Somebody Told Me This World Was Small, Used to Live in the Same Building On The Same Floor

[Post title refers to: The Roots "You Got Me"]

Email Gold.

My next post was going to be about Bruin itself—the mixer, practice, the show. BUT as I was remembering details I realized I forgot about one of the best LBC emails I have received to date and decided that I NEEDED to include it. I got this email from an LBC original-Sukh-on April 30, 2006, just a couple weeks after being asked to dance with LBC and a few weeks before the show. It is hilarious and very telling of the kind of guys LBC dancers are. Note that I don't edit out the sarcasm or the random comments.  If you are aghast wondering if my parents are reading the not-totally-Punjabi-parent-friendly comments that follow (see number 5 below and the last item in the required items list), yes, they are. And they are probably laughing and calling me crazy. (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!)

Here it is:

“hi jas. first and foremost i want to welcome u to the LBC family....lbc is a family of bhangra stars that have been dancing for years but have nothing to show for it.......this is a one year minimum membership that calls for a monthly payment of $59..99 for club and other expenses. as a member of LBC u are prohibited from talking to any members from other teams regarding our team, mix, routine, ideas, personal problems, love problems, health issues, financial status…..sign and date below if all terms are understood...


____________ _____
signature            date
sukh singh
"ceo of LBC"



As a new member to the LBC family we are curious to learn more about you..below is a group of questions that we would like u to answer.....
p.s. this may affect your LBC membership, please answer questions wisely!
1- favorite bhangra team
2- favorite dancer
3- shoe size
4- yearly income
5- do u have a single sister
6- what is 4+3-2/5*0-1+6/9(5.562)
7- what songs is kj dancing to at bruin
8- is ranveer dancing
9- has bhui found the keys
10- is bunty ready


If 2 or more questions are answered incorrectly or found to be false upon our sources you will be indefinitely dismissed from the club and required to pay a cancellation fee of $109.99 along with first month membership of $59.99 first practice requirements. As u approach ur first lbc practice a few things will be required on ur part to bring to practice.. below is a list of things that will be required for u to purchase and bring to the practice...


REQUIRED
2-bottles of CROWN
3-bottles of COKE
2-pizzas
1-bag of chips
minimum 2 maximum 15 hot girls (we will decide what is HOT, be sure to pick wisely ur participation may be based on this!)


RECOMMENDED but NOT REQUIRED
tennis shoes
shorts
extra t shirts
brain
water bottles
ideas
and YOU”

I still think this is one of the funniest emails I have gotten. I was sitting in the med school library (third floor, facing the parking lot) studying for finals when I received it and remember laughing out loud at the part where Sukh asks about the keys to the truck. Some of these questions are inside jokes that a lot of readers won't understand. Unless the only people reading this are my teammates and people who know us relatively well. In which case HI and please force your friends to read this so I don't talk to you about it over and over and over again and convince you to make different aliases to post comments under. Not that I'd do that....

So for those of you who aren't privy to the inside info--a quick explanation. On 5, no, I didn't have a single sister. Funny story--she is actually married to the guy that did the voiceovers on early Khalsa Junction mixes. Small world, I KNOW.

On 8, Ranveer was the little kid (who is so tall and good at field hockey now) that used to come out and dance with Khalsa Junction. He was their little secret weapon. And he was (is) a great kid. He would come to the competitions with his mom (Hi Auntie!) and sister (Hi Harmeet!) and want to stay up all late with everyone else--convince us all that he wasn't tired despite the fact that his eyes were red and he couldn't keep them open. For the record, he was dancing that year (at about 1:40 of that video with another awesome girl dancer (who is now on DRP! Hi Gagan!)). And he was crazy good, as always.

On 9, Bhui is the name of the KJ Dholi. In 2005, when I danced with KJ, the voiceover introduced us by asking Bhui where the keys to the truck were. So for like a year, we started many a conversation with "Bhui, who took the keys to the truck?" We thought it was funny. Typing it out here I feel like there are crickets chirping and I am on the mic looking all nervous hoping someone out there somewhere is laughing. No? No laughter? Okay, my default when that happens--quote Dave Chappelle. "Sesame Street got a character on there named Oscar. They treat him like [crap] the entire show. Judge him right to his face--''Oscar you are so mean! Yeah Oscar, you're a grouch!' But it's like '[JERK!], I live in a [stinking] trashcan!" Yes, I just bracketed out the curse words. Oh man, now I am really laughing out loud. Another sidenote on the Bruin video: yes, that is me that says "hit the switches" and yes, those are my "hoys" and "bruaahs" that you can hear. Oops.

On 10, Bunty was the singer for KJ. At Bruin and Boston Bhangra 2005 (KJ guys feel free to chime in if I am wrong on this date) he started the performance by saying "Tu Readyyaaaaaan?!" Which we also copied for years to come.

All of this goes to show-teams pretty were close back in the day. We became more than just competitors that wrote on each others' facebook walls every now and then. And we had a sense of humor about things (most of us anyway). We could make fun of ourselves, of each other--we didn't take all of this stuff too seriously because to us, it was more about gaining friendship and respect than it was about being the absolute best or being the most feared. Can you tell I have an entire post about that coming?

So back to the email: thanks to the oh-so-wonderful gmail, I discovered that I forwarded this email back to Sukh in January of 2009, suggesting that we should do Bruin again after a one year hiatus. IT WORKED.  Okay, maybe that's not the reason we danced but whatever. Maybe this post will convince everyone to do another competition later this year? YEAH BOI.