Advantages and disadvantages of being tall…

Every coin has two sides. Good and bad. So does one’s height. Now, I stand six feet two inches above sea level so I haven’t quite had a chance of being short but I can sure tell you the sunny and cloudy aspects of being tall. Read on, if you please…

I shall begin with the disadvantages because the best (read advantages) should be saved for the last.

First, if a person is taller than the average height then he or she stands a good chance banging his or her head into objects dangling from the ceiling. Be it a wind-chime, a lamp or a bell in a temple. One goes clanking everywhere!

In fact, I hit my head so many times in the frame of the door of my house that my dad finally changed the frame itself!

Second, a taller frame means lesser availability of basic necessities like clothes and shoes because taller people are bound to have longer limbs. In fact, I remember, while in school, I went to buy canvas shoes for the sports classes and when I told him which size I wanted, the salesman just said one thing “Sir, the company doesn’t make shoes in such abnormal sizes”. I felt like an alien who was left behind by the spaceship!

Third, since tall people are easy to spot, they are very conveniently put to use as human watch towers, reference points and ladders. Whenever out in a group, if anyone strays away, I am invariably used as the reference and if I am found to be on my own, without the rest of the gang around, I am told to stick to the gang as it’s easy to spot me and hence the gang. Damn! I am tempted to file a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission!

Fourth, space is a constant constraint. Be it a car, a plane or a chair, nothing seems to have enough space. If I am in the front seat of a car, I have to push the seat back and unless it’s a really petite person sitting behind me, things seem cramped. In flights, I always have to ask the cabin crew to move me to a seat over the emergency exit and in my office, if I ever want to stretch my legs out, I have to be really careful lest I ram into someone standing right behind me because pushing the chair back means occupying more than half the space in the passage. Why can’t people just make things bigger to occupy extra large people like us?! Very unfair!

Fifth, it is difficult to hide. Countless times, I have wished that I was a little more compact so that I could just hide behind someone when people are looking for me. Especially those whom a want to avoid. Alas! I can’t!

Sixth, movement has to be extra careful because of the “far reaching effects” of the limbs. Two cases in point:

One day, I was standing beside my art partner, checking out the work that he was doing. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he started hurling abuses at me. It was only after a few moments that I realized I was standing on his toes. And the other day, while paper-ball warfare was on in the office, I raised my leg in a mock kick to ward my art partner off. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the length and reach of my lower limbs and I struck him right…err…THERE. And he sank to the floor holding…err…THAT. My deepest condolences to his would be wife. The damage, I swear, was unintentional!

Seventh, being taller means having a larger frame and hence excess utilization of resources. For example, while a normal person can take a bath with two buckets of water, I need three. See? That’s two buckets of water wasted per day, considering I take a bath twice a day. So now calculate, how much wastage will that amount to, per year?! But it isn’t my fault, is it?!

Eighth, doctors say that taller people stand a higher chance of developing back problems at a later stage in life because of the longer spine. Wonderfully encouraging, must say!

Ninth, furniture is not made for such big people. And I mean furniture of any kind. Sometime back, when I had bruised my palm pretty bad and ended up with 32 stitches on them, there was one problem in addition to the fact that the blood wouldn’t stop. It was that I just wouldn’t fit into the damned stretcher that I was laid on! The lady who was giving me the stitches just said that it wasn’t her problem that I was bigger than the normal human size. Are the medical instruments’ companies listening?!

Tenth, at most times, people flatly refuse to walk alongside someone extra tall because they feel dwarfed. I am lucky that Little T and I never had that problem because she is tall too. Though, not abnormally tall. She is one person who looks wonderful with the height that she’s got. She is just perfect.

So, these were the disadvantages. Now, let me tell you of the advantages.

First, tall people get a better view of things in life. This statement is meant to be open ended so go ahead and make your own interpretations. Hehe…

Second, things can be reached for much more easily than for most people because all that tall people have to do is stretch their limbs out to the maximum.

Third, the ones who’re tall don’t have to worry about being left behind because in the rare case they are, all they have to do is take a few long strides to make up for the distance. Though I wish, every distance could be bridged just as easily…

Fourth, they do not have to worry about their hair being messed up because most people can’t look above their shoulders in any case. Now THAT is a real advantage I am talking about.

I wracked my brains a lot but couldn’t come up with more positive arguments. So that leaves the ratio of disadvantages to advantages at 10:4.

No wonder then, that it’s said that good things come in small packages. Though, I don’t complain about being tall. In fact I like it because people look up to me, quite literally.

If anyone has any more points to be added to the positives, please feel free to contribute because, honestly, I will be glad to include them!

Adios.