Saturday, January 27, 2007

Blast from the past

I received an email from my classmate from architecture school a few weeks ago. He wrote about his work and other stuff happening in his life and concluded the email with “By the way your Bhabhi (sister-in-law in Hindi) will be getting married soon.” I read the sentence and started laughing out loud. K peered over my shoulder and chuckled. You might be wondering what the hell would be so funny about this sentence? Yes, there is no humor in this sentence unless you know the background. By the way my friend is married with kids but bhabhi didn’t mean his wife but someone else.

The guy and I were in the same studio and were good friends. When prospective students came to our school for their architecture school entrance exams, the subsequent interviews and eventually to the program, he would bug me to befriend the pretty girls and then introduce them to him. So I would go up to the “freshie” (first year) studio and smile and say “Hello” to the girls and then he would make a smooth entry moments later and I would say, “Hi meet my friend A.” Now I am not exactly the world’s nicest person, the reason for me to do this was not because of any benevolent spirit but because he would invariably put his foot in his mouth and say the most annoying thing and get insulted by the girls. As you all know almost all attractive women have very high self esteem and some have bloated egos as well. I enjoyed seeing him squirm and would always join the girls to make fun of him. I hoped that he would stop bugging me but he was relentless.

One year he came running up to the studio and said “Sai…Sai….you got to see this girl. She is so pretty. She lives in Khar (suburb of Bombay)…. not too far from my place…..you have got to talk to her.” He literally dragged me by my arm two stories down to where all the aspirants were gathered clutching their portfolios nervously. He pointed the girl to me….she was tall with porcelain skin and curly hair. Although she looked like a fragile doll, she was way too confident for a prospective student. He said “Go on introduce me to your prospective Bhabhi (my sister-in-law, by which he meant his wife).”

I burst out laughing and told him, “Forget it, she is way out of your league. I cannot bear to see you humiliate yourself once more.” Although I am not a nice person, I do have a conscience and wouldn't want to see my friend ridiculed. At that very moment she looked at my classmate with an icy cold stare (of course she wasn’t within earshot so did not hear us), which clearly said “Don’t you dare come and talk to me.” I walked back to the studio with this guy following me and complaining that since he had friends like me, he didn’t need enemies etc.

In case you guys are curious, “Bhabhi” is none other than Aishwarya Rai, who had come to my school for her architecture interview. This was prior to her Miss World and Bollywood days. The engagement that my friend alluded to has caused a media circus in India since the past few weeks.

13 comments:

Lotus Reads said...

lol, funny story, Sai! I can only imagine Ms. A's icy cold stare...she really can appear quite cold and aloof...but I keep hoping it's just a mask and that's she's a warm person underneath it all.

I hadn't realized she was a student of architecture?

Shruti said...

Hey Sai.... and what a media circus it is... every day you get to see the B family with AR tagging along... today it was that the m-i-l and the d-i-l were wearing similar socks to beat the cold!! Amazing... don't know whether we will be subject to "every" item in their closets. Also how they are performing pooja at all possible temples to bless the union. Well if one of the most beautiful women in the world has to perform pooja for getting married imagine the plight of the average girl. :)

Sai said...

@Lotus:
I guess her icy stares might have been a defense mechanism against unwanted attention.

One of my girl friends is extremely beautiful and she would stare with her cold grey eyes (typical to certain Maharashtrians) at people and always gave the impression of beng stuck-up but in reality she is the sweetest person!

Sai said...

@Shruti:
LOL...I know these people cannot be superstitious in their own time!

FH said...

Ash was trying to go to college,eh?! Never thought of her as academic type just as clever as a Fox!:D

Sai said...

@Asha:
She is a college dropout...studying to be an architect....though not in my school but some other in my city.

Dan said...

So did your friend ever get married? Or is he still asking others to introduce him to more women? :)

Nabeel said...

Ashwarya Rai was an architect .. oh i mean she was going for architecture school? hmm nice to know.

These days Dubai is an architecture wonder .. and all architects want to get into one of their projects.

Sai said...

@Dan:
LOL....my friend is married to one of my classmates, who incidentally is very bright and very attractive. Funnily they started dating after graduation, all the five years of school he never noticed her!

@Nabeel:
I do know about Dubai and all the construction activity going on there.

magiceye said...

lol....ash sure has implemented all her designs very well!!

Sugarlips said...

LOL...I don't like Ash she is after my Abhihek ;) I'm glad ASha called her FOX :)

Btw this bhabhi joke is famous in Pakistan too like guys introduce girls to other girls or boys meet your bhabhi lols.

Stay Beautiful...!!

Sai said...

@Magic eye: Hmm interesting play of words!

@Sugarlips: Yeah bhabhi and "rakhi" were two typical jokes among teenagers! I am not sure if people in Pakistan celebrate "Raksha Bandhan."

Sugarlips said...

No we do not celebrate "Raksha Bandhan" but hum loug eid par kasar nikal laitay hain ;)

Stay Beautiful..!!