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Now, advisory stickers for the mannerless

There's the case of boors listening to music loudly.

Walk left, stand right. Those are Dubai Metro's new stickers (they've got them on the travellators and escalators). When I saw them last week, I felt like someone in RTA was finally reading my mind. A knot in my shoulder I think undid itself, because, you know - it's a blood pressure-raising issue: the sheer number of inconsiderate people who hog the space in front, lounging as if they're in their grandfather's garden, without care for peeps behind, and oh my god, making my hair grey even faster.
From what I've observed, whether people actually do walk left, stand right is another matter, because clearly nobody in this city obeys metro advisories, notices, stickers, call it whatever. I'm thinking of the several instances of men in women's cabin (not that it matters to me), clearly not adhering to 'those' pink stickers, about how it's not allowed, Dh100 fine, etc. But at least with these new black-yellow stickers (the walk-stand thing), there's acknowledgement that people need to be less selfish. So thank you, sticker department at RTA.
Metro etiquette is a classic example of how people are flung into adulthood with no idea of how to behave in public.
The other offence: boors not waiting for you to disembark before jostling in. It says so, for god's sake! Wait for people to get the hell off before shoving yourself in (in nicer words).
We probably need stickers (that people actually obey) for a bunch of other offences in public spaces. So much comes to mind. There's the case of boors listening to music loudly. Boors, who couldn't give a hoot about the sensibilities of others, will play videos without earphones. (How does the awful sound quality on most handsets not bother people?!) Then there are the earphone users who, in pursuit of numbing their own eardrums, will blast Iggy Pop, or whatever they listen to these days.
Notices also need to be sent out to people incapable of voice modulation, the ones on the phone in the metro, in the bus, restaurant, shop, name it and there's one crank talking at the top of his or her voice. Why can't people be like pigeons and just dip their audibility, tone down the racket, and burble a bit?
Offices have offenders too. People talking so loudly, you'd never get anything done if you don't plug in your earphones (a clear message: 'don't talk to me'). Then there are people who talk on speakerphone - in public spaces. It's endless. How has nobody been taught any manners, basic sensitivity to the environment, to the other person - C for Courtesy, for Consideration, for Cut-It-Out?
When we were younger, in the age of video cassettes and VCRs, my mother taught my brother and I to rewind the cassette before returning it to the video rental shop, a courtesy to the next person watching. It's such a simple thing.
In the cinema, it annoys me when people pull out their phones. The screen light hurts my eyes, and the attitude pisses me off. I used to be shy about protesting and would fume inwardly. Now, I think I've become a bit of a crank myself, and am confident about demanding my right to an uninterrupted movie experience. If someone is hitting my seat from behind, in a movie, or glaring at a phone screen, I just tap whisper excuse me, and say in my sternest, but as non-rude a tone as I can muster, 'Can you put that away? The light is distracting'. Bad manners are all around.

• -nivriti@khaleejtimes.com