This is how...

... You get your rather largish foot in your even larger mouth!

It so happened that Manager Uncle became Daddy for the first time.
It was a 10.30 status meet where everyone was congratulating him. I was blissfully unaware of the news, and befuddled I asked "what's the occasion". Someone took pity on me and told me "He's become a dad". With my brain - at the wrong time- going numb for no reason whatsoever, I exclaimed (almost a direct question to him), "When did that happen". And he calmly asks me, "when did WHAT happen?"

But the story doesn't end there. I couldn't figure out the reason for his response. Remember, my brains were numb. I was perplexed. Puzzled. Befuddled. I was wondering do babies make daddies go nuts that they can't answer a simple question. My question, afterall, was really really straightforward. And the though process went on, in that vein.

Finally, in the evening, I tell a friend that I felt Manager Uncle's been behaving funny. He's lost it. He's gone nuts. He doesn't know what he's saying. And my friend Mohit was probably wondering if I need to be taken in for psychiatric treatment. Then I tell him the entire story. Even more calmly than what Manager Uncle had responded, Mohit says, "If I were him, I'd have answered your question with - it happened 9 months ago". Oops... then it hit home. A good 8 hours after the blessed response.

You can call me intelligent :)