The flock flocketh...

I should invest in an global positioning satellite system. And tag everyone remotely associated with my office. Everyday I get asked questions - "Where is A? Is she coming to office today? Where is P? Where are the bosses? Are they coming to office? Where is...."

I cannot for the life of me fathom why I should know the answers to these endless queries. I tried telling folks politely that I don't have a GPS tracking device attached to my colleagues and bosses, neither can I read their minds, nor do they keep me informed of their whereabouts on a minute by minute basis.

But still people flock towards me. Even when the office is choc-a-block with people, these souls will unerring head towards me. And when I wear headphones to drown the incessant chatter, they will still come and ask me all these questions which I can't hear. So I'm forced to remove said headphones and go "What?". And of course, thick and fast come the standard queries that make me grind my teeth and bare them in a facsimile of a smile.

What to do? I put up a sign on the noticeboard next to me, "I am not my brother's keeper. I do not know where people are."

And still they flock-eth away. I need to move to the outer Mongolia...but I'm sure they will still find me.

We are second only...

My mother was taking a break from work in Pudukottai and decided to visit the local museum. Its apparently badly curated, filled with a lot of random junk from stuffed animals to Mughal miniature paintings (probably fake ones). The stuffed animals will thrilling rare creatures like mynahs and crows. And of course the labels accompanying the animals was full of information - CROWS, MYNAHS.

Same went for the armoury - random cannons (marked CANNONS), and spears. The highlight was the guy in charge proudly told mother mine that the museum was second only to the one in Egmore, Chennai. Second in what? Second only madam. Egmore is first.

Make what you will of that! And then there was the brilliant Mughal miniature of some female and a musical instrument aptly titled, "Mughal miniature showing musical instrument with lady".

The world is my brother...

I had just climbed a mountain in Himachal with a couple of friends and friend's friends. After a tiring hike up and down the mountain, we were recovering over cups of hot tea and maggi, when the talk veered to tiger conservation. And one of the friend's friends, a guy named P was talking about his office - a wildlife NGO in Delhi. I remembered my aunt mentioning some cousin who worked in the same place. She had in fact told me to get in touch with said cousin. Not that I had, obviously. So I asked P if he knew this chap, A. And P does a double take and says, thats me! I'm A.

Rather confused, I said but you're P! It turns out he is A P Z! So I asked him if his mom was called, L and he had aunts, R and J and an grandmother called R... It was P's turn to be confused. Finally it turns out we are third cousins! What are the odds? Looks like I'm related to half the world. Wherever I go I bump into family. As a friend insists, this could only happen to me!!!