Bandana Tewari bumps into a childhood friend, now rich, famous and pompous and comes away with ‘crumbs of wisdom’ from a humorous encounter

Her cocker spaniel that had hitherto looked quite domesticated, as it lay there curled up like a miniature beanbag, charged at the sight of ice cream being offered to me. "My poochie-poo! Let her enjoy it. She needs it more than you do," she reprimanded, while I stared at her in horror for making one dollop of ice cream suddenly look like my life support. With a disdainful smile, I placed the bowl on the ground and, within seconds, that mean little animal wiped it clean.

She had opinions about everything. When I pulled out a cigarette she said, "A good smoke is like a hearty cry. It quenches your soul." Smug as a bug for having come up quite effortlessly with inventive one-liners, she continued to throw my time and schedule out of whack, enticing me instead, with what she called her ‘crumbs of wisdom’.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity outside the door. The paparazzi were coming in for an impromptu shoot. She huffed and puffed and made a poor case of being so ‘tired of it all’ when the truth was that she basked in it. So Man Friday ushered in a battalion of poorly dressed, trigger-happy photographers, while she slid from her slouch to cinematic pose with the deftness of a reptile preparing to pounce on its prey. "Madam, please one pose, one pose," begged a bedraggled lensman. Pat came the answer, "Arjun, you know I don’t pose. Ever! Shoot me as I am. You will get what you want."

True diva style.

For the rest of the story catch Verve Vol 12 Issue 1 2004, on stands now!