Random Musings

We all go through awkward moments in our lives. Maybe not everyday but in regular intervals of time. But when it does happen, we simply hope the moment goes away and we forget about it. We do we hide from them? Why dont we just try to come to terms with it? I have tried to chronicle some of them that has happened to me.

1. You meet your friend (level of friendship- acquaintance) on the street, (both of you come from opposite direction). Both of you stop and make some chit chat. You talk all you can , exhaust every subject until there is nothing else left to talk about. Finally, you both mutually and tacitly agree that its time to hit the road.

But then to yours and his/her (yea applies even to girls too, more awkward) shock, both of you are now heading in the same direction . Whats the reason? Maybe one you realised you forgot something from home or something. Now this is really wierd, you have to walk along him the whole way again until one of you hopefully branches off to the left/right. You are again obliged to make some forced conversation with him. But remember you talked about everything under the sun even that time when you cut your toe nail 2 inches too deep. So damn awkward now.

One solution to this is you either walk slower or faster than the other guy and hopefully fading away into the crowd.

2. You or/and your friend are at a restaurant. You head out to a table that has just been used and park yourself there. You see the table still has the half filled tumblers of water of the previous guy who ate. You kinda signal to the cleaner guy to clean the table, you dont want to do it as you feel guilty that this guy who is probably 10 years old has to clean tables for a living, while your bill for the meal is what he earns in a month.
(Awk moment-1)

After that unpleasent scene, are all set to order. But now the next challenge lies ahead. Getting the Waiters attention. I have been told that you can't do any of the following to address the waiter as it is considered rude. -

• Raising one's hand

• Shouting 'Waiter!' in the most dignified manner loud enough for him to hear you but low enough so that people dont stare and see what a ****** you are,
  

• 'Clicking' your fingers(the action where the thumb and the middle finger join to make a 'clicking' noise, hence called so).
  

So what else is there? By experience I have decided that the only way left is Catching the eye of the waiter. You have to raise your head high and look at any waiter who is not busy and stare until you see the whites of his eyes. Then a small inperceptible nod will clinch it and if he feels you are really worth a tip, he comes over. Another complication is this guy will thrust the menu on you and ask you for your order now. You need time , to make an informed decision after examining the menu in detail. You hope in vain he goes away giving you and your friend[s] time, but he obstinately stares at you and does not budge. You have to order now or you dont get food. Again this arises out of guilt that someone has to stand and wait on you and serve you as, probably the rich punk you are you make 10 times his wages.

Finally after you rush off your order, you stealthly glance at the guy near you(not your friend, he is as bad as you, but other tables) and you see he has ordered something scrumptious which is what you would have ordered if it wasn't for the waiters mind games and your inaptitudeness to make a decision. You can choose the right option in a DERRIDA Reading Comprehension where all of them are practically the same thing; but lo behold you cant choose what you want to eat. Fast Forward to the end of the meal and again the complex riddle of tipping comes into play. I'm not even going to go there.



If you think you have undertipped him, you leave the tip, steal 5 toothpicks+handful of that green minty stuff and run away before he can come and see the pittance you have left behind- the thanks that you have given him for his 30 mins of serving you like a slave! How does sucha waiter look- this guy here looks really pissed off ^^ , seems a close match.


3.This happened about a month back. I was on Yahoo! Msg and this dude just popped in says 'Hey, Im your batchmate from scmhrd, saw you on PG'(thats pagalguy.com not Parental guidance I aint in no movie..yet!). The thing is this dude had a real wierd name which I dont want to obv reveal here. Lets say his nick was - dude. This is how the conversation went after some general chit chat.


Me : So..You play comp.games?
Dude: Not really

Me: (Oh dang), Read Fiction Books?
Dude: Just the papers and some magazines

Me: (Aw man, gimme somthing here!) Did u see the cricket match ? We owned Pakistan!
Dude: I stopped watching cricket, its quite boring now.


Me: (Final straw, I decided to bring in the heavy artillery, girls which every guy has some interest in ;p) So..I heard pune full of cute girls huh? (I was desperate!!)

Dude: *Stunned Silence* I came to Scmhrd to do my MBA and I suggest you do the same.

*exit stage left*

Turns out the dude was in fact a dudette.

OWNED.

Posted by Raghav on Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 10:28 PM | Permalink