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This very thing happened to me yesterday.
The same friend who was bored, and I were chatting on WhatsApp about earth shaking matters like The New Gilded Age when suddenly he asked me if I played online quiz games.
A little background – my friend who is also a cousin twice removed, and I lost touch with each other following my leaving Chennai in 1958 and have reestablished contact only since the last few years during one of my visits to Chennai. We are yet to catch up with many things that happened to us during all those years and we are in the process.
After that question the discussion went something like this:
I: No. I don’t have the time and in any case I am mentally challenged.
F: Have you always been mentally challenged?
I: Yes, at least from 1968 when I got married. My late mother in law told me that I was mentally challenged when I asked for her daughter’s hand.
F: I thought that the best thing that you ever did was to get married to U!
I: Yes, but her mother did not think so. She was convinced that I was making a mistake.
F: Was your Mother In Law, mentally challenged?
I; No, she retired as a very senior bureaucrat and was just so clear in her mind that I was nuts for wanting to marry her daughter, just like my late mother was when she told my late wife that she was nuts for marrying me. (Incidentally, my late mother and my friend’s late mother were first cousins.)
The topic then wandered off to his own marriage and forwarding of photographs etc. He diplomatically did not agree or try to persuade me to try to play the game though he sent me an exchange he had with another player against whom he had won a game.
He must have felt that otherwise, such intellectually stimulating chats will come to an end! I suspect that he realised which side of the bread was buttered and dropped the subject.
And that brings me to this lovely story.
Two sages of Chelm got involved in a deep philosophical argument.
“Since you’re so wise,” said one, sarcastically, “try to answer this question: Why is it that when a slice of buttered bread falls to the ground, it’s bound to fall on the buttered side?”
But as the other sage was a bit of a scientist he decided to disprove this theory by a practical experiment. He went and buttered a slice of bread. Then he dropped it.
“There you are!” he cried triumphantly. “The bread, as you see, hasn’t fallen on its buttered side at all. So where is your theory now?”
“Ho-ho!” laughed the other, derisively. “You think you’re smart! You buttered the bread on the wrong side!”
That story about the buttered bread rings true. 😀 I know too many people who think that way. No sense arguing.
No, but why not be amused?
LOLOL!!!
on all counts.
I guess I’m just in a mood tonight. much laughter here.
I have been mathematically challenged my whole life. they never knew what to do with me. I read and enjoyed english at an upper high school level when I was 10. but my math skills were at a 4th grade level… far below my own grade.
your mother in law was a hoot as they say. I can’t imagine anyone more lovely for you than urmeela! what a strange thing for her to say. she surely didn’t mean it and was only kidding!
tammy j recently posted..moving on old bean
Some background Tammy. Urmeela was a much adored sister to three brothers who were all my friends. I used to call her mother Mummy too for eight years before our marriage. It was not only her mother but, also her brothers who thought that both of us were bad for each other just as my mother thought too because both of us were free birds with high sense of independence and set in our own ways. We got married as a lark and the love came later.
I’m sure I’ve heard some version of that story before—utterly charming! I wonder if a scientist familiar with the law of probability would come to the same conclusion!
Still the Lucky Few recently posted..Christmas Cards: Do you care enough to send the very best?
It has never happened to me and I am almost 75!
but is it only bread that should be buttered a certain way 🙂 could it relate to where you place certain food stuffs on a place…and the subject is endless.
actually the whole subject of living and life is endless…we all have such differing views on the “matters”
And as long as we do not let value judgements influence our lives, they will do just fine.