Faux Pas

Faux Pas-An embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation.

Have you done this to someone recently?
Or did you ever do this?

I did this as a tiny tot, when I walked away with a woman, thinking she was my mom. She was holding apples in her hands as did my mom. Hence the confusion.
She said, "Huh?"
I ran full speed back to my mom, highly embarrassed.

I used to give tuition to two small kids, as a teen. We were seated in the verandah, which was enclosed and made into a room. Dad took out his scooter, started it and soon took off to his destination. After five minutes Dad's brother, who lived with us then, and who looked a carbon copy of him, came out of the living room, opened the main door and went out too.
One bewildered kid looked at me and exclaimed, "Aunty, you have two- two fathers?"

My Punjabi, Delhi neighbor, who lived on the top floor, rang our bell, when I was alone one morning. We'd arrived in Delhi some weeks ago.
"Memsaab ghar par hai?" she asked me seriously, when I opened my door.
"Mai hi memsaab hoon." I said smilingly.

She'd come so unexpectedly and I couldn't change into some nice attire. I was busy with some cleaning then. I hated to keep maids and did all my work myself.

And she! In lip stick and so well dressed even at home. She took me for a maid.
She was so shocked and couldn't recover from her faux pas. For she left soon after.
I chuckle to myself as I remember her.

Then there was this Bengali woman, again our neighbor, who met me in the queue at the Mother Diary, to buy milk.
"Delivery kabhi due hai?" she queried.

Her jaw dropped, her face turned a deathly pale when I told her I had delivered my son just weeks back. My tummy still protruded. No wonder she made the vital gaffe.

We were in the south two years ago, when my hubby's colleague popped in just as we were leaving the guest house one morning.
"Your daughter?" he asked my hubby, pointing to me.
His face turned a beetroot when he learned I'm the wife, not his daughter.

Hubby has to still recover from that one.
I tease him relentlessly whenever the topic comes up.