Look At Me, I Exist!

A few days back, I went up to one of my colleague's desk to get some clarifications on a certain technical issue. It happened that another colleague presented himself there at the same time as me and also on the same subject as mine. I took the privilege of articulating the question for both of us to our esteemed colleague who held the precious solution. The answer, I did get but I was not content; I was rather irritated. Any guesses as to why? I will tell you why - it was because that person did not look at me while answering. I had posed the question to him but he persistently looked at the other person. I posed further questions to him but I was not granted as much as a glance from this supreme being all the while he spoke. By the end of the meeting, I was convinced there was something terribly wrong with me. I went to the restroom and checked myself in the mirror; there was nothing amiss. I then retrospected on the questions I had asked to find anything silly or stupid in them; there was nothing of that sort either, at least not as far as I could see. I consulted that other colleague who was present in the meeting to confirm I was not off the mark at any point and he too assured that I had made perfect sense. I brooded over it for a few more moments and failing to arrive at any conclusion, left it at that. After a few days, it happened again with another colleague and then again with another. I collected all these incidents in my mind and tried to find what had gone wrong. A lot of depression and contemplation later, I realized that nothing was wrong with me, whatever was wrong was with these colleagues of mine. These people who made me feel unsure and almost ashamed of myself were in fact the ones utterly lacking in self-confidence. They were the ones who had no control over their minds and hence all the time afraid that looking at me would cause them to go astray. The people who had made me feel guilty of my own existence were in fact the guilty ones. A cultured mind is one that respects a fellow human being and acknowledges him/her with due regard. Not looking at a person when addressing him/her is the worst form of insult that can be meted out to a self-respecting being and the worst sort of manners that can be possessed by a civilized person.