I think we become less embarassed as we get older. If we live long enough, I suppose we'll all become "soranai ketta janmams". Stuff that used to embarass me when I was younger fails to do so now.
Anyways, there were lllooooots times in my life when all I wanted to do was bury my head in the sand and wish that I'd just vanish off the face of the earth! One thing I really vividly remember was an incident in high school. I had just started Grade 11 in Vancouver. I was kind of like a "thiruvizhala tholanja ponnu" (kid lost in a fair). A guy called Dennis and I used to have a lot of classes together. He used to guide me through a lot of stuff and put up with me a lot(You wouldn't believe that I didn't even know how to get to classes right because they had a complicated block system..)!
One day, after class, he came upto me and asked me if I'd like to go to dinner with him that night. I was so ignorant of such things at that time and the uppermost thing in my mind at that point was that I never get veggie food if I go out in Canada. I casually replied: "Sorry Dennis, I eat only vegetarian food." He had a puzzled look on his face and said that it was okay with him. The fool that I was, I still didn't get his meaning and I was like, "you might want to eat meat but I don't". He simply looked confounded and told me that I could give him an answer tomorrow.
When i was going home that day, I confided in my friend M. I told her casually that I told Dennis I didn't eat non-vegetarian food. She was shell shocked and started rolling on the ground with laughter, "You idiot, he is asking you out on a date and here you go talking something else!! I can only picture the look on his face." Well, I was so embarassed about my gaffe that I wanted to just vanish off the face of the earth that night! I thought I'd just burn with embarassment if I even saw Dennis the next day and was picturing what a laugh he must be having with his friends about my stupidity! And I was even more petrified because he was a good friend of mine and I thought he'd not even talk to me after this.
Well, the next day, he came to my locker at lunch with a big grin on his face. He asked me if I was ready to get some vegetarian food. I said no anyways but we remained good friends till I left high school.
Then, I thought I'd never live it down.Looking back, I think it was really funny and pretty interesting. Of course, I had many more such gaffes but more on that later...