My earliest memory of him was of me sitting upon his shoulders pointing at the colorful Niagara Falls. It has been about 6 years since my last face-to-face contact with him, interrupted by some brief phone calls so insignificant they might as well not have happened. My mother took big pride in telling me about his TV interviews and published textbooks. I never thought too highly of those things. I remember a joke that he would always tell whenever he would visit.
"They pointed at the thing and asked the tribesmen what it was"
"Did they know English though?"
"Well that is exactly the problem. The tribesmen would point back and say Kangaroo. But they said "Kangaroo" because it means in the tribe language, "I DONT KNOW" hahahhahahha"
It was the funniest joke in the entire world. I would spend nights thinking about the interaction and thinking about how I would handle it. But it wasn't that funny of a joke. I realize that I placed Mammoo Jaan on top of a pedestal. I wanted to emulate and be him and to do the things he has done as a successful medical professor. By trying to fly to him I essentially clipped my wings, set a limit to how far I can go. I wanted to live another's life and close my eyes to another's dreams.
I still think about the Kangaroo joke. It was just a cringy joke told to make me laugh. But then why do I still think about it. Kangaroo
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