This was more of a low-key event. Just a few close friends and my extended family. The glamour factor was dialed way down. I didn’t bother greasing my hair and wore a simple shalwar kameez. The same could be said about my other half. Again we were segregated and I had to sit in the boys section. Lucky for me I also invited some friends from the neighborhood to keep me company. They’re all computer geeks and were talking about their jobs and cell phones.
I really wanted to sit down with them and talk tech but I couldn’t. I had to play host.
That meant I had to “mingle”. Was everyone comfortable? Did everyone get enough to eat? And most importantly was everyone having a good time? This required me to be witty. Something that I can do only for a certain amount of time. After that I run out of things to say.
That’s when I decided to sit down with my posse. We delved into the finer points of executing a jar file. One guy did a quick web search on his handheld and came up with some authoritative info. Who can argue with that? We moved on to dissecting AJAX. I came up with some choice counter arguments when my dad came over and told me to get up. “You’re guests are leaving!”
My Vulcan cap was firmly in place and I was wondering what these “guest” were. A puzzled look was met with a harsh response “I want you at the door, now!”
“Okay” I waddled over and mechanically said “Goodbye, thanks for coming.” If I was coordinated enough I even through in a handshake. Then she came.
“Salam, I’ll be seeing you.”
“hmmm”
“Probably on Eid”
“Yeah Eid…heh”
"Okay, bye now"
"errr?"
And that was that. I replayed the transcript in my mind and felt like such a dork. Damn you Vulcan cap!!!
At times it’s my single best ally like when I am tearing into a programmer for not following procedure. And other times it’s a curse reducing me to a walking talking nerd with no social skills. I am unable to find and put on my "Santana" cap as fast as I would like to. Which really pisses me and other people off.
Lucky for me those that know me expect this kind of behavior. They understand that I'll be off in lala land at times ("He's up in space." as my mom puts it). They know that I am not giving them a cold shoulder and will come around in time. I suppose that’s what counts.
4 comments:
We still need geek pictures. Of you and your buddies in your nice clothes playing dueling PDAs! :)
I'm glad you had a fun time, even if the social stuff was odd.
there on my cousins camera i am waiting for him to make me a cd.
Dear Saqib's cousin:
Please, we want to see pictures. We like your cousin. We respectfully request that you deliver them to him soon. So he can forget to post them. Then we can blame him for no pictures.
Sincerely,
The UCF
hahaha... man weddings and relatives are like this... you have to realize that in our culture we make extravagant plans and promises with relatives when ever we meet on such occasions... but the good thing is that they know just as well that you promising to stop by next weekend for a hot serving of fried pakoras that your aunty is so good at making... would be just your way of being polite (so don't actually show up!)
;]
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