Excuse Me!! Do I know you??

Was Saturday morning, the 8th of April, had a game of cricket in the morning and went to get some snacks from the very phamus ‘Chaat Café’ around the corner of where I live in Fremont.
And suddenly my eyes went on this innocent looking helpless individual who was trying his level best to grasp something being explained intensely to him by a particular messenger. A messenger, hmm, what special message could this individual be conveying. First look at him and a thought runs in my mind, ‘hey have seen hundreds like him in the malls, in the cinemas houses, in the temple, in the... well virtually everywhere, ok, got this much , but who the hell are these guys.

The first look an Indian gives to his brother the so called Desi in the US, when you bump into each other in the streets, the malls , well the list is endless ( we are everywhere ) is a snort, a look which means ‘ Look at you!! What the hell are you doing in the US of A, go back to India’. But let me try recreating the experience I went through. Was visiting the well known Arora Temple in the suburbs of Chicago when this individual (or should I call him a messenger) walks up to me and goes...

He: ‘hey, I think I have seen you somewhere, are you from Bangalore’. (Wow, that’s a new and innovative way to strike a conversation.)
Me: Well, Bangalore, hmmm, dude have been there only once in my lifetime.
He: oh, but still I think I have seen you somewhere. (Guess I am much more phamus then I thought  )
Me: well, maybe (thinking, is he the next lead for BrokeBack Mountain by any chance)
He: Well this is my card, I work for an IT firm here, give a call sometime, May I have your card/number



Don’t know what prompted me to go ahead and give him my number, guess that was the mistake for the Day (I would prefer saying Day here, as I end up messing something or the other each day). And there I get a call from him, lets meet up, I have a very nice business proposition for you. Business Proposition, wow, never dreamt that I could be a business man this fast. So I did end up meeting him after all. And there in the typical calm and composed manner he removes a yellow colored (note the color here, its common for all the messengers) file and starts off with the so called proposition.

There goes the explanation, the charts, the profits, and the list is endless, don’t even recollect the whole stuff now. Somehow got rid of him and packed my bags after a couple of months and headed to CA. All’s cool here, new job, new place and one day out of the blue an individual (a desi – need I mention this??) walks up, strikes a conversation and invites me over to a get together. Hmm, interesting, get together haan?

This is something new. First thought… maybe there’s gonna be fun, some partying, some girls. I have to go there. Okay so I get a call from him the next week stating that he wants to meet me. Well I meet him and there’s no one else, I was like, did he mention ‘Get together’ or ‘get TWO gether’ (sorry for the poor joke). I was like, alrite and headed to a desi place and grabbed a samosa. And what does this chap remove from his bag?? A yellow folder and a pen... Damn, I knew very well what’s coming up.

I drifted the conversation to some other level ( am a glib talker , gifted if I may call it.. finds me in trouble a lot of times though ), finished the plate of Samosa, made the chap pay the check and left on the note that I would certainly meet him….

What?? Did I really say that? Cos even today when I happen to see that chap (can recognize him from a mile away) just start running in the opposite direction, hoping that someone else with a yellow folder is not waiting for me there 

So Beware folks, they are everywhere ……