It so happened that the lady by whom I was sitting in the bus had the ‘STRONGEST’ smoke odor to the extent that I had to turn my face to the other side to breathe. I didn’t walk off my seat thinking not to offend that lady. But I still could have, for I was sitting in the aisle seat. Later I felt stupid about myself not having walked to a different seat. There are times when I was sitting by the window seat, someone sits by me with such intense smell (smoke, beer). At that point I can’t even move out and so I’m stuck there. What would you do in such situation in a public place (transit, park, restaurant)? 1. Just bear with it as I did today and sit there not to offend the neighbor 2. Just walk off to ward off yourself from such unpleasant incident (odor, in this case) 3. Any other action. Share your thoughts..
My reaction would be: 2. Just walk off to ward off yourself from such unpleasant incident (odor, in this case). I could comment to the person about the smell/odor but everywhere you go, you run into such things. Thanks, OOPALL!
[JUSTIFY]Long ago, when i was waiting for the bus to go to office, there was this man who was very drunk [in the morning] and was also smoking. Only ladies were in the stand and no one dared to ask him go away. Everyone stood outside the stand and it was drizzling. I went and told him to stop smoking as it was causing problems, but he started shouting back and i was pulled away by my friend. We stood in the rain while he smoked relaxing in the stand. Because of the incident, i just fall in to your second option [/JUSTIFY]
Walk away is the best option (unless a person is smoking in a no-smoking area in which case you can point it out them)
I would go for option 2. " Just walk off to ward off yourself from such unpleasant incident (odor, in this case)" And if I sense it is safe to open my mouth, I would even confront him/her. But it greatly depends on the situation and its hazardous effects plus my safety/dignity. In Tamil, a kural goes like this "assess your strength, your enemies strength and then decide whether to battle" (pagai vali arinthu, than vali arinthu..) I go by that. But I will for sure take steps to safeguard me and extend helping hand to people around me if it is within my reach.
