The trap of sweet and friendly words…

My professor, Sumit Chaudhuri always warned me about people who talked sweet. “I’m very afraid of such people. I’d rather have someone criticizing me upfront, rather than praising and flattering me,” he used to say. But, what’s the problem with that I used to wonder. It so happens many times, that people say what they do not mean, and such words have hidden motives, either to influence you to do or not to do some act; to extract some information or wield some power over you. Such people can only be dealt with, if you have a clear presence of mind, and be aware of yourself completely so you know if someone’s complimenting you, or simply fooling around!