'Good good'

My view is that we always look for / find a few words or phrase to say for particular things that need to be said repeatedly. We might say something at initial instances of the situation without realizing, but then we either slowly learn what to say at subsequent instances, or we try to find out what others do when faced with similar situations.

When somebody asks, 'how are you?' or something by which he/she wants to ask essentially this, everyone has an answer almost ready. Somebody would say 'I am good'; others 'Doing well'; others 'Good good' (which is my standard answer and something which I have aped from a friend) etc etc. Even if you are not doing well, you obviously would not like to disclose it to everyone. And in fact though somebody is courteously asking, he/she might not actually be too much bothered about it. It has become more of a formality.

I myself sometimes do this formality, but most of the times I do really want to know if a person is really "good" and if there is something which is bothering him/her. I understand that most would not tell me the same for am not too close, but thats how it is. You can't convince anyone that you do really care especially at that instant when you ask. (Same is the case with things like 'Take care'. For I do not usually use it, but when I do, I really mean it. But again given the lavish way it is used these days, it has lost its meaning to some extent.)

Apart from these greetings and the answers to them, there are other instances you might require to come with a few lines / phrases to explain what happened. So, if you are returning from a trip, the people who know would ask you about it and not everyone would be interested in the details. So, you might want to have some kind of word sequence ready like 'weather was good, saw this and this, overall it was a good experience'. Its nice and short and the other person gets to know the gist that things went off well. The amount of subsequent interest shown can tell you how much details you want to give or what is being expected.