No sooner had we settled down in the Emirates Lounge in Washington DC airport, than my MIL went around milling where all the food and coffee was. I was sure she was hungry but her biggest constraint was to check out the food when nobody was around. (She has no ability to converse with all those folks trying to help her out due to the language issue).

I could see she was surveying all the food and was trying to figure out what to have. And that is when one of those ever helpful Emirates employee showed up and started asking her in local English if she could help.

It was a sight to watch. MIL did not want to be rude but she absolutely did not want to continue with any conversation. Normally, I would step in and explain to her what she was being told. This time, I just decided to let her be and get some experience in the fun of traveling. And this particular experience was certainly a lot of fun to me. All the statements from the helpful lady was met with vigorous headshaking by my MIL. She kept up with her firm smile though.

Then she put in quite some food in her plate and came back to her chair. You could see it in her eyes that she was panicking. She finally settled down in the chair next to me, put her food down and asked me “Ki niye elam re”? (“What did I pick up in my plate?”) 🙂

I was not going to let her off the hook of having fun. So, I said “Kheye-i dekhun na” (“You wont know till you eat it”). You can see her struggling with her food in this picture 🙂

Reminded me of a very old but very funny Haggar The Horrible cartoon. The first picture showed Haggar’s domineering wife (Helga?) and certainly not the best cook putting some food in front of him and patronizing him about food wastage. “Waste not. Want not”. She said. The next picture showed Haggar trying the food. And the last picture showed him pushing the food away. “Want not”, was his memorable response 🙂