Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
I gave away my black lamp to a person who…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
I gave away my black lamp to a person who turned out to be a Russian. I sold my dresser to another Russian man. As Leonard put it, "you're gaining a reputation [in the Russian-American community] for quality used furniture!"
I actually conversed with the first guy almost entirely in Russian when I gave him the lamp. (He didn't mind that I accidentally used the informal "you" a few times.) This occurred during my most recent party and some partygoers, especially Anirvan, seemed impressed. "No one ever comes up to me on the streets of Berkeley and speaks --" "In Bengali?" "No, in Russian!"
