Spare me dear

.. and dude too !

While somebody calling me a "dude" is merely annoying, somebody calling me "dear" (like in "How are you dear?" and not "Dear Abhaya, how are you?") feels downright cheesy to me. Of course the previous statement needs to be qualified with the assertion that both the addresses might be ok in some contexts or when used as part of the rhetoric. What I am complaining about is the stock version.

It is hard to pinpoint the root of these annoyances. Dude perhaps has to do with the mental images of dudes from college days and the slight negative connotation it carried in college lingo. With dear, things are not so simple. One visual image associated with dear is of nuns or teachers from convent schools or governances calling the children dear. Another one is of Jitender calling his better half as dear as in "tum abhi tak tayaar nahi huin dear? hum party ke liye late ho jaayenge !". It is hard to blame either of them for my bad feelings. Then what is it? I can also vaguely recall a movie in which one of the heroine's sidekicks used to call everybody a dear and that quite annoyed me. But now it is hard to say what came first, the annoyance with dear or the movie.

Anyone else has similar feelings at being called dear? Or is it just me?

Comments

Braveheart said…
I am with you on this. Though with me, 'Dude' is far too much more annoying than 'Dear'.

-- Akshaya
December 28, 2007 at 3:52 AM
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