The embarrassing question²⁵

After the seven-mile race in Scotland, we went to a store where I bought a football for Tejiyan’s team. In India I hadn’t seen that kind of ball, so I bought it. Janaka and Janani were with me, browsing.

One of the workers came up to me and said, “I am embarrassed, but I would like to ask you something. You have no hair, yet you look so smart and strong. May I know your age?”

I said, “Fifty-one.”

He said, “Fifty-one?”

The worker was much younger than me, but he was very fat. He couldn’t believe I was over fifty. And he was not just flattering me because I bought the football. He said this to me long before I bought it.