Monday 20 January 2014

St. Stephens vs the rest

So in the initial years of our marriage when my wife, Sonu, with a hint of pride, would say that 'I went to college' I would wonder and respond by saying 'So what! We all went there.' It was a little later I realized she meant St. Stephens college as if the rest of us went to tented colleges with open air loos'. More of the rib tickling stuff was in store when recently along with Sonu, I attended the annual Stephens get together with spouses in Mumbai. Having studied in the nearby ‘rowdy’ Khalsa college, I felt like a guerrilla walking into enemy territory. A crusty old Stephenian and a good friend of ours remarked ‘An author from Khalsa? That’s strange! Are you authoring the basic English alphabet?”
Okay so we can all laugh about this but it is difficult to laugh when a character like Mani Shankar Aiyar uses his ‘college’ background to run down Ajay Maken and make tasteless ‘tea vendor’ remarks about Modi. The fine line between genuine mirth and malicious commenting has to be observed.

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