21 May
2017
19 May
2017
Repost:: My inimitable nephews
This is a repost from this day, last year. I had a chuckle remembering the incident. The two nephews are, without an iota of doubt, my biggest fans. Note: nobody has yet accused them of having standards 🙂
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Easy lies the head that wears a “crown” 🙂
It was yet to be 4:30 AM. I was on my way to Portland airport to catch a flight back home. Called up mom and then my brother. As soon as my brother started talking, I could hear the yelling of “Jethu?” (which is what my nephews call me – it is the Bengali word denoting dad’s elder brother) and then I figured the nephews had snatched the phone from my brother and were talking all over themselves trying to tell me something very excitedly.
Once they stopped to take a deep breath, I asked them to calm down and explain the whole thing from the beginning. What I gathered was the following – my sister-in-law (their mom) is in China now for school work and my brother had brought the nephews to my parents house for a few days. So far, this was old news to me. I kept mechanically driving to the airport as they kept telling me what I already knew.
Then the conversation took a quick turn. Turns out that on Day 1 with grandparents, they got their heads shaved. Why would they get their heads shaved?, I asked myself. In our culture, that is the custom if one of your parents die – which clearly was not the case here – or perhaps if you had an attack of lice or something even more sinister – which would be a shame. In my confusion and surprise I missed my turn at the airport 🙂
As the story started to sort itself out, I came to know that my dad told them the story about my brother getting his head shaved at their age. [Oh! yeah! in those days, as a kid, we used to get our heads shaved a few times. We were told that our hair would grow stronger and better; I have lived long enough to know that there is no truth to that advertising 🙂 ]. In any case, my dad told them how my sister and I used to write with “dot pens” (ball point in today’s terminology) on his head. The nephews found that story very funny. Presumably, which was what my dad’s purpose was.
But then the two brothers started asking themselves how come they don’t get their heads shaved. Having not come up with any good reason by themzelves, they approached my brother. Who had the same logical question every rational thinking dad would have. As a response, I understand, the younger one, driven by sheer desperation, came up with the following – “Jethu-r moton dekhtey laagbey, tai”. (“so that we can look like Jethu”).
My brother, apparently not convinced that the world has suffered enough with looks like mine, quickly obliged and a short trip to the local market later, they came back with this… ahem… “barber”ic act 🙂 My brother said that the whole day they had been waiting for my daily call to tell me about their moment of “crowning” glory.
Once I understood the whole story, I got in on it too. “When I come to India next end of June, we will all get shaved together and take a picture”, I suggested. To which, the elder nephew protested. “What happened?”, I asked. He demurred that the kids in school would make fun of him. I figured they still use “dot-pens” in school these days 🙂
So, we opted for the second best course. They took pictures of themselves and sent them to me. A little stitch here and and a little paste there, I was able to put together the following picture. Which should make you laugh in stitches.
Sometimes I worry if I am setting a low standard for my nephews…
14 May
2017
Interesting trivia
I learnt today that there is indeed a Procrastinators Club of America. Based in Philly, they currently have 6,000 members. But, I am sure, that is only because a few hundred millions keep postponing applying for their membership. I know my own family can apply for a couple of life time memberships.
I am not kidding. You can read it up. And they have a great sense of humor.
Their monthly newsletter? It is called “Last Month’s Newsletter” 🙂
Their motto? “Behind You All The Way” 🙂
I am thinking of applying just for their sense of humor. Although, I am afraid that they might postpone laughing at my jokes for a future day 🙂
14 May
2017
North Korea has nothing on this…
A provocative North Korea launched a ballistic missile again a few hours back contravening international agreements. (See here)
America, understandably, launched its own barrage of fiery missiles in retaliation.
But enough about Trump’s tweets 🙂
12 May
2017
Linguistic wars!
The EU President Juncker, before addressing a conference, said that the influence of English language is declining. And gave his address in French. (See here)
Really? French is the language that is gaining ground? If he really wanted to prove the point of English declining – which every grammarian will agree, his speech should have read something like….
OMG!
Hashtag Brexit. WTH?
UK EU BFF? LOL!
TTYL
Or something like that … 🙂
12 May
2017
This stings!!
Apparently, a scorpion was found in an United Airline flight. If you are keeping count, this is the second instance in one month. (See here)
In a rich irony, now United is having to drag their passengers back INTO their airplanes 🙂
5 May
2017
More Friday news..
5 May
2017
Friday morning humor.
27 April
2017
Hickey-gem … again…
In the past, you probably have read about my team mate Bob Hickey and his really, really funny comebacks. He is a guy with an incredible sense of humor and presence of mind.
Early this morning, I called him up from the West Coast and went..
Me: “Was it your anniversary yesterday?”
He: “Yes”.
Me: “How many years?”
He: “32 long years”.
Me: “I did not realize that our anniveraries are so close. Mine is tomorrow”.
He: “Oh! How many years for you?”
Me: “Not as long as you. 24.”
Perhaps touched to the quick on that “not as long as you”, in about half a jiffy, he came back with…
“Hey! Rajib, only if my wife agreed, I would be more than happy to step aside and let you catch up to me”.
Again, all you could hear is both of us guffawing on either side of the phone!!!
27 April
2017
See… this is why I foxtrot to office everyday…
After three days of coast to coast meetings, finally dragged myself to the Portland airport (with no help from United Airlines, if you needed to know 🙂 ). After checking in, went thru security and dropped down in a chair at the Delta Skyclub. There was one more hour long video meeting to be done before I could walk into my flight.
Somewhere during the meeting, as my team mate Anand Iyer explained something that has been a practice for quite some time in our company, I asked, rather impatiently – “But that makes no logical sense, right? Why would anybody do it?”.
Anand, much smarter than I – and who obviously agreed with my premise, instead decided to answer the core thesis behind my question. “There have been four Nobel prizes given in recent times to people who have proven that we all behave irrationally”.
I had to take a time out for a few seconds to laugh my heart out.
“Well played, Sir, well played!!”
Sometimes I wonder why do I foxtrot to office every morning – is it because I am surrounded by very smart people or is it because I am surrounded by very funny people…