Paki Who!

I could see a Pakistani in his 20's managing a small kiosk in the bus terminus. 

A white guy in his 20's walked in and said "Paki... get me a cigarette". 

I was a spectator to this and from the little that I have seen in "Bend it Like Beckham" or few other Brit movies, I understood that for an Asian to be called a "Paki" is the equivalent of a "Black" being called a "nigger". I thought there will be an altercation between the shop keeper and his customer, but the shop keeper obligingly gave the cigarette to his customer. 

The white guy paid the due money and walked off. 

Now, it was my turn, I told the shopkeeper, "I need vodafone SIM card".

The Pakistani looked at me with anger all over him.

I thought I will tell him, it is not me who called him a Paki, but it was his previous customer who did that.

And then the Pakistani quizzed me "Where am I from ?"

I told him in a sincere tone "I am from India"

And he said, "Isn't Hindi your national language, can't you speak in hindi with me ?"

I was at a loss of words, didn't know what I should tell him... 

Maybe I thought I should tell him, "why do you care ?"

But, I told, "I come from the South India, where we don't speak Hindi that much and we are mostly comfortable with our mother tongue or English".

The Pakistani cared less what I was blabbering.

But yeah, he made his point and showed how irritated he was, not able to digest that a South Asian instead of sticking to his culture roots, is speaking in a crazy foreign language.

Bill Maher and the last mile

Bill Maher during one of his 'stand-up' routines said "I can understand why rich people vote Republican, but I can never understand why poor people vote Republican". 

There are moments during his standup or interview routines, Bill Maher finds that the other person is being terribly stupid because he believes in Jesus or talking snake or against gay/lesbians or is a racist or is a Republican or Conservative a la Fox. 

Bill Maher looks at his guest's ignorance and starts pleading with him "com'on .. you must be kidding.. you can't believe in these.. ". 

At such times, Bill Maher looks terribly disappointed and the look says it all. It seems like, he is telling, "I have done it all, tried my best to rescue this moron from jumping from the cliff, but he is really dumb, what do I do.. !"

 

Busy

In one passing conversation, my mother asked me 

"are you doing okay, is the workload too high in your office ?"

I wondered if my mother was being sarcastic, but she wasn't.

She was asking me in a matter of fact tone.

If only, any of my office friends were next to me, they will be "rolling on the floor laughing". But thanks to their absence, I asked my mother politely, "what makes you think my workload is too high ?"

My mother replied, "your gtalk status message always tell the same".

And I was a dead man before her, I was speechless.

I had to tell her and I did, the whole truth and nothing but the truth... 

"That status message is just to avoid making a polite conversation with strangers and you are no stranger to me, so ignore that message and ping me whenever you feel like"

I wish I added one more line to that,

"And I am on bench, which means at the moment I am getting paid for doing nothing.. "