Surely You’re Joking, My Dear Mom
I can write tons of blogposts about conversations between son-in-law (read: Niket) and mother-in-law (read: my mom). Here’s an unforgettable gem.
MIL: I was reading “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!” the other day. Very nice book. Richard Feynman very much reminded me of you.
SIL: (Thinking: Oh dear FSM, this statement is worse than that made by any of my students. How am I supposed to respond to this?) Aloud: Aai, do you realize that you are comparing me to one of the world’s most renowned, Nobel-prize winning physicist, who is an excellent teacher and researcher. There is no way I can live up to that image.
MIL: I meant, his experiences with teaching, research, students etc reminded me of your experiences…
When I heard about this conversation, my first reaction was- exactly why did she think about N? Was it really because of his teaching, research, students etc., or was it because of his (I meant Feynman’s) fondness for topless bars? 
This is the typical blind admiration that is usually reserved by parents for their sons or daughters; or these days- for their sons-in-law or daughters-in-law. I can almost imagine the conversation between my mom and some other two MILs.
Random MIL-1: My SIL is so great that he has now become the President of the Friendship Cricket Club.
Random MIL-2: My SIL is so great, so great, that he has now become the President of this big company in the US.
Subject MIL (my mom): My SIL is sooo great, that he will some day win the Nobel prize!
My mom sure has a lot of expectations from my dear husband. FSM help him!
Just need to correct the record:
1. “worse than that made by any of my students”
Not true. My only thought was how do I control my laughter and reply politely that the analogy is quite misplaced.
2. “There is no way I can live up to that image.”
Again, not quite so. I remember my statement… it was more like: “Aai, you are comparing a Nobel winning physicists, recognised as one of the smartest in the second half of the previous century to someone — if we can be frank about it — who has nearly zero accomplishments to his credit that can be suitably compared to Feynman’s.”
Hey, common on. I was just trying to be funny when I wrote about the students part. About the second part, I paraphrased it from memory; I didnt remember the exact statement. I forgot to mention that in the blogpost.
I hear you Pradnya.. With my PILs here, I have gone through a couple of my own experiences here… We’ve subscriptions to SJ Mercury news and he reads that from page 1 to page 430 (including all the adverts). One day he asked me how my job was etc., (I just’d completed my MBA then). Then he proposed that I should apply for a position he read about in SJM. Guess what that news was?..”Jerry Yang stepped down as the CEO of Yahoo!” I wish I’d come in contact with him when I was a kid. I could have used some of this ego booster then
Haha.. good one Sai. You should have done that. Go for the big one!