It's a small world after all! A brief tale...
During our two-year stint in Kolkata, we lived in a flat on the 5th floor of an apartment near the city’s zoo. Our balcony overlooked the gardens of the neighbouring flat, where, when it wasn’t raining, we would see the day’s washing laid out to dry. On a regular basis, included in the laundry, was the most wonderful array of underpants we’d ever seen. From then on we would describe the building next door as the Underpant House.
At one of the many tea trade events during the off season, I got chatting to one of our new acquaintances who asked where we lived. I described the area and then joked about the nickname we had given to our neighbour's house. I thought nothing more of it until a week or so later when we were visiting the office of a prospective supplier. He owned some of the most exquisite tea gardens in Assam and so I wanted to make a good impression.
“We haven’t met before, Giles Oakley, how do you do!”.
“Good afternoon Giles, how do you do. We are neighbours actually…I live in the Underpant House”.