Monday, August 20, 2007

Why complicate matters?

In India there is no dearth of occasions to observe in Government establishments: the birthday of some famous figure, the 'natural death' day of another, someone's 'assassinated death' day, a fourth 'samadhi day' etc. On many of these days, in these establishments a siren goes off at a certain time and one is expected to observe a couple of minute's silence or assemble to have an oath / a pledge administered. On a certain day in November the siren went off at 10 am at my workplace, and seemed unusually long and loud. The day before had been a holiday, and no one was aware of the reason for the siren. Several conjectures were doing the rounds: "...could be due to Osama bin Laden...", "Is it an air raid?", "May be there's a fire...", "Is it Indira Gandhi's / Rajiv Gandhi's birthday / assassination day?", "Or very simply it could be a test of the siren after repairs!" However due action was taken and the cause was later sorted out.
My son's school is co-located in my office premises. That evening, while recounting the day's happenings at school to his dad, my son excitedly said, "Daddy, we heard a loud siren today". "And what did you do when you heard it?", asked my husband. Replied my son with a puzzled look; "We shut our ears?"

One resource: Presence of mind

In a scene in a film where the protagonist unties the apron from around the lady of the house and I chose to ‘accidentally’ switch channels, my son asked: “Let me see what happens next”. My husband replied: “why, the apron went to the washing machine”.