Ye Dil mange more!!

When I saw that Vodafone ‘borrow talk time from friends’ ad recently, at that very instant few people having perfected the art of borrowing came to my mind. Now, if we look closely, there are basically two types of people who borrow: first, those who are in genuine need, and second those who are habitual shameless creeps. I have all the sympathy and help ready for the first category. The second category is of people who just ask for anything shamelessly as if they have a legal right on all your things. They can go to any lengths for borrowing and they can knock at your door even at midnight.

One girl in my class who hailed from Meerut was a pro in borrowing anything from anyone. She even asked for a formal shirt and shoes for a presentation. The funny thing was that my presentation was minutes after hers. She could be a perfect model for borrowing, she literally asked me for everything like cell phone, bucket, clothes, bed, blanket, books, shoes, heating rods and many other items. Later I came to know that I was not the only one on her hit list, whole hostel suffered this problem. That obnoxious girl was definitely not in the first category. Life was easy for her as her mantra was ‘main maang loongi yaar!’ (I’ll borrow from someone yaar!)…cheap

Second comes the borrowing of books. An old proverb goes, “The best way to keep a friend-never borrow, never lend”. One of my friends borrowed my book for a week or so but I got it back after 10 months that too after repeated pleas and requests. Later I came to know that he had lent the book further to 10 or 11 more people.

I could not stop laughing at one incident when a relative wanted to borrow my grandfather’s underwear! Grandpa had refused for sure but we still laugh at the audacity of that man!

A neighbor once approached my mother for the recipe of tomato soup (!), and guess what; she even took all the ingredients and spices from us only! ha ha ha ha!!

How many such people have you come across??