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This week: April Fool! The un-funny joke Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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Disclaimer: I'm not unsporting.
I like to have fun as much as the next person.
But I do draw the line at meanness! 
In this newsletter, I bring up the memories of April 1 -- twenty-nine years ago.
I was fresh out of college, having actually given my final exams and in that in-between time of waiting for the results.
I try to analyse an April 1 mis-adventure at the time, and why I still remember it, in a newsletter that will be current on April 1 this year. |
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Dear Reader,
With April Fools' day just a few days away, I can't help recalling a joke that I thought rather mean, played on two of my friends and me, twenty-nine years ago.
Twenty-nine years? 
I know what you're thinking -- get over it already! Grow up, put it behind you, it was a joke!
But the fact is, it does still rankle. And when I spoke to one of my fellow-prankees yesterday, she confessed that she still recalls it vividly and it rankles with her, too.
So I decided to put my hurt and indignant feelings to good use, and do a newsletter attempting to understand why this un-joke is so memorable.
Here is what happened:
We were about 21 years old at the time, and one of our gang of girls had gotten engaged -- the first of us to do so.
Her birthday is on March 31.
Sometime around March 30 or so, three of us were at one friend's residence when the phone rang. (Don't forget, this was before the days of mobile phones. That becomes important later.)
It was another couple of members of of the gang of girls, telling us that her (let's call her Frengage, for 'friend-engaged') fiance wanted to set up a birthday treat for her with her gang. Since the couple wanted to be alone together on the birthday itself, the treat would be the day after the birthday.
As soon as we heard 'day after Frengage's birthday', alarm bells rang in our heads. That was April 1 -- this was a joke! We said so, and told those two that we weren't going anywhere on April 1.
They went on to say that of course it wasn't a joke, he wanted it to be on April 1 because thereafter the couple had some other commitments, and so on. Also, he had made reservations at the most expensive restaurant in town.
On hearing the name of the restaurant, the alarm bells in our heads reached a crescendo. "We're definitely NOT COMING," we chorused in to the mouthpiece. "We can't afford to step in to that place!"
They turned on the emotional blackmail, We were part of the gang, we couldn't not-come. He wanted to meet the whole lot of us, get to know his new friends-in-law, so to speak. He wanted to show her how special she was by taking her gang to the most expensive restaurant in town.
We hung up the phone after more than half-an-hour. The three of us came to this conclusion: we would go to the restaurant on April 1 and check if there was indeed, a reservation. They wouldn't go as far as to make a reservation and then bail out.
Little did we know, us naive, trusting souls!
Yes, there was a reservation.
No, they didn't show up.
The three of us sat there, waiting in the reception area (a restaurant with a reception area, wow that's posh!) to no avail.
Yes, it was a prank.
When we finally realized that, we asked for the menu, right there in the reception area. We didn't dare go inside till we had checked on the prices. The cheapest soup was Rs. 130 plus taxes.
We pooled in our money. We had twenties, tens, fives in notes, twos and ones in coins. That's the kind of money college kids carried around in those days. I don't think we even knew what credit cards were. Anyway, between us, we didn't have Rs. 130 plus tax. We couldn't even afford to share the cheapest soup in the place.
"Would you like us to phone your friends?" the kind receptionist asked. We exchanged glances, and decided 'yes, please.' We didn't know how much a phone call in the place would cost, but she said it would be free, bless her. She tried the numbers we gave her and got no response from any of them.
All three of us blushing profusely, we apologized, thanked her and walked out. We crossed the road, went to a pizza joint there and shared a couple of pizzas. Then, we went back home.
A few minutes after I got home, the phone rang. I answered. It was one of the two pranksters. "Hallo, Sonali," she chirped.
"Sonali isn't home," I snapped back. "She has gone to a fine-dining restaurant with her friends." I slammed the phone down. The other prankster later told me that this one had complained to her that I had been rude ... Yeah, that's right. I had been a bit impolite, I guess. 
Anyway, so that's what happened. And yes, thanks for listening to me vent.
By now, you've taken sides, I guess. You're either chuckling with the pranksters or tutting with me. You're either wondering why you've read this far if it's just going to be me, complaining about a trick like a spoiled kid, or you're dreaming up your own rude responses to the pranksters. Be that as it may, there are some universal themes that make this incident memorable, which is what the newsletter editor in me attempts to analyse.
Why this anecdote is memorable:
1. It takes place on a date that recurs each year
Since it takes place on April Fools' day, combined with Frengage's birthday, there are automatic annual reminders of this incident. That keeps it fresh in the mind after almost three decades.
2. It involves trusted friends
If acquaintances had played a similar joke, I doubt the three of us would either have fallen for it or remembered it much later. It was the breach of trust that makes it memorable.
3. It breaks the code, in two ways
a. The unspoken April 1 code is that once the prankee has said s/he guesses it's a joke, the prankster admits it. To go on like that after being unmasked, involves breaking the code.
b. Also, you prank friends of acquaintances. People who are expected-to-expect pranking. You don't prank a restaurant by making an official reservation -- to me, that breaks the code.
4. It works at many layers
a. Frengage being engaged, which was a new thing for our gang
b. The restaurant being too expensive for us to eat at once we had cottoned on
c. Them not having a 'ta-dah' moment themselves, but leaving it to us to be humiliated. I think if they'd called the restaurant and told them to inform us that we'd been pranked, it would've been marginally kinder than what they did do. Actually, having pranked us to this degree, I think they should've shown up at the reception area and told us in person, but part of the prank was that they were to be absent from the spot.
d. And calling me rude on top of all that really takes the cake! 
Like I said, it happened twenty-nine years ago and I agree with you that it's high time I got over it. Writing this has actually been cathartic. What interests me now, as a newsletter editor, is the analysis of why it sticks in the memory so tightly. I hope that helps you create situations and scenarios in your adventure writing!
Thanks for listening!
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My last Action/Adventure NL, "Cooking up Adventure in the Mistake!" asked why a culinary catastrophe is such a conversation-charger. Here's the response, received on Facebook.
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Action/Adventure: March 28, 2018 Issue [#8818]
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