I am in a meeting with someone when his phone rings. “Please take the call, it’s not a problem for me,’ I say. He looks at the name on the screen, grimaces and allows the call to die.
So, of course, an explanation from him is in order.
‘Sir, this fellow is an irritant. He only calls when he needs something.’
We go back to the conversation and, sure enough, the call returns but the phone is now on silent mode. A quarter of an hour later, a third call from the Irritant, again allowed to die.
It is clearly disturbing this guy so I suggest that he take the call if it rings again and offer to call back. His expression suggests a reluctance but when the call recurs for the fourth time, he picks it.
The Irritant needs something again and is clearly restive - for that is evident from the tone - and asks this guy why he didn’t pick the earlier calls; clearly there have been more than four attempts to reach him over the past couple of days.
‘Oh, sorry. I had lost my earlier mobile and now have a new one and have to recreate my phone book. Because of all the spam calls these days, I don’t pick unknown numbers, but I will store your number now,’ he says. He gives me a knowing smile, for we are accomplices in this minor deceit.
The caller does a ‘Hmmm’; he knows this is about as true as reports of a rainbow in pink.
And I wonder - not for the first time - why we Indians lie so smoothly. Even with someone we would rather see stranded in Antarctica in a tracksuit, than in our orbit. And I wonder if he thinks I am to blame for this extraordinary concoction.
Fascinating. Homo sapiens Indicus is a fascinating sub-species.
