Clingy

(Before you read on, you should know that this is a rant not aimed at anyone in particular. This is something that I feel strongly about and has often been on my mind. It is only today that I have finally managed to convince my lazy self to put it down in words. Further, I am using the word 'clingy' in a very loose sense and the same is not to be confused with any kind of co-dependency where the a person is not able to function without the other. A good example for this would probably be the one time a thing you requested for in all earnestness and good faith turned out to be a one too many and earned you the famed moniker. :P )

Clingy. As a word, 'clingy' is very popular in pop culture terms. The pure and utter horror that this word elicits in books, movies, and chai (or alcohol, if that is your thing) fuelled conversations when used in the context of a friend (ahem!), a plausible better half, an actual better (worse?) half or an existing-but-soon-to-be gone better half is consistent in its staunch disapproval of a hapless individual who is not perceptive enough to not know that he/she is not wanted in that specific situation or is perhaps way too invested in a person/thing than is 'appropriate'(ahem!). 

Hapless, indeed! What kind of person doesn't realise when he/she is unwanted in a certain social situation?! Or for that matter in someone's life? I mean, have you, dear reader, ever been in that situation? No, right? Which self respecting person would do that to himself, right? You have to look around with your eyes and ears open, constantly be on the guard for a particular situation where your actions might put off your friend (Riiiiight) or your better half to such an ungodly extent that you will earn the oft sought after moniker- "Clingy". After all, how else do you nurture relationships? You can't ask too little of somebody, right? Heaven forbid that you appear disinterested. But then, don't you dare cross the line from cool-person-who-always-is-perfect to clingy territory, for that dear reader is a path of no return. CLINGY! There! You have been put in a cast, moulded, branded! You, after all, have committed the biggest faux pas of all faux pas. And you deserve to be punished. Yes! You deserve to feel humiliated when the pop culture connotations of the word wash over you inch-by-inch till you want to bury yourself in shame and never come back up again, even if it is for a little bit of air.