THE IMPORTANCE OF MANNERS

Manners play an important part in the life of a human being. For success in any field of life, a man must possess pleasing manners so that his behaviours inspires dignity and respect. 'Manners makes a man' is a true saying. By manners we mean proper and respectful behaviour towards all with whom we come in contact with. Manners have more value in cities than in the villages where simple living still has its own charm and decency but in the cities where the standards of living are high and good manners seem to be vanishing.  Today, we are living in an age of sophistication where modern life is complex and complicated and simple living of olden days has almost become a legend. 

In this world of complexity and artificiality, most of the people pretend to be sophisticated, there good manners are very important. You cannot move in society unless you are well behaved, otherwise you are not welcome or acceptable anywhere. However honest may your intentions be or however innocent your behaviour is, it is your decency that makes you acceptable amongst others.

For this one must maintain a good personality along with a good power of speech and conversation, a certainly should be a good listener. These qualifications are important for success in any walk of life as their importance is pervading in modern times. Gone are the days when simplicity, innocence, honesty and any such similar traits of this kind dominated the society.

Good manners are a sure passport to success in life as it endears us to others, helping one to win the confidence of others. A polite answer turns away anger and a kind word uttered in time saves a man from many troubles. It is politeness which succeeds while ability fails. Even a good action will lose its value if the person doing favour utters impolite words. An ill-mannered man, on the other hand, is disliked by everyone and has no chance of success in any walk of life he joins.

Good manners come naturally into a man who is bred-up in a cultured family and are indeed a sign of pleasing personality. A child born in a cultured family will learn to be respectful to others because he will see his elders behaving gently. A child born in an uncultured family will be disrespectful because he sees his elders behaving badly towards others. A child will learn whatever he is taught. So a little carelessness on the part of the elders is likely to spoil the child and that shall be difficult to reform afterwards.

 Most parents spend far more time ferrying their children to extracurricular activities or supervising homework than encouraging them to engage in conversation with adults so that small debates within the family help the child in grooming into a good personality. The importance of being polite and well-mannered makes the people you interact with feel valued which reflects one’s own personality. Such deep internal values can only be inculcated in children from their very childhood only.

In such an advanced digital era of today where children are communicating through a coded vortex of social media and smartphone screens rather than face to face, it’s especially more important for parents to devote time to inculcate such etiquettes within them which shall polish them accurately while communicating with others. The biggest problem today is that the youngsters are highly ambitious and overachieving which leads them to overconfidence. But, of course where on one hand qualification is important, there on the other hand how you present yourself and interact with others is equally more important.

Manners and etiquettes add charm and grace by which one can win the hearts of others. They are most precious gifts of civilization. The extent to which one can influence others and the extent to which one can earn love, affection and the good wishes of others, depends upon the good manners and etiquettes. In other words: ‘Manners are the shadows of virtues, the momentary display of these qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect, if we strive to become, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered as a useful guide to the perfor­mance of our duties.’

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