Old And Young

Even for overseas trips my son starts packing only after the car arrives.He does not like anybody to help him or touch his things.They also accomplish all the tasks. We are unnecessarily wasting in the crowded platform for hrs.My husband wants to be an hour to the station before the train departs.
Last month I had a strange experience.We had to go to a Real estate office 20Km away from home.We had to be there at 3.30P. M. We have booked the car to be at our residence at 1P.M. He was in time.On getting into the car we ascertained his name and phone number.,car number etc.Just a km away from home he drove the car in just the opposite direction.When enquired he said that he knew the route well .The car started picking up very fast.I suspected some foul play. Immediately I took my phone and pretended as though I was attending a call." Is it so;We are just coming there" I told hastily.We forced him to stop the car and told him that we had an urgent call and we have to go back.We gave him Rs 100 and sent him away.We took another auto, came home and telephoned to our Taxi firm. They said there was no person as Umamahesh with them and the car number also never belonged to them.Some other person had just entered the taxi office premises and have seen our booking and had come come home.Meanwhile when we were travelling in the car,the original driver came home and seeing the door locked, had returned to office.Fortunately we had presence of mind.These days in Chennai we can get cheated easily.That is the firm we keep in touch for the past 10 years.Saying'sorry' any number of times would never come to our rescue if something had gone wrong.
Jayasala 42

 

Dear Viji,
Now we have become old, but even when we were young we always tried to reach a place where we had an appointment well in advance. Though both our sons are also like us our s-i-l is quite opposite.
Anyway 'Take it easy,' mentality is good instead of worrying for unwanted things.
Nowadays in most of the doctors make patients wait even after giving the appointment.
We can't blame them also as they have to attend emergency cases.
PS

 

@iyerviji ma ..both has advantages and disadvantages isn't it?

My father keeps stressing to always pick any appointments ahead of time. That's one of his best principles. But we youngsters have less sense of time or at least most of us do. This is one thing about which I especially have arguments with my father. He so much hates that I always don't keep time in mind .I always say that its fine to be that He gets totally pissed off and shouts at me saying this is one thing I have taught you from childhood .. why are you being this??!!

He feels very sad that we( me and my brother) don't take it as a practice while he emphasized so much on it from our childhood days. he says that its a discipline that every body should have. Respect time!!! Whenever I am with my father I make sure that i somehow adhere to time not to make him feel bad

 

To each his own ! The young have their own ways and so do the older people.

 

Dear viji maami,
liked reading your post as usual. Can relate to it in total. As Jayasala maam had said, even for an international trip back, my son would pack only on the day of travel and that too would not like us helping him out as he would say he would forget things if we come in! Surely the younger lot do last minute jobs but they know what they want and are cool about it Even so, although i travel to chennai almost every month or so from bangalore, I book my tickets a month in advance if i have prior notice of my travel, reach the station a good half hour at least before, to the irritation of others in the family who say, I unnecessarily worry for nothing!
However, I wouldnt change my ways as i feel it is better to be safer and well planned in advance when it comes to travel.

 

Dear Vijima,

So true. We are brought up to be sticklers for time, but I believe this has more to do with the individual than with any particular time or generation.

I have been brought up to be punctual and it leads to a lot of angst when others around me take things easy. BH, on the other hand, has no concept of time. He lives in a blissful state of timelessness!!! Two days ago he was leaving for a conference and was to go by train. He started off at 5.30 p.m for a train from Majestic at 7:00. By BP kept rising and I was convinced he'd miss his train. After a while, I just sat and thought, 'well, if he misses his train, that's not the end of the world. He'll miss his conference, but that is not the end of the world either. At best/worst, whichever way you choose to look at it, he'll come back at night'. As it happened, he reached on time and the train was conveniently 20 mins late.

So many appointments I used to land up early and keep waiting for others who would come late. Being 'fashionably' late. I tried that but the best I could manage was not arriving early, but punctually!!! I still end up having to wait. Of course if I am going with the BH, I can rest assured that I will reach late! There have been occasions when even that late has been early - others have come in much later! So, as you see, it's a no-win situation.

As for the younger generation, from experience with my students, I can say, they are those beings who have advanced spiritually to a state of timelessness!!! Of course, when they work in high-stress situations, they need to let up somewhere else. It is all a matter of priorities. For me, teaching is my job, so I am there early. For them, it is just a certificate they need, so they get by somehow or the other. That's alright I guess.