A couple, whom we had known for a while, invited us for dinner. It was really nice of them to do so and after a quick background verification, we accepted the invitation. If you are wondering, what kind of verification I do before accepting dinner invitations; well it’s just to ensure that the dinner isn’t a trap to coax me into joining an Amway, Quikstar, Goldquest etc kind of MLM scheme. And how do I go about doing my verification? Well it’s simple. I just ask my host directly – “Are you a member of Amway, Quikstar, or any such kind of MLM/membership schemes? If yes then during or after dinner, or anytime later, will you pester me to join the scheme?”. Well in this case there were no hidden agendas and the dinner invitation was a genuine friendly gesture of their part.

Our hosts were very hospitable. The dinner was nice, and the dessert was nicer. While we were enjoying the dessert the lady host suddenly said “Hey, let me show you something” and run off to her room. I was almost certain that she would return with a big fat album of their wedding pictures. I have actually never understood people’s obsession behind showing others their wedding pictures, even after years of marriage. And they won’t just let you flip through the album, but rather ensure that you understand every minute detail about those pictures – understand how everyone in those pictures is related to wedded couple, some behind the scenes info on what happened while the rituals were being performed, sometimes the story goes off on a tangent detailing what some of those people in the photograph are currently doing in life, and so on. Anyways, I thought, since our hosts had been nice to us, I wouldn’t mind sitting through the ordeal of watching their wedding album, and pretend that I am enjoying it. Moreover I wanted a second helping of the dessert as well (the dessert was really nice).

As I was coming out of my thoughts, I saw our host walking into the room with a big book in hand. It wasn’t their wedding album. (That was a relief). It was a sketch book. Apparently our host had taken up sketching and painting as a hobby, and she wanted us to have a look at her art work. Now to be really frank, I am not a connoisseur of art. I don’t really understand the finer nuances of art and artistry. But nevertheless, I still started browsing through those abstract sketches and paintings, pretending to like them. On one occasion I even said “Wow, this is nice”, but when our host asked me “Oh really, what did you like in the painting?” I realized that I better not go overboard with my compliments. So to evade the situation I just said “I like the colors you have used, they look very lively.” I guess the compliment was a good one. There was a beaming smile on our host face and I thought this was the right time for me to ask for a second helping of the dessert.

But like they say ‘There’s many a slip between cup and lip’. Before I could come up with my request for more dessert, our host had flipped the page of her book. On this new page was a sketch of a pair of eyes. And as I was staring at them, our host popped up a question “Guess whose eyes are these?”. ‘Now that’s a tough one’, I thought. How do I know whose eyes are these? I looked around the room to see if there were any pictures of people around. There were none. Then on the corner table I saw a copy of the magazine ‘India Today’ with a picture of Amitabh Bachchan on it. ‘Bingo! That’s where she had copied those eyes from’ was what I thought, and without even the slightest hesitation I announced “These are Amitabh’s eyes”. “Whose?” asked my host. “Amitabh Bachchan” I said, loud and clear.

There was silence in the room for a moment. The lady kept staring at me for a while, and after a few second she managed to speak up. “No, these aren’t Amitabh’s eyes. These are my eyes. I drew it looking at one of my own pictures”, she revealed; the disappointment very obvious on her face. ‘Oh boy, I need to do some serious damage control now’ was what I was thinking when suddenly the lady’s husband, who all this while was just a silent spectator to our art appreciation parade, burst out laughing. My wife tried to console her saying that I am not good at recognizing pictures and all, but that didn’t help. I also tried to cover up saying that I always felt Amitabh had girly eyes, but that didn’t work either. I knew I had messed up. The damage has already been done.

Why did that magazine have a cover picture of Amitabh? Why couldn’t they just have Aishwarya Rai’s picture on it?. I sat there cursing those India Today guys as I stared at my empty bowl of desert. No, I didn’t ask for the second helping.