Deja vu all over again

having lunch with work colleagues at the tipu sultan subway and in walks a family with a guy that i am sure i have seen somewhere.

for a moment i think he is coming towards me to shake my hand and he has recognized me putting me out of my misery.

he turns away and sits down on the next table, i settle into mine, embarrased, my mind working overtime the supposedly terrific memory i thought i had

is he from the old school, college, from days spent outside pakistan or some bastard who owes me money. 

if you are in sales you have your quota of morons, maybe he is one of the several i had the misfortune of knowing.  i ought to be careful with smiling at strangers.

these days i am having fun with this line i read somewhere that "if you want to confuse people, just smile", which is working beautifully at work, people come to me with crisis situations and i have wierd smile on my face, half of them realize the folly of seeking my advise and make a hasty uturn

my colleague sitting in the next cubicle is aware of the crap i am pulling, gets a kick out of these situation. these days someone comes to me with a masla and in addition to this smile he gets a volley of 'ghunpat rai' and 'dehli mai rehta hai' questions. 

this colleague has a huge database of jokes, the current favourite being about a sardar jee the groom and lucknow ka nawab the father in law. so the nawab asks the sardar jee a day after his daughter marries the sardar, that aap nay beti ko kaysa paaya and the sardar jee goes 'papa jee haik varee agoon paya tay do varee pichoon paaya'. 

this week this line 'aap nay beti ko kaysa paya' is doing the rounds at work

Recommended listening for the week
(1) sound track to 'The Straight Story', composer is Angelo Badalamenti (of the Twin Peaks fame), this movie is highly recommended if you are into artsy stuff, captures the experience of driving on a highway in the US to perfection. If you like movies that are beautifully crafted (like Fargo), then you would love this one.
(2) Samba Pa Ti by Carlos Santana, this one transports me to another time and place, images of hot sultry brooklyn summers in the 70's making love while the music plays on