* mistake in name – sunil gavaskar
Posted on December 8th, 2006 by Alex. Filed under India.
This is a little story I just experienced, but it can happen everytime and everywhere:
A few of my friends and I went to a cinema to watch the latest James Bond movie, which is totally crab in my opinion, because of the missing flair and the shown violence. All the car gimmicks such as rocket launcher, mine detector or invisibily mode are missing. The same thing happening in all seen Bond movies is that a quite expensive car gets busted as usual. Anyway after the film, we went to a fast food restaurant to have dinner. After we got, what we ordered, we left the restaurant and at the same time two guys entered – one Indian and one German.
I was so astounded because the Indian looked exactly like a friend of mine. First I thought, it is him, but I was pretty sure that he still lives and works in Berlin. So he must have a twin and he did not tell me. I told so the others to get their opinions, if I should ask him, whether there is some relationship between my friend and him. So we waited in front of the restaurant till both of them left. So I turned towards the Indian and here is the conversation:
I: “Excuse me, may I ask you a question?”
Indian: (a little bit confused) “Yes?”
The other German: “C’mon go away.” (obviously he thought that I was drunk. But I can ensure you, I was not)
I: “No no, I seriously want to know something.” and then I ask the Indian: “Do you know Sunil Gavaskar?”
Indian: “Yes, I know him.”
I was so suprised and happy by his answer, that I continued to ask further questions about his relationship to Sunil, which created even more confusion. Now the German guy was pretty sure that I was completely drunk and I could not understand the reason, why they thought so. There was an Indian guy, who was a relative of my friend Sunil. But before I could explain myself, the German made us go away.
Only after that I figured out that Sunil Gavaskar is the name of my friend in Berlin, but also the name of a really famous Cricket player. I was not aware of that and during the whole conversation, the Indian guy and I talked about two different people. A lot of these misunderstandings happen, if two different cultures clash together. First the moments are embarrassing, but after a while they are quite funny, interesting, and worth to remember.