Do you have kids?

Well, this happened about ten years ago. It was the time when I was trying to settle down in the US. Before coming to the US,I lived with my family (duh! Everybody lives with ther family..) but the difference is I lived in a joint family (which was becoming uncommon even during those days.. Tell me about it now). The reason for my precursor is that, I was so much of a "pazham"while in India and never went to a restaurant that served meat (mutton, chicken etc. I will write a seperate posting about an experience.).

Back to what I was saying... It was the first time that I had to interact with friends who are not actually your "close friends" but"just" friends. So, I was being careful with not only with the fellow Indians but also with Americans (well, I have to be careful even now but I know the moves now so don't have to be "too" careful). In this situation, I happened to befriend two Americans inmy work place. One used to be very naughty (Pat) & playful and the other used to be calm & quiet (Gat). Both of them admired Indiansespeically me (varey wah!). Hence the time I was working there was real fun.

We were sharing an Office along with another fellow Indian who is really well educated (M. Tech. from IIT Karagpur) and he was real fun for us as he was not even as streetsmart as I was! Let's name him Amar.

One day Pat asked Amar, "Do you have children?". For this Amar replied "I am not married". Thinking that his accent was too much for Amar, Pat this time asked slowly "D o y o u h a v e c h i l d r e n ?"! Amar replied the same "I am not married".

This time Pat got kinda mad at himself, for he asked something to Amar that Amar didn't like the question plus he wasn'tsure if he understood Pat. So this time, Pat told me to tell this to Amar as Amar seems to have understood my accent (!).Amar, again responded the same way "I am not married.".

Gat was watching us all the way through and apparently he was looking at me. By then I understood what Pat meant and at the same time what Amar thought in his mind. I was trying hard not to laugh but somehow I lost the edge and started giggling. Now, Pat looked at me in a weird way and was asking me "So you knew what he was saying and you didn't tell me about it?". I responded to Pat that it is Indian thing, or better yet, the eastern thing. Now, Gat started realizing Amar's response andstarted laughing too.

This put off Pat and he got kinda mat at us and started cursing in American slang and asked us in loud voice what the hell was going on? After a brief pause, Amar tried to compose himself and said "How can I have kids if I am not married?".

Needless to say Pat joined our laughter. And Amar never got it.