Your observations on minute distinctions of seniority reminded me of a story from the British Raj: At a fancy dinner for British staff of the Indian railways the wife of an engineer insisted that she and her husband be seated in precedence to another engineer and his wife, otherwise of exactly equal rank, on the grounds that her husband oversaw a more important stretch of railway line.
There's a story I heard from someone that in the Ramayana, Manthara was struck by Rama as a child and she held this rather lowly grudge against him for a number of years and used it against him to persuade Kaikeyi to send him away much later. I know you probably don't get this story; too oriental, but it was used to teach me to be good to the maids and the cleaning staff when I was a child.
Your observations on minute distinctions of seniority reminded me of a story from the British Raj: At a fancy dinner for British staff of the Indian railways the wife of an engineer insisted that she and her husband be seated in precedence to another engineer and his wife, otherwise of exactly equal rank, on the grounds that her husband oversaw a more important stretch of railway line.
Such things matter, you know.
There's a story I heard from someone that in the Ramayana, Manthara was struck by Rama as a child and she held this rather lowly grudge against him for a number of years and used it against him to persuade Kaikeyi to send him away much later. I know you probably don't get this story; too oriental, but it was used to teach me to be good to the maids and the cleaning staff when I was a child.