In Pakistan, it is a norm for your personal space to be intruded. Please don’t get me wrong. For us who are foreign to this will feel this as an intrusion, but locally it is an acceptable culture.
I still remember where, in one incident, I was queuing to buy McDonald. The que was a bit long: My Malaysian friend was standing in front of me. I was having my handphone on my right hand and was browsing the FB. Suddenly, I felt hot air on my right ear and the sound of someone breathing was very close. As I turned right to see, I saw a man’s face was almost on my shoulder. He was happily sneaking on my FB while is was browsing it. Maybe he was excited to listen to videos that were in foreign language.
I turned and gave him this upset look. He returned it with a curious look. Maybe he was thinking, why am I even upset. After sometime, I got used to this phenomenon. You don’t have what we call a personal space in public spaces.
I was very worried when Pakistan was hit by Covid. Countries which socially appreciate personal spaces are struggling with the implementation of social distancing. Pakistan will have an even tougher time enforcing social distancing.
#culture #pakistan #diversity #expatlife #socialdistancing
Ek Safar (The Journey) 