Are we actually living?

I had a very interesting experience today which I thought is worth sharing.

My two-wheeler driving license had expired in the month of August 2020. With the Covid-19 situation then, I did not have the courage then to go to an RTO office and apply for renewal.

Though we have to submit the application, supporting documents, pay the fee, etc online, we still have to go to the respective RTO in person to submit the hard copy. I had booked the slot online and today was the chosen day.

I reached the office on time, waited for my turn to reach the counter and presented all the documents to the clerk at the window. Even before collecting the documents, the clerk asked, "Why are you in shorts?"

Of all the questions that I was prepared to answer (my license had already expired and I was submitting the renewal application late), this was the least expected question. I was wearing knee-length bermuda shorts and I did not quite understand the context of the question. 

I looked at him with a quizzical expression on my face.

Clerk: "Don't you have a veshti or pants or a track?"

Me: "Do I need to take a full-length photo?"

Clerk: "No"

Me: "Then?"

Clerk: "How can you come to an office in shorts? This is not America. You are in India, Tamil Nadu."

Now I realized where he was coming from. Then I politely told him, "Sir, I did not realize that there is a dress code."

Clerk: "This is a government office and you cannot walk-in here in your shorts. You have to maintain the decorum of the office."

The actual work for which I had gone there seemed to have taken a backseat. The clerk was not even interested in listening to what I had come for.

I am not sure if I was wrong in going to a government office in shorts. Neither I am sure if he was well within his rights to reprimand me the way he did. When he gave me an option of a veshti or tracks, he seemed to be ok with the semi-formal dress but not an informal dress.

When I thought about it for a while, it did make civic sense to be properly dressed. If I were to go to my office, I would not have gone like this, so it made perfect sense not to go to any other office in informal dress.

I have had very little opportunity in the last 7 years to wear a formal dress or going to a formal set up. So it never struck me that for going to a government office I would have to wear a formal dress or even semi-formal dress. In fact, I did not pay much attention to my dress at all.

This whole incident made me wonder how we take most of the things for granted. We easily become creatures of habits and pay little attention to what we are doing. I realized that most of us are not living and doing our activities consciously.

All this led me to ponder over a very basic question, "Are we actually living?"

What is your opinion?