Life Depends On The Liver!

Of course! Social drinking, even for women, is a no double-take incident.

To disclose, I am a teetotaler out of anxiety more than principles. You know how my mom is, she thinks I am some degenerate hippy already, if she catches me drinking, she will pack her bags and go on all-India pilgrimage and pray to every rock and idol to fix my brain. I just don’t want to jangle her nerves more than she can take about me. We should do a 'funny parent' (FP) series sometime.

 

Oooh oooo! You should not have done this Cheeniya. No, no! you cannot deflect this thread into a more fun zone.

You may not know but I have a thing for Irish men. Those loud, hard-drinking, playful and salmon-pink blushed men.

Back in the day, when the topography of the land was still confounding, there was this lad at work who was a riot. I inquired slyly, what is about him that makes him so explosive and endearing. “Oh, he is Irish”, was the unanimous response.

I don’t know if it is the stereotyped tipple or the potato love, but —uff! — that Irish brogue is to die for. You should not have brought up Irish in this thread. Now I will go all schmaltzy and Finn MacCool intoxicated. Perhaps the "Irish" fancy was deeper than I realised. Growing up, I was a huge fan of Pierce Brosnan before David Duchovny swayed me away.

 

So, are we onto Irish cart now?

Cheeniya, I am enamoured of Irish. They are jolly and fun. My earliest stint in my career was with playful blokes. I used to miss work on weekends. By today's standards or even then standards, they are roughish at work. They used to evaluate the hem line of my skirt and advise me on grooming. They used to whip up such pranks at work that used to leave me in splits. Mind you, back then I was that slightly diffident and slightly conservative Indian lass.

Let's say it was one rambunctious and waggish rugby team I worked with. Not one email would be of any serious tone. We used to outsource a lot of work to companies in India. The only befuddling emails at work would be from the project managers in Indian companies who will write in a formal tone that discombobulates my Hebrides gang.

Ira, why does everyone in India write in a notary diction like they are composing the legal constitution of a nation. I shrug my shoulders withholding the fact that we are trained to play-act "leave letters" at school. Dear Sir .....(mouthful of formal sounding jargon ) Thanks and Regards and Kind Hearts (x)

I did mention somewhere that there was lot of un-learning in terms of diction and mannerism when I landed in this country which can be attributed to this league of mischievous gentlemen. Oh! That was such a lively group. And of course there are Irish and Gaelic throbs who will make even our hatchet-wielding Temperance activist Carrie Nation swoon.

P.S: Believe me when I say my conversations at work are in the same tempo, temper and humour that I share here with you. Not one 'serious/formal' email ever goes out from my inbox. Further, everyone is like me at work, wacky and silly. It is the urbane project managers from India who scare the hell out of us with their techno-rich flamboyant notes.

 

I think I mentioned this somewhere that the initial years are troubling for an immigrant to culturally assimilate at work. I am someone who grew up watching Chitrahaar and Shaktimaan. I had peers who watched Mecha and Eurovision. It takes time to skewer that gap. Also, one advantage of working in international teams is that you are exposed to Romanian fables to Turkish comics to Walter Benjamin’s Denkbilds all in fun and chatty emails. I have learned so much just from oblique and fun emails at work. It is a different matter that my porous brain cannot retain everything I hear or read.

 

You nailed it!

Haha! That is a good one. Smart and witty! I’ve have never heard that one.

Dave Allen is the poster boy for Irish sacrilegious comedy. He is the only one I know who could make a whiskey slur while holding ginger ale. Check out here.