Tragedies

Today was a colleague's birthday. I'm new in this office and at lunch, I asked him what his plans were for later in the day...if we was going out with family etc. etc. I suck at making small talk, but I was determined to make an attempt anyway. I remember that he'd mentioned a 5-year old kid at an earlier such lunch session. Maybe it was his Marathified Hindi, maybe it was my half-assed listening, but I somehow got the feeling that that 5-year-old was a boy. So, today when he showed me his little girl's photo in his wallet, I was a little confused. I asked him if he also had a boy and he said that he had a baby boy but he passed away very young. The baby had a hole in his heart. I felt awful...of all the days to remind him of the child he lost!! Maybe I really should not attempt small talk. UGH.