Missed Calls

A recent post by Swathi (those ten minutes) about being anxious when being unable to reach her husband, promoted me to write this snippet where I was at the other side - being unreachable for a while.

Recently during Navrathri, I was invited to many of my friend’s houses, one of them is an IL who’s home I was visiting for the first time. They say men cannot multitask and women have no sense of direction. I don’t know if it’s true for the others, but for me, it couldn’t be truer. I could stand right in front of my house and point the wrong direction to my neighbor’s place! So justifiably husband does not trust me to find my way around unless I have my smartphone with me to navigate. So armed with my navigator I started to find my friend’s house. Now I was not going from my home, but from a totally location where I was on an errand, but thanks to the technology, I had three different routes that I could take and a detailed list of the train to take, bus to board, where to get down and how long and which direction I should walk before I found my destination for all three routes.

I chose one of the routes and got down from the train only to see that I would have to wait another 15 minutes for the bus. So I started searching for alternate bus and walking routes. I thought that walking might be a good idea and started walking only to realize that my battery was critically low. If it died on me, then I would have to call my husband from a public phone to tell him that I didn’t know where I was and explain to my friend later why I couldn’t come to her home after confirming my visit. So very prudently I walked back to the bus stop to wait for the bus. Thankfully, the bus arrived soon and I was on my way again.

Two stops later, my navigator told me I should get down and walk. I followed it and found my friend’s apartment soon. I re-checked the block, floor and unit number, got off at the correct floor, diligently followed the direction to the unit number and promptly got lost. Why can’t my smartphone navigate up until the correct door number!!

Smarter than my phone that I am, I called my friend and she came to her door to find me standing right in front of her gate looking very lost! Sheepishly grinning, I pocketed my phone and greeted her. It was around 7.30 pm in the evening and we started chatting happily and were soon were joined by another friend, which only made the conversation even more interesting and enjoyable. We were so engrossed in our chat that I did not notice the time until it was 9.30 pm. After reluctantly saying goodnights and goodbyes while coming out of the house, I noticed that my phone was on vibration mode and there had been 16 missed calls from my DH :spin I was about to call him when his next call came thru :hide:

He did not shout at me, but the urgency in his strained voice was filled with anxiety when he said "why didn't you call me after reaching there? I don't even have your friend's number!" I felt so guilty to have upset him so much and I sincerely apologized. I took a cab and reached home quickly. He seemed to relax only after seeing me :bowdown I apologized once again and he put his arms around my shoulders, smiled and said “it’s not about saying sorry ma, remember that I will be worried, just SMS me at least.”

It had been only a few hours, I was only visiting a friend in the evening, and this is Singapore which is a relatively safe country, and here was my DH so very upset and anxious when he couldn’t reach me!! Well, I don't know what to say except I consider this a blessing His strained voice and his visible relief on seeing me will never let me repeat this again

 

Dearest Viji amma,

Thank you for being the first to give an FB

Yes amma, I too feel really blessed for having him as my DH and best friend

 

Hi Mindi,

So happy to have you as a company in being clueless with directions

And your way of looking at it is :thumbsup thank you

 

Hi Swathi,

You are right dear. I would be worried sick if my DD is late from school even by a few minutes and I call and check with my parents if they reached safely whenever they are traveling, even if it is to only to the shopping mall or our native ;-) With my DH he knows I worry, so he will call me immediately when he travels abroad or to long distances. but within our local area, nope I don't really bother as I know its quite safe, and if he is delayed he is either with friends or in office.

Nonetheless you are right, we should keep our dear ones informed. Thanks for inspiring me to write this snippet

 

Dearest amma,

I don't know why I did not reply on this, but I do remember I replied on your snippet :-D

I understand amma, as parents we are always worried about our children. I remember how my dad would waitup for my brother to return when he used to go for floodlight matches (cricket) during his school and college days. My dad still worries when I and my brothers travel, be it abroad or within the city