually easy and enjoyable. But there are those men who have never hugged their mother/ sister/ daughter in all theit but know want to do so at the pretext of being modern. " Com'on , gimme a hug" they would say. Ewwwww... gross.. What have I got myself into. That's when a traditional handshake or a namashkar comes handy. 

Step -3 Realizing I was capable of connection, I went on to master whom to hug and when to hug. Sometimes it may not be a real full-on body hug. it may be a light pat on the back, a side- hug or even a warm smile.

Now I even accidentally hug my staff or clients who open their arms just to show be the way.