The interviewer (Wer) joined me as I was walking along the track in our local park.
The interviewee (YT) was yours truly.
Wer: Hello, may I join you?
YT: Sure, if you don’t mind my slow pace.
Wer: I am not very fast either. Why do you carry the cane?
YT: Both my hips have been replaced and revised.
Wer: Oh? Why? An accident?
YT: You can say that.
Wer: I have been seeing you and your friends here the last few days and wanted to get to know you. You seem to get the others to laugh all the time.
YT: Yes. Otherwise, we tend to talk about all our old age problems.
Wer: You don’t look all that old.
YT: Thank you. I am closer to the seventies than the sixties.
Wer: I am sixty two.
YT: You look much younger if I may say so.
Wer: Why, thank you. That is very nice to hear.
YT: My pleasure.
Wer: I am Maya. What is your name?
YT: Ramana.
Wer: Maharashtrian?
YT: No, Tamilian.
Wer: I would have never guessed. You look more like a North Indian.
YT: Yes, I have been told that.
Wer: What do you Ramana?
YT: Nothing. I am retired.
Wer: From government service?
YT: No, private service. I was a salesman.
Wer: Oh! I thought that you would be a senior official.
YT: Sorry to disappoint you.
Wer: No, that’s all right. Where do you live?
YT: Just down the road. In xyz society.
Wer: Oh, those are three bedroom houses aren’t they?
YT: Yes.
Wer: And you live all alone in one of those big flats?
YT: No, my 93-year-old father and my 39-year-old son also live in the same place.
Wer: Oh: Must be very interesting.
YT: You bet.
Wer: Nice to meet you. I have finished walking for today. See you later.
YT: Nice meeting you too. Bye.
Wer: Bye.
On joining my friends after my walk, I was in for some ribbing as was to be expected.
The next day, the inside story about this interview emerged. The lady recently has relocated to Pune after the passing away of her husband and lives alone. She had come to know from one of the regulars in the park that I was an eligible bachelor! When she came to know from me that my hips had been replaced and revised and that I had my father and my son living with me, she was most annoyed with her source of information about my single status.
I see her on an off even now, two weeks after the interview. She nods and gives a brief smile and goes on her way.
Maria (SF) what advise would you give her?
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