Fool me twice...

You will not believe this: it happened AGAIN!

I can accept that anyone could interview the wrong person once. Probably even Barbara Walters has made this mistake at some point. But to do it twice. In the same week???? What in the name of all that is good is the matter with me????

I can hardly bear to go into this, but the gist is that there is a think tank in Delhi, with a gentleman on staff whom I would like to speak with. Retired general, used to work in some of the places I’m researching, terribly germane to my topic. But, unbeknownst to me prior to this afternoon, this think tank also enjoys the affiliation of an economist, whose name differs from that of the ex-serviceman in question only in that the vowel in the economist’s last name is “ai” and the vowel in the good soldier’s last name is “ay.”

You see where this is going? Not so long ago, I called up the think tank, asked the secretary to connect me to Mr. “ay”, went through my song and dance about wanting to meet up, set an appointment, and congratulated myself on another interview landed, not realizing I had been connected to Mr. “ai.” Granted, there were clues. I could have said “General” instead of “Mister” and perhaps that would have clarified things for the secretary—but I wasn’t sure if ex-generals still use that title. (Am trying to think of references to Colin Powell and am unable to pinpoint whether “General” is used.) I should have been tipped off by the jolly “I’m more of an economist myself, but I’ll be happy to talk to you.” I just sort of figured the good general had development issues nearest to his heart. I mean, he was never a politician, so maybe that was what he meant, right?

Fortunately, I figured this gaff out before the interview began—I saw the name on the door, felt my tummy travel to my toes, blinked several times, and then realized what had happened. And, again by the grace of the universe, Mr. “ai” has some regional economic interests, so there was the thinnest layer of plausibility about me seeking out his advice. And he happily recommended multiple works on federalism I might peruse. We both could have used the thirty minutes in a more productive fashion, but no serious harm was done.

Except to my confidence as a field worker. I don’t know if I am unfit for interactions with real people, or unfit to schedule my own time, or pathologically bad with names, or what. Realistically, I know I am a bit careless about names/dates/places/details in general. (I blame my high school history teacher, who taught me for 3 straight years and was very into learning concepts instead of facts. Damn holistic education.) But, right now, instead of being full of resolve to improve myself in this respect, I just feel ridiculous.

I think in all my future accidental interviews I will try to take more detailed notes. Then maybe by the time I’m done I’ll have enough for a whole parallel dissertation about “people whose names are quite similar to the names of people who are important to the study of Indian federalism.” Kind of a linguistics/anthropology hybrid study.

Off to drown my sorrows in bottled water…