Surely You're Joking, My Dear Mom
I can write tons of blogposts about conversations between son-in-law (read: Niket) and mother-in-law (read: my mom). Here's an unforgettable gem.
MIL: I was reading "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" the other day. Very nice book. Richard Feynman very much reminded me of you.
SIL: (Thinking: Oh dear FSM, this statement is worse than that made by any of my students. How am I supposed to respond to this?) Aloud: Aai, do you realize that you are comparing me to one of the world's most renowned, Nobel-prize winning physicist, who is an excellent teacher and researcher. There is no way I can live up to that image.
MIL: I meant, his experiences with teaching, research, students etc reminded me of your experiences...
When I heard about this conversation, my first reaction was- exactly why did she think about N? Was it really because of his teaching, research, students etc., or was it because of his (I meant Feynman's) fondness for topless bars? ;-)
This is the typical blind admiration that is usually reserved by parents for their sons or daughters; or these days- for their sons-in-law or daughters-in-law. I can almost imagine the conversation between my mom and some other two MILs.
Random MIL-1: My SIL is so great that he has now become the President of the Friendship Cricket Club.
Random MIL-2: My SIL is so great, so great, that he has now become the President of this big company in the US.
Subject MIL (my mom): My SIL is sooo great, that he will some day win the Nobel prize!
My mom sure has a lot of expectations from my dear husband. FSM help him!
MIL: I was reading "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" the other day. Very nice book. Richard Feynman very much reminded me of you.
SIL: (Thinking: Oh dear FSM, this statement is worse than that made by any of my students. How am I supposed to respond to this?) Aloud: Aai, do you realize that you are comparing me to one of the world's most renowned, Nobel-prize winning physicist, who is an excellent teacher and researcher. There is no way I can live up to that image.
MIL: I meant, his experiences with teaching, research, students etc reminded me of your experiences...
When I heard about this conversation, my first reaction was- exactly why did she think about N? Was it really because of his teaching, research, students etc., or was it because of his (I meant Feynman's) fondness for topless bars? ;-)
This is the typical blind admiration that is usually reserved by parents for their sons or daughters; or these days- for their sons-in-law or daughters-in-law. I can almost imagine the conversation between my mom and some other two MILs.
Random MIL-1: My SIL is so great that he has now become the President of the Friendship Cricket Club.
Random MIL-2: My SIL is so great, so great, that he has now become the President of this big company in the US.
Subject MIL (my mom): My SIL is sooo great, that he will some day win the Nobel prize!
My mom sure has a lot of expectations from my dear husband. FSM help him!
posted by Pradnya at 11:16 PM
4 Comments:
Just need to correct the record:
1. "worse than that made by any of my students"
Not true. My only thought was how do I control my laughter and reply politely that the analogy is quite misplaced.
2. "There is no way I can live up to that image."
Again, not quite so. I remember my statement... it was more like: "Aai, you are comparing a Nobel winning physicists, recognised as one of the smartest in the second half of the previous century to someone -- if we can be frank about it -- who has nearly zero accomplishments to his credit that can be suitably compared to Feynman's."
Hey, common on. I was just trying to be funny when I wrote about the students part. About the second part, I paraphrased it from memory; I didnt remember the exact statement. I forgot to mention that in the blogpost.
I hear you Pradnya.. With my PILs here, I have gone through a couple of my own experiences here... We've subscriptions to SJ Mercury news and he reads that from page 1 to page 430 (including all the adverts). One day he asked me how my job was etc., (I just'd completed my MBA then). Then he proposed that I should apply for a position he read about in SJM. Guess what that news was?.."Jerry Yang stepped down as the CEO of Yahoo!" I wish I'd come in contact with him when I was a kid. I could have used some of this ego booster then ;-)
Haha.. good one Sai. You should have done that. Go for the big one!
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