Pay In A Different Coin

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After marriage, my friend’s Mom and Dad were in a function hosted by one of the friends of his dad.

Now, his dad was this shy, introvert and quiet kind of person with a broken English, born and brought up in a rural area, who then shifted to Madras now Chennai (with family) during high school and somehow made himself to be a Chartered Accountant.

Whereas, his mom was this outspoken, extrovert and tomboy type of lady, born and brought up in a defence background, who had an amazing command over languages and was known to be an awesome debater and speaker in her school and college days.

So, the function that his mom and dad were attending had many of his college friends. One of his college friends, who was known to be a bullish, over-confident and narcissistic kind of person, happened to pass by his mom and dad.

“Hey Bathla,” he said, “Never knew a guy like you would get married one day and that too, to a lady like her.”

And then, he started laughing.

“Damn, now I feel ashamed of myself,” he continued.

My friend’s dad didn’t know what to say or how to react and kept mum to such an insult.

Whereas my friend’s mom gave a broad smile to that guy and said, “Oh please, don’t be ashamed of who you are.”

The guy gave her puzzled look.

“I mean, being ashamed of you is your parent’s job, right?,” she said with a smile that was bordering on savage.

And from that day, that guy never dared to talk with or tease my friend’s dad.