I have now slowly begun to make sense of the non-filmy, real-life British sense of humour. Three instances from the recent past:
Sometime in December 2023...
A bus to "Paignton" arrives. As I board it, my Indian/Malayali insecure self is turned on.
Driver, a faint smile breaking out: "If you insist..."
I go hide behind a seat.
...
Sometime in January...
Gayathri and I get chatty with a cab driver. Now, imagine him as the Jeeves type -- mid-40s, balding, chin up, and stone-faced.
"Are you from around Paignton?"
"Born and bred in Paignton, sir. Never left town. Though my wife is the other kind."
"Ah ok. Difficult imagining you as a couple. One who never left town, the other who never saw Paignton till marriage."
"Not much to complain about, sir. We have a good relationship. Especially financially."
"How is that?"
"I earn, she spends."
....
Last week, on a bus...
A couple walks in with a handsome black labrador. Settles somewhere in the back seat of the lower deck of the double-decker.
A little later, another couple walks in with a breed that looks like a smaller version of a boxer. Active chap, this brown dog. Sits across the aisle from me.
Still later, a lady in her 40s walks in with a beagle-like breed. The driver has a brief chat with this one -- the lady, I mean.
She walks up to the boxer-like dog's owners and speaks (Here, imagine the voice of Bernadette of the Big Bang Theory): "Darling, could you take your pet to the upper deck. The driver says only one per deck. I would have gone up, but mine's broken its leg. I am sorry."
The boxer-like dog is taken up without any fuss. Then an elderly lady reminds the Bernadette-like one: "But there's another one behind, my love."
The lady with a Bernadette-like voice takes a peek at the back of the bus, nods with a smile and screeches, but politely: "I know, but what could be done? Anyway, they are better behaved than most people on a bus. Drivers should start throwing bones at people boarding, you know? Who knows, they could be trained, too!"
