(Yeah, couldn’t find an embed-enabled video but the short clip is only an extra click away if you’d like to see 39 seconds of classic Friends. With Malaysian subtitles.)
The One With...The Bullshit
“I’m my father…oh my god, this is horrible…I’ve been trying so hard not to be my mother, I did not see this coming.” - Rachel Green, Season 7, Ep. 3, The One With Phoebe’s Cookies
Like most kids, I learned my first Hindi word because I always overheard my Dad say it. When he was speaking Hindi on the phone or talking to my Indian relatives, it was always “Bukwas!” this and “Bukwas!” that. So, one day, I finally asked him, “Daddy, what does bukwas mean?”
He looked at me and laughed. “It means bullshit.”
I was like 3. When I told my Aunt later, she laughed and said, “It means nonsense. But that’s what he’s really saying.”
I have this eccentric Indian Uncle complete with a big twirly mustache who used to come visit us in Texas every year; he lived in Miami at the time. He would always bring me and all my cousins those giant-sized candy bars. And we were SO DAMN excited when we’d see him pull up in the driveway carrying that brown bag. I call him Phuphaa-ji, which of course means uncle, or more specifically, father’s older-sister’s husband. He has been widowed as long as I have known him; his wife died in childbirth and he remains very loved by our family. Now, he is 81 and lives right on the Malibu coastline. He travels and does workshops with a famous guru. Yep, can’t make this stuff up. He also calls me Beenu as a pet name.
I went to visit him a few weeks ago with some family who were in town. Since we were all now adults (minus the baby who was getting drunk on apple slices), we shared in a few glasses of whiskey with him on the deck overlooking the ocean. And then, he proceeded to tell the same story he tells every time I see him. Every single time.
I shared a glance at my cousin, and we smiled, knowing what was coming.
“One time, I was carrying Beenu on my shoulders after we went to get candy at the Piggly Wiggly! She was only 3 years old!”
You have to imagine, he is very exuberant and theatrical. As kids, it kind of felt like a circus act whenever he came to town.
He continued, “We got to her house and the neighbor Mike’s car was in the driveway. She thought he’s usually at work! So then she says…What the hell is Mike doing home?!!”
Then, he busts a gut laughing. “Oh my god! What the HELL is Mike doing home!!!!”
And we laugh too because we love him.
So maybe it’s not the most hysterical thing in the world that a toddler said a curse word, but it is funny to me that I’m just now realizing how much like my father I really am.
