Of hugs, high fives and being TamBrahm

Hugs never came naturally to me. They weren't my first instinct when I met someone. Maybe it was because, in my family, we didn't exactly hug each other all that often. Honestly, they weren't even a big deal. We hugged each other in times of ... emergencies-when, frankly, nothing but hugs work! Or if someone else leaned in to hug-you just hugged them back.

In my last year in Chandigarh, my friends hugged me pretty much each time we met to go attend coaching classes together. Again, it wasn't too often that we did that. Of course, right before I left for Delhi-there were major hugging sessions :)

On joining school at Delhi, I began noticing my classmates hugging each other [read : classmates who were friends with each other] every morning before classes began. It looked like a whole, elaborate ritual, wherein, as you enter the class-you spotted your friends and hugged them! Initially, I found this pretty ridiculous an affair. Soon, unconsciously, I was part of the circuit... I recall a remark made by my school's principal Sr. Nirmalini- All of you look like you're meeting each other after a few years at ... London's Heathrow Airport!

I used to think its just me. You know, the whole not-so-much-of-a-hugger deal? But lately, I wonder if its a ... TamBrahm trait. I can never generalize this, obviously. Its just a hypothesis and can possibly encompass a lot more social groups. And I do realize that I may not be in a position to make this hypothesis seeing as I haven't spent enough time in the Tamil Heartland! Neither have I been surrounded with people from my region all that much. But my general ... opinion is that us South Indians hug a lot less than ... maybe our Northern counterparts (?) and I wonder why ...

All I can say is I'm game for a High-Five anytime of the day or night! But hugs? I think I would go with this "Hugs grease the wheels of the world."

Which is why I could go to the extent of hugging my ... not-so-small-yet-large-ish Mickey Mouse when I desperately needed one :)

To my closest friends - I hope you do know that, just because I'm almost never the first one to hug you doesn't mean you're mean any less. Sure, hugs are known to be the shortest distance between friends. But guess what-there's no distance between us :)

P S - Ask for one and you totally get one :)

P P S - I do not mean to make Tamil Brahmins an exclusive group in this regard. As a student of Sociology, I learn not to be subjective [and to a large extent, condemn the caste system but oh well!] But since I'm a part of this community, I took it as an example.