The Point: The damndest thing

Monday, April 21, 2008

The damndest thing

So, apropos of nothing, a story.

This weekend, I went to a big Bengali New Year to-do in Toronto. Big event, lots of samosas, harmoniums everywhere, kids running around waiting to get back to their ipods in the car. And I'd really been looking forward to it. I went to the concert two years ago, and last summer my friend Muniq, whose parents perform in it every year, brought me back a panjabi she'd picked up while they were visiting. It's basically a really long loose shirt, nice buttons up the front, and convenient pockets at the side for your matches, your moustache wax, whatever.

The concert goes great. She and her sister and her cousin and I have a blast tagging off selling CDs outside the hall and ducking in to see the performance. When I get to the auditorium I feel ever-so-slightly self conscious being the "fairest" dude there by about seventeen shades but I meet lots of aunties and uncles and it ends up being a great time. Afterward, her cousin says he wants to go to Denny's. So we go home to Brampton and drop off our stuff, and Muniq and her sister change out of their saris and we drive down for the all-day breakfast.

We're looking at the menus, and Muniq and I are flexitarian so we decide to get a veggie omelette and the other two go for the same. The waiter comes by, takes our order, looks at us - Muniq's cousin and I still in our panjabis, the other two in sweaters or whatever - and he says:

White toast or brown?

I think I was still laughing when the onion rings arrived.

Labels: life, toronto

posted by Christopher at 1:15 p.m.

2 Comments:

ahhahaha. that is funny. but i didn't actually just laugh out loud or anything, as you'd already told me the punch line the other day.

Anonymous, at Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:47:00 p.m.

Haha, I appreciate the clarification. It would be an unfortunate thing if we'd been under some misapprehensions about that laugh.

Hope your trip back to the land of free refills is eventful and restful, Jayme. All at the same delicious time.