I have weird neighbors. An old foggy fellow offered me a ‘welcome to the community candle’ then proceeded to barge into my apartment to light the candle and the other was an Indian woman landing unannounced on my porch wearing a kaftan and oodles of flashy gold jewelry.

They both seemed a tad loco to me. One was a hulking brute who put the fear of god in me by his rambling words and made me feel uneasy in my pajamas and the other had me embarrassed with her typical Indian attitude of parading around in her night clothes.

I’m not used to strangers landing up on my doorstep and expecting me to let them in.

The old guy seemed a little mentally off and had me standing near the door holding my kids close incase he decided to have his way with me or something. It was scary; he could have grabbed me and that would have been the end of happy sunny Ohio days for Deepti Lamba.

Thankfully, after forty five minutes of disconnected conversation and an apartment smelling of vanilla the old goose left and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The Indian lady like the old man seemed to be hungry for company. I was minding my own business, looking for my kid’s bike and suddenly I heard a heavily accented voice talk about the sunny weather, her kid not having friends and my kid not having friends, play dates, afternoon tea, where was I from etc.

I didn’t want to make polite conversation with her. I didn’t even want to acknowledge her. Needy people carry their excess baggage like unwanted guests; ready to park it on the doors of unsuspecting, soft hearted people.

There is always something wrong in their lives even when things are fine they expect social interaction which a loner like me finds unbearable
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Some might call me stupid, here I am in a new state with no friends to socialize with and I am bitching about people who forwarded their hands in friendship. Yeah, right - fraternizing with weirdoes isn’t my cup of tea.

I’m neurotically obsessed about my privacy and try to avoid people I generally don’t gel with.

I am all for being good neighbors but that does not include arriving on my doorstep unannounced, barging in or trying to act best of buds just because we belong to the same country.