Culture Torture!

All cultures are to be respected and revered, however most cultures have certain expectations or particular peculiarities that petrify most people within that culture! Such is one cultural occurrence that Hans is afraid of tremendously. Unfortunately the child has adorable cheeks; some would even call them the quintessential "chubby cheeks"! Now, here is the torture part. Whenever there is a family gathering at my parents' home and there are several ladies in attendance, they feel the urge to pinch Hans' cheeks - it is more like an attempt to stretch them! This is meant to be a sign of affection to show the child that s/he is adored by the person; however, the said person invariably comes across as a cheek(y) torturer!

Hans, being Hans, is very aware of where danger lurks. He mentioned a few times that if he ‎has to attend a gathering at my parents' home, he would make sure to cover his cheeks! Alas, even the best laid plans fail sometimes.

We were gathered at my brother's new home a couple of days ago. It was my sister-in-law's birthday. My parents and her parents were in attendance along with Sir B and us 4. ASid quickly latched on to UB aka Sir B, and was happy to carry on a monologue for the rest of the evening. God bless Sir B's soul! Hans tried to play with my nephew and his cousin RoV. RoV is only 2 and he was in his own happy zone. Finally, Hans settled himself in a chair to simply observe the people around him. That's when it happened. My brother's mother-in-law descended on him and, pinched‎ and stretched Hans' cheeks to her heart's content.

To be honest, I did not actually witness the scene‎; but I saw Hans run away and head to a part of the house where there was no one. I followed him there and found out what happened. I took it upon myself to let the lady know that Hans did not appreciate her gesture of affection. Fortunately, she wasn't too offended and in fact, apologized to Hans. Hans, however, was not exactly in a forgiving mood!

On the way back, Hans and I shared the incident with Craigley and ASid. All Craigley said was, "She pinched my cheeks too!" At that point in time, we all burst out laughing.

Sometimes, torture can be fun; especially when it is happening to someone else‎!

In spite of the above strange (and not so nice) note, I’d like to believe that culture torture can be diminished or perhaps even eliminated if there can be a peaceful protest ‎or a calm dialogue. There is always hope!

NOTE: A bit of a literary license has been used to coin the phrase "Culture Torture". I am sure the literary gods and the grammar police can both forgive me for once!