Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I am tall and thin

Today I went to this office to deliver a document and in the corridor I asked the first person I saw,"Excuse me do you know which room is Ms. TMZ's office"
She replied "I am her!"
"O'sorry, sorry ....good to see you"I said ,she added"in years I knew you by voice over the phone,I always thought you were some very tall and very thin guy, like 6 plus feet"then she smiled.
"I am sorry,I am not that person"I said with a smile too (you know business etiquette).

Anyway,the earlier unknown is known now, but I have this question :
Can we guess people's physique,race,colour by talking over the phone?
I have been more wrong then right many times,do you have any such experiences too!
From now onwards,I will not assume anything.
I will just ask: "let me guess, you must be very pretty"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol
well i think we start to form some of our own image of the what person on the other line might look like....its kinda unconscious sometimes...

Daanish said...

I agree we make mental pictures of others....and it won't be a problem for long, technology zinda bad!

Saadia said...

Of course we can't guess all of that, over the phone. But there are traits which can be deciphered over a telephonic conversation.

Male or female is easily ascertained. Beyond that, accents, viewpoints, references to the persons own likes and dislikes...that cocktail makes us form a mental picture of the other. Of course, much of that imagery has to do with stereotyping. For instance, if a lady speaks with us in Punjabi, we imagine them in shalwar kameez. And so on...

Daanish said...

Saadia,you are so right !

Unknown said...

the one thing i can def 'hear' is if a person is smilin while talkin or talkin str8 faced...