Howdy!

Remember old Telugu movies? - the actor puts on a small wig and that's it. No one recognizes him except the viewers. I used to think that it was silly. How can some one transform themselves (like in one minute), into a totally unrecognizable character? I proved myself wrong last week. Yes, it's me in picture* above.

I went to Greyhound Station with this get up to pickup Rambabu, when he visited us last weekend. It took me less than 5 seconds to put this on, and I did it in the bus station itself, a few minutes before his arrival. I couldn't recognize myself in the mirror. I put this on, and I waited by the gate for Rambabu. He got out of the bus, came through the gate, made eye contact briefly, and looked right through me as if I were a stranger.

He was going into the terminal and I followed him. I passed him and made eye contact again - no response or recognition still. As he was expecting me at the bus station, he stopped at a point to pull out his cell phone to call me. I went and stood in front of him and made eye contact again, while he was holding his cell phone. This time I said non-verbal "Howdy" by raising my eye brows. He stared at me for a second, but no acknowledgement.

He started calling me (I kept my phone on vibrate just to make sure that I don't get caught) on my cell phone, and my cell started vibrating. I couldn't hold it any longer and I had to come clean. A few bystanders looked at me like I was crazy; it didn't bother me as they got it right! All this happened very quickly and no living beings were harmed or terribly inconvenienced during this experiment! If some of our friends show up in this get up, I sure wouldn't be able to recognize them either. So, Rambabu and I had some fun in the bus station.

Rama and I enjoyed Rambabu's company very much. We are glad that he made time to visit us, in spite of his hectic schedule. We went for a refreshing long walk on the Town Lake last Saturday, and went to Barsana Dham on Sunday. I am very glad that he works so close to Austin, and I am looking forward to keep meeting him in the future.

*If my colleagues see this, I am afraid that they might insist that I keep this on, saying "you look a lot better this way"!