Life's like that: Real life anecdotes.

[architect]

Originally Posted by chetan_l

Not to be outdone, the next time he saw a few of us chatting away in Hindi at the cafeteria, he confidently strode up to us and exclaimed: "doston, upar kya hai?"....

LOL... you reminded me of my time in college when we would use the phrase: "Upar kya hai, Chikitsak?" as a Hindi version of Bugs Bunny's "What's up, doc?"

[chetan_l]

Thanks @architect!
I remembered one more from my past...

This incident took place way back in 2001/2002 when I was working in my previous company. Whenever I narrate this story to my friends, they think I have made this up - but trust me, I can swear on my heart that this incident took place for real.

This organization was (and still is) known for being a fun place to work, and true to its repute, a bunch of friends used to always find an hour off from work every evening and go to the neighboring grounds in Sadashivnagar, Bangalore, to play soccer. Amongst this group was one gentleman, who happened to be a Sardar.

Now, do not mistake me - I respect Sardars a lot, and if anything, I believe they are a superior race of people because it takes supreme confidence in one's ability to make fun of oneself. I have always had great Sardar friends who are very intelligent, quick witted and sporting in nature. However, this particular gentleman (will call him G.S) was more of an imitation of the steorotype you find in Indian jokes.

One fine day, this group of friends were relaxing and having tender-coconuts after a soccer match. Suddenly, one friend (M.S) remembered that it was the birth anniversary of another guy (N.C). This is what transpired:

MS: Hey, today is NC's birthday!
All friends: Happy birthday, NC...many happy returns of the day...hey dude, party today...etc
NC: Thanks guys...by the way, today also happens to be G.S's birthday
All friends: Happy birthday, GS...many happy returns of the day...hey dude, double party today...etc

And Mr. GS says - spontaneosly and genuinely - "Oye, kamaal hai! Pichle saal bhi hum dono ka birthday ek hi din aaya tha!" ("Ah, that's strange! Last year too, our birthdays fell on the same day!")

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Remember one incident which happened with me in 2003. I had joined for Engineering and was getting into hostel life for the first time. I went inside and saw everyone was busy with something or the other (typical hostel scene). My heart was in my mouth when I read this graffiti near my senior's room. It said -

"The more I study, the more I know
The more I know, the more I forget,
The more I forget, the less I study,
So why study ??"

I was thinking I have to live with these guys, I managed somehow though.

Spike

[architect]

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

I was thinking I have to live with these guys, I managed somehow though.Spike

It had taken me quite a few months to get over my seniors in my college hostel. The first night there was a power-cut and a bunch of seniors tried to convince me they were the office bearers of the gay / homosexuals club in the hostel and I would be "initiated" soon. The next night a bunch of other seniors tried convincing me they were part of the "rival gay club", fighting for inducting more "phuchas" (freshers) with them. This was the best architectural college in the country.

Imagine my relief when I met these seniors' girlfriends in the boys hostel on the first weekend night itself!

[vivekiny2k]

speaking of seniors, some of our seniors convinced us they were from anti-ragging squad and had us tell the names and description of everyone that had ragged us so far (we were never supposed to tell that, not even accept that we were ever ragged).

Imagine our plight when we found out there was no anti ragging squad

[architect]

Just realised that the anecdote I put in last could be easily mis-interpreted as one that shows my prejudice towards people with a different sexual orientation than mine.

The idea of narrating his story was to describe my shock at the idea of a forcible "initiation" into somebody else's sexual orientation, since I was straight. To a person from a small-town and barely 18 years old, it was a scary idea. The story is not to show any people with gay / homosexual orientation in a bad light. I have one or two friends who are not straight and this hasn't affected my friendship with them one little bit.

Originally Posted by architect

It had taken me quite a few months to get over my seniors in my college hostel. The first night there was a power-cut and a bunch of seniors tried to convince me they were the office bearers of the gay / homosexuals club in the hostel and I would be "initiated" soon. The next night a bunch of other seniors tried convincing me they were part of the "rival gay club", fighting for inducting more "phuchas" (freshers) with them. This was the best architectural college in the country.

Imagine my relief when I met these seniors' girlfriends in the boys hostel on the first weekend night itself!

[Swanand Inamdar]

Weddings are a perfect place to embarass yourself (and others) arent they?

So, my younger brother was getting married, the day before. Now, being the elder brother, it was my responsibility to look after guests (daunting task that!). Here I am, trying to be the perfect host welcoming people and all.

An old lady walks up to me and following is the conversation:

Old lady: You are Mr. Inamdar's elder son, right?
Me: Yup, thats me. Im Swanand.
Old lady: Yeah, I know you very well. Do you recognize me?
Me: (I had no clue who this woman was). Err, ahem, aha, actually; No I dont.
She: How would you? The last time we met was in your naming ceremony!
Me: .

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Weddings are a perfect place to embarass yourself (and others) arent they?

Har har.

How true. Extends even more when one is not good at remembering faces or names, like me.

In a recent family function, my mom is introducing me to family friends and relatives. An old lady walks up to us, and my mom does the usual introductions. For once (& the last time probably) I decide to up the ante when I realize the conversation veers towards the "M" aspect.

Mom : blah... blah... Yes, he works in Pune and hardly visits us. Oh, no he is not yet married. He doesn't listen to us...
(I cut in before there is any more damage done)
Me : Hi, It's been so long since I have seen you. How are you, how is your health?

Relative : Umm... I am doing okay, son. Knee is acting up a bit nowdays.
Mom : (with a smile) Niranjan, I don't think you have met her earlier.

Me : Oh, no, I do remember her. It was a long time back, but I do remember.
Relative : Really? Because the last time I met your mom, she was still not married.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

Old lady: Yeah, I know you very well. Do you recognize me?

I have had a tough time with old ladies and gents who want to be "recognized". Being someone who used to visit the hometown only during vacations, there were a lot of people I didn't recognize. What made it worse was my cousin, just a year older than me, who grew up in my hometown and knew everyone! Typical conversations would go like this:

Old lady/gent: Do you recognize me?
Me: Sorry, no.
Old lady/gent (to my mother/father): Don't you tell him about the elders in the family? X's son knows everyone and these two guys are cousins!!

Then I decided to lie that I know them, to give them and myself/parents some relief. The typical conversations would then go:

Old lady/gent: Do you recognize me?
Me: Oh yes, I do.
Old lady/gent: Then tell me, who am I?
Me:

To avoid embarassments at my wedding, I made sure that my father or mother never left my side while we were greeting the guests.

[arun_kun]

This is during my engg.

Me,Dad,Mom, Sis went for a vaccation. So in the evening we decided walk around the place. We had already done 20 min walk. So dad,mom and sis are walking along and i was ahead by 20-30 of meters and i was lost in my thoughts. We were walking on the right side of the road. Lane was busy and traffic was slow. So i think you got the picture right. This is what happened:

>> Bus passing by me. Beautiful gal(just like an angel) by the window of bus.
>> Without my knowledge my body took 180 turn and followed bus in that slow traffic eyes on gal.
>> Thudd.. I rammed into someone on the way.
>> Irritated as i lost my sight off the gal, was about to give nasty face to that fellow.
>> Looked up and saw the face of that person to realize that I rammed into my dad's face
>> Took 180 turn again and put my face and ran like hell for sometime.

My dad gave me the look through out that trip which i read as .."you idiot.. Didn't you ever seen a gal". But that too too embarrassing.

[condor]

Originally Posted by chetan_l

.. Sardar friends who are very intelligent, quick witted and sporting in nature.

Riyadh, KSA
sometime during 1st half of 1998

Our company had a project going on there, and one of the guys in the team was a Sardar. Thursday evenings/Friday's were time for shopping & dinner outside. The team heads as usual, including our friend. Everyone in a relaxed mood, talking & chatting as they are going about their activities. Along comes another desi, hugs our Sardar friend and says " yaar, bahuut dinon ke baad ek Sardar se mil raha hoon ! Aaj dil khush ho gaya ! "

Small incidents that remain as memories, and make one smile every time

[Blue_V]

During the first year at my company, a colleague of mine Mr.P took up the initiative to pump some josh into the team to ask the management/HR for appraisal. Mr.P sent a standard format mail to everyone in the team which was addressed to the HR.

Hello Everyone,
Please send a mail to the HR regarding the appraisal. etc etc. Below is the standard format.

Dear HR,
blah blah blah.

Thanks and Regards,
Mr.P


The intention being, they would inturn send it from their mail accounts. What happened next was, many of them just erased the upper portion of the mail and just forwarded the mail to the HR. Mr.P was promptly pulled up by the HR and the guy had a shock to see most of the mails from people bearing his name in the end.
He just went back and had a good laugh (after a blasting mail).

[chetan_l]

Folks, this happened just this weekend. I have installed a Xenos reverse camera + LCD with bluetooth in my car. The bluetooth system works very well; the only issue is that there is no 'private' way to speak via the system, unless you explicitly transfer the call back to the phone.

My wife and I were traveling last Sunday and my daughter & neice were alone at home. A few guests arrived home unexpectedly, and my daughter called us on my mobile to inform the same. I had received the call via the bluetooth speaker.

My anxious wife wanted to instruct our daughter to serve the guests snacks till we drove back home. In her anxiety, she told me to transfer the call from the bluetooth system to my phone. The reason: she did not want the guests to hear her instructions!

And I promptly compiled before I realized what complete bozos we were!

[normally_crazy]

In the shower this morning, dabbed a generous dose of conditioner after a shampoo and washed my hair. Then wanted to wash my face - so took some face wash in my hand proceeded to face wash my hair !

[gt_bhp]

This happened around 10 years ago, it was my last day in office and I'd left the 'Bye mail' drafting to the end and ended up sending one in a rush. The fun started when everyone started calling me by another xyz name because I'd copied a mail sent by a previous employee who'd quit and forgot to remove the
"Regards
xyz".