Escaped cheek pinching

We have been hunting for a helping hand for maintaining the house. That term is of course a euphemism for the probably politically incorrect "servant maid".

Anyways, just out of the blue, some 10 days back, my parents got a visit from one of the maids they had employed in Indira Nagar. This was in fact around the time that I was a few weeks/months old. And apparently, she was a big help for my parents at that time and she also got good marks for her conduct, quality of work, reliability etc. And it turned out that she was in need of an additional job.

So she was hired right away. The funny thing is that, she has visited us once in 5-6 years, but every time, I have not been home. I was either not in the country or not in the house. When she visited us this time too, she was enquiring about me but I was not present in the house. And the time she works in my house is in the late morning hours and so, she didn't see me till last weekend.

To be honest, I was actually afraid of meeting this lady after so many years. Don't get me wrong, but invariably, whenever I meet someone after many many years, there is quite a lot of "enna ivlo maarittaan" or "appadiyay irukkaan" etc. This I can tolerate, but quite often the latter remark is followed by a heavy pinching of the cheeks.

The cheek pinching display of affection may have stopped a few years back, but I used to experience it even as I was leaving college. There is this grocery store at the end of my street and the "manager" of that store used to do the "kannam killardhu" till I got a job. He used to do this even if there were 10 other customers in the shop. For a boy in his teens, nothing is more demeaning than being treated like a child in front of other members of society. That too, when the members could include the girl he is sighting or her mother!

I don't know why everyone likes to pinch a fat cheek. If you really think someone with a chubby cheek looks cute/sweet/adorable, why on earth would you pinch the cheek? Isn't pinching done as a punishment? Then why commit an act of punishment when you are experiencing emotions affiliated to the love and affection category? Is your emotional circuit cross-wired or is the emotion not real?

Anyways, I was re-introduced to this lady last Friday (I was on leave) and thankfully I didn't have to experience anything embarrassing. Like I said, she last saw me as a baby and however young I may now look (sic), I don't think she was able to relate my present form to what she last saw of me.