What just happened????

Recently I was out on a trip to some place in Andhra and I had complete strangers for company... So how would you expect some typical ice-breaking conversations to have gone? Thankfully, I have sampled some..

Middle-aged man: (smile) Beautiful place, huh!
Me: (smile back) Yeah, Absolutely beautiful!

(pause for a couple of mins while both of us are supposedly admiring the 'beautiful' place)

Middle-aged man: (scans you around from the corner of his eye careful not to meet your eye)(unfortunately eyes meet) It gets pretty cold at night here I heard
Me: (plastic smile) Of course, the mountains all around must make it cold
Middle-aged man: (nod of the head) Yeah, yeah.. you are absolutely right!

(pause again)(meanwhile another young lady comes by and joins the company)
Young Lady: (looking at both of us) So, place is really beautiful right?
Middle aged man: (looks at me with an 'I told you so' look) Yeah yeah. We were just discussing how beautiful the place is and how cold it gets at night.
Young Lady: (nodding in approval) Yeah yeah. The mountains. Should be really cold at night

15 mins of the conversation - Moral of the story - Beautiful place and cold at night!
God.. I hate ice breakers!

* * * * *

This was a bus journey on the same trip. Everyone is tired after a long boat ride and nodding away to sleep. Suddenly I hear a young girl from somewhere in front of the bus start to sing some classical Carnatic music. 'Hmmm. Pretty Good', I wonder. Then something happens. There's a woman in the row in front of mine suddenly cranes her neck to look at who is singing, spots the girl, turns around quickly to her husband sitting next to her who, by the way, has just sprayed a pain killer for his hurting ankle and gone off to sleep. She taps him violently and says (in Telugu),' hey, look up, someone's singing'

"She is singing well,no" the lady declares approvingly to her husband. Confused at suddenly being violently woken up and then realizing the consequences of offering a 'dead bat' to this conversation (Amazing how quickly his brain senses 'danger' even in half sleep!!) he clears his throat, looks at his wife and starts singing the same song that the young girl in front is singing. (Probably realizing that's his passport to getting away!) YES!! he actually started singing!!!! and thats when his wife says "Shhhhhh!! Let the young girl sing. She has got a beautiful voice, no!" The husband nods "Yes, Yes, she has got a nice voice" and he closes his eyes to 'enjoy' the song!!

* * * * *

End of the trip, last lunch before the final bye-byes, the young lady comes up to me and asks " So, had a good time. You were pretty silent throughout the whole trip. Not feeling well?" I just smile to say alll izz well. Then she goes on "Hmmm. It was a good trip, no.. Quite enjoyable" I nod again and say "Yes it was good". The middle-aged man passes by, looks at me and says " Hey.. nice trip right? It was nicely organized". Both of us nod back and say "Yes. Good fun. Only it was a bit cold during the night"

End of trip! :)