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09:38 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
September 22, 2013
I met a lady at a dinner the other evening who asked where are you from? I said, Delhi. She said, no, really, I've lived in Delhi for two years, from 2008 to 2010.
I said, that's nice, Delhi must miss you now. She said, oh I loved it, where about do you stay in Delhi.
I said, at Som Vihar down from Vasant Vihar.
She said, oooh, really. I had some great friends in Vee Vee, do you know the Khannas.
I said, no, the pleasure had passed me by seeing as how there were 93 pages of Khannas in the phone book.
She said, but you must know them, Rahul and Ramona, everyone knows them, he's the golfer, you know.
I said, that explains it, golf isn't my game, I'm into squash really.
She said, where do you play squash, my brother plays at the Delhi Gymkhana, do you know him, Bhupinder, they call him Bhoops for short.
I said, Bhoops and I had hostile destinies, never crossed each other, but then I play at the D.K.Club.
She said, oh Shalini and Revti are members there, lovely people, they have a great country home in Mehrauli, stone's throw from Sonia's farm.
I said the D.K. Club had 6000 members so it was just possible we had missed meeting each other and I never got called to anyone's farm.
She said, were you working there in Delhi.
I said, sort of, years ago though my Editor had occasional doubts.
She said, oh newspapers, what fun, then you must know Taufiq and Tarana, he left for America in '95, no, wait a minute, was it '96 because we met last in '93 at Boo Boo's place, you know Boo-Boo and Mohnish Sen, she's a model, where was I, ah yes, Taufiq, it could have been late '95, no, just a sec.....
I said, it didn't really matter when the U.S department of immigration stamped Taufiq's passport since I didn't know him or the Sens or as things were going any of the people she knew, different circles, what.
She said, '96 I am sure because when we were in New York in March we contacted them and he was just finding a place to stay in Virginia, his brother is the author Imtiaz Hasnain, lives in Golf Links with his two greyhounds.
I said, that must be splendid for him and the aging greyhounds though I was more the spaniel type.
She said, funny isn't it, two of us from Delhi, the same place and we can't come up with any common friends.
I said, it wasn't worth fretting about really, after all Delhi had 14,000,000 people and it could happen, not to worry, besides which I wasn't the going out too much type.
She said, the Raos from IBM.
I said, no.
She said, Sheila and Sudhir Chainani, he's in advertising.
I said, no.
She said, the Bhels of Defence Colony.
I shook my head.
She said, Meetu and Shubhida Mundel, he's a banker, she in the airlines, lovely girl though he's a bit uh oh.
I said, now that she mentioned it.
Yes, I believed we had met, they've gone to Bombay now.
She said, yes, they have a son Kunal.
I said, true, quite, we did sort of know each other.
She said, see, I knew we'd get there.
Just then the hostess came up and said, what's all the excitement?
And this lady from Delhi whose name I didn't know said, oh we're from the same place, just catching up with old friends, so much in common, isn't it incredible, it's such a small world !!!
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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