Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Death of a Joke

A sad, sad day. Never knew why I shouldn’t Google too much and think things through till I fry my brains. Well I do, now.

There’s this guy I met a couple of years back. He liked to think of me as plump. I liked to think he exaggerates. Until that day when he suddenly turned to me and said…

Guy: Seriously, join a gym.
Me: Convince me.
Guy: Well once you work out, you’ll not just lose weight, but it will make you happy.
Me: Who says I’m not happy? And you mean because of my body image? I don’t care if some guy falls for my figure. It has to be about…
Guy: Brains and personality, yeah yeah yeah I know all that crap.
Me: Excuse me?
Guy: Hear.
Me. Out. Once you work out, you will rise.
Me: I’m sorry?
Guy: Arre you will rise yaar.. above!
Me: You mean.. in his eyes?
Guy: You will rise so high that you won’t need a boyfriend. You will be that happy. Nothing will matter anymore.
Me: Oh wait I get it. You mean endorphins, right? Endorphins are going to get released in the body? Yeah I heard..
Guy: Dolphins?

There. That did it. I mean how could a guy in his twenties imagine dolphins jumping around inside the body? The evidence was too strong and quickly laid the foundation of overwhelming sympathy. An overpowering surge of something close to pity for what I saw as “an addled brain”. “An immature individual”. “A baby”. And of course, a legendary “simpleton”. A whole bunch of labels came flying out of nowhere. I stand convicted of having judged him that day. And every day since then. Like a friend, of course.

Today, I googled, looking for a possible connection between dolphins and gyms. On a hunch. You know what? Turns out the Dolphin Fitness Clubs are a chain in the United States of America. His mind had simply sprinted ahead into technicalities whereas I had taken him literally. The logo is right there for you to see in the photograph above.

I feel terrible. No, not because my friend had the last laugh. But because he took away a perfectly good joke away from me. And countless memories. Dammit! How am I supposed to laugh at him now?

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