India, Dec. 14 -- The most humbling of moments in my life have been those in which unexpectedly (or even predictably) I managed to fumble, beyond reparation. These moments occur to all of us, but from some we expect them to recur very often; from others, never. The most hilarious instances therefore are those wherein there is a sudden reversal of form, so to say, and a particularly guarded personality goofs up in no uncertain terms! Someone like Rahul Dravid for example. When he let out an almighty yell at being "jammed" in from all angles on a Bangalore street, albeit in an advertisement, we found it so uncharacteristic that we guffawed a lot. An elderly family member, who's always been looked up to, and who's been impeccably correct in all realms of life, would scarcely allow a fumble to scuttle his reputation of being perfect. Therefore, when he erroneously identified a home made 'halwa' as being primarily made of one vegetable, whereas it had been prepared from another, his wife of long decades pounced! She just wouldn't let him forget his mistake and neither could anyone else let him off lightly, even though we were so fond of him. The fact that she loved him more than any of us did not deter her from making him blush for years, while retelling the story multiple times in the midst of motley relative assemblies. Faux pas can also take place during travel sojourns, during shopping sprees, during wedding celebrations and of course at work places. Boarding the wrong train, or claiming the wrong seats are part and parcel of hurried life styles, with no time to scan related travel documents in detail. There are others who keep gaping at new age apps which indicate a train's exact progress and they can never go wrong, at least when it comes to the railways! Being identified, hugely incorrectly, on numerous occasions, as the manager of a shop floor at a glitzy mall, has made one very wary of jumping to conclusions, one self. I always ensure that a person I am asking a shopping related query from, is actually a store employee, and not an NRI who's there to buy some galoshes for his darling niece! Wedding ceremonies are the craziest of times though, especially in India. Anything can go wrong, although, incredibly, very little actually does. Grooms and brides tend to marry their designated other, even at mass weddings. Only in films from bygone eras would the wrong pair marry each other because there was a power cut, or some such thing! In real life, admittedly, many a heart has been broken down the ages by dint of a parental decision to marry off their progeny in "arranged" fashion! Delays, lost shoes, misplaced jewellery and guests who entered the wrong "pandal" are some instances that almost regularly occur at weddings. The fact that some of these "glitches" are by design, makes the plot thicken at times! My own set of bloopers usually take place with identity misidentification. Visitors to my office, in governmental hallways and even elsewhere, after I made my exit, would often presume that I would know them by heart and would remember every detail of their life's history. My blank, clueless, befuddled, look would be of no significance to them. They have never expected me to be ignorant of their identity, and it has been one of the greatest sorts of escapes of my life, that I have hardly ever been found out! My fumbles have also transcended the fields of sports, cooking and dance, with the last mentioned being a matter of torture at times, especially when one is asked to participate in a school level bhangra, as the prominent guest of some sort! What would life be without these foibles, though? Colourless and hopelessly perfect. If people did not err, where would the laughs come from? A mispronounced name, a mistaken identity, a food item gone awry, a date forgotten, a sentence uttered indiscreetly- several types of human errors make life thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining. As long as these slip ups are not serious, and do not relate to safety, security, health or harmony, humanity must keep on fumbling!...