Who's your Daddy now?
Last weekend, I went out with a couple of friends (some of which happened to belong to the fairer sex) to a local bar. To be exact, it was two guys and three girls. Merely friends hanging out. Nothing I could write Mommy about to tell her that I was making progress towards getting her a D-i-L. Anyways, so this happened to be like a local College hangout with its expected crowd of young drunk College kids trying to have a good time. Of course, I was the only guy with a turban on in that crowd. I know some people would say why do I have to shake the hornet's nest? Why would I want to go to such a place where there is such a high likelihood of inviting comments, jibes and crap like that.
I have asked myself that question. And the answer I have reasoned for myself is this: I am sick of being afraid. I will not hide in a shell anymore merely because I am afraid that some ignorant buffoon will take it the wrong way. If he does that, it is his problem and not mine. And I am not going to prevent myself from having a good time worrying about whether other people will get worried beacuse of me.
Now that I have done the preface, let me complete the story. So, there we were. 2 dudes and 3 dudettes trying to chill, have a few laughs and in general enjoy themselves. The place was jam packed with people thrusting their elbows in other people's flanks in the name of shortage of space. You could smell the lousy deodrant in the next guy's armpits as well as the sweet sickly smell emanating from the pretty lady standing next to you. Gross,huh. But I kid you not.
So, just as we were settling in and people around me had given up staring at me after making countless futile attempts to make me nervous, the white guy next to me whispers something in my ears. I could barely hear his words above the din of the place. He said:" Are these girls your daughters? Would you mind if I take them home?". My normally vigilant central nervous system was taken off guard. By now, I have developed a thin layer of lead over my skin so that off hand remarks like that don't penetrate it any more. I smiled, giving him the glimpse of my pearly teeth through the curtain of my moustaches (here I use hyperbole to exaggerate effect!). I said:"You are mistaken,Sir. I am an Indian Prince and these are my three wives." I,then, turned towards my friends and posed them the question:" Ladies, this gentleman here thinks that I am your Daddy. Is he right?". My friends are extremely good sport and they all replied in unison:" Yeah, Harry is our Daddy, if you know what we mean." One of them added:"Harry is my Winnie-the-Pooh." I then turned towards the intruder and asked him if he was satisfied. The stranger was half convinced but he did the right thing. He told me that I was an extremely lucky guy and he was jealous of me. I hope he is right. Later, we all laughed about it and my friends wished if I could ask him:" Who is your Daddy now?"
I am not hurt anymore when strangers display their ignorance in such obvious ways. I don't blame them because I think the US is still a very fair society. I can't even think what would have happened to minorties in some of the South-east Asian countries if they would have been blamed for something as atrocious as 9/11.
There, I go off rambling again. Anyways, I thought I would mention this incident to make the tone of my blog less sombre. I don't know if it is funny or not but it illustrates a subtle point. Like I have said before, "doosrein ke sitam hum seh lehnge, apno ki bewafai mar dalegi"(I am strong enough to brook the atrocities of others, but the betrayal of my own will kill me).
I have asked myself that question. And the answer I have reasoned for myself is this: I am sick of being afraid. I will not hide in a shell anymore merely because I am afraid that some ignorant buffoon will take it the wrong way. If he does that, it is his problem and not mine. And I am not going to prevent myself from having a good time worrying about whether other people will get worried beacuse of me.
Now that I have done the preface, let me complete the story. So, there we were. 2 dudes and 3 dudettes trying to chill, have a few laughs and in general enjoy themselves. The place was jam packed with people thrusting their elbows in other people's flanks in the name of shortage of space. You could smell the lousy deodrant in the next guy's armpits as well as the sweet sickly smell emanating from the pretty lady standing next to you. Gross,huh. But I kid you not.
So, just as we were settling in and people around me had given up staring at me after making countless futile attempts to make me nervous, the white guy next to me whispers something in my ears. I could barely hear his words above the din of the place. He said:" Are these girls your daughters? Would you mind if I take them home?". My normally vigilant central nervous system was taken off guard. By now, I have developed a thin layer of lead over my skin so that off hand remarks like that don't penetrate it any more. I smiled, giving him the glimpse of my pearly teeth through the curtain of my moustaches (here I use hyperbole to exaggerate effect!). I said:"You are mistaken,Sir. I am an Indian Prince and these are my three wives." I,then, turned towards my friends and posed them the question:" Ladies, this gentleman here thinks that I am your Daddy. Is he right?". My friends are extremely good sport and they all replied in unison:" Yeah, Harry is our Daddy, if you know what we mean." One of them added:"Harry is my Winnie-the-Pooh." I then turned towards the intruder and asked him if he was satisfied. The stranger was half convinced but he did the right thing. He told me that I was an extremely lucky guy and he was jealous of me. I hope he is right. Later, we all laughed about it and my friends wished if I could ask him:" Who is your Daddy now?"
I am not hurt anymore when strangers display their ignorance in such obvious ways. I don't blame them because I think the US is still a very fair society. I can't even think what would have happened to minorties in some of the South-east Asian countries if they would have been blamed for something as atrocious as 9/11.
There, I go off rambling again. Anyways, I thought I would mention this incident to make the tone of my blog less sombre. I don't know if it is funny or not but it illustrates a subtle point. Like I have said before, "doosrein ke sitam hum seh lehnge, apno ki bewafai mar dalegi"(I am strong enough to brook the atrocities of others, but the betrayal of my own will kill me).
posted by harry singh at 5:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home