A few days back, in Roatan. Raj brought out a pack of Taboo cards and the four of us settled down to have at it. Somehow, I have too many funny stories from the past about incidents that occur when people try to clue words while specifically asked not to use certain other words. There is one involving Rema and Sanjay from 1993 that started the whole series.

In any case, there we were… settled down in the air conditioned room after a days worth of hot and humid adventures. We had finished dinner and some of us were lying on the sofas when the game of Taboo ensued.

This is where Raj enters the stage. He pulled up a card and started clueing…

“This is a very small bird,” he said.

We pounced with as many small bird names as we could. First, of course, was the “hummingbird”. We had just seen one in the garden a couple of hours back. Then we kept going with guesses like sparrow, finch, dove, crow, swallow… None of them were it. We even went up to an owl.

Now, before I go any further, let me tell you that the word Raj was trying to clue was “flamingo”. Don’t ask me why he got it in his head that a flamingo is a small bird. (Incidentally, he later tried to justify it by saying he was comparing with an ostrich).

Since we could not come up with anything, he offered the next clue:

“It also walks!”

And were were even more bewildered. What do you mean “It walks?” When have you seen a bird that does not walk? Well, I guess we can look past the hummingbird for that.

At this point, I was convinced that his clues were wrong. I offered to see the card and see if I could clue alternately to Sharmila and Viji. He would have nothing of it.

“There is also an Italian dance by this name,” was his final clue.

Now, I am not into dancing but I am fairly sure I will know dance names better than Raj. After a few more moments, I was able to put the whole thing together…

“Dude, that is not even the name of the dance. And the Italians are going to be mighty peeved if you try to foist a Spanish dance on them”

And that is how we cracked “flamingo” in spite of a clueless Raj.

So, here you go Raj : We got down at Tampa airport yesterday and as we were walking out, we took a picture of this statue of a flamingo bird inside the airport in the hope that this might vaguely remind you in future whether a flamingo is a small bird or not!!!