Daylight Savings and my Mom
We had just finished the Sunday morning group run. I had a twenty minute drive home. Decided to make my daily call to mom from the car. So far so good. But, at a moment of indiscretion, I let her know about the clocks being reset today in US due to Daylight Savings. And then for the next ten minutes, I had to try my best explaining day light savings to somebody who has never been exposed to day light savings. She had quite a few questions and you could see that she was getting really confused with the whole concept. I think the core question she was trying to get past was “Why bother? It is not saving you any time”.
Finally, I tried explaining the practical ramifications. For example, when we ran today, it was much darker than last Sunday since today’s 8 am was last Sunday’s 7am. For a few moments she was very quiet. I figured she was now getting the hang of it. And I was sure the next thing she was going to ask would be a worried question like – “So, you did not sleep well last night?” or “Did you ever miss a flight due to this?”.
Instead, her question was “Khaabi ki ghori dhorey?” (“Are you going to have your lunch by the clock time”?). Only my Mom!! Only she can cut thru all the confusion of this stupid thing that sounds like you will save some time when you don’t and get to the central essence of her entire existence – “When will my son get to eat”?
I was so taken aback that I myself took a few seconds to process it. And then desperately trying to muffle my laughter, I offered “Keno? Khidey pele kheye nebo”. (“Why? I will eat when I feel hungry”). Even she admitted, after a few seconds of due consideration that given all the complications of daylight savings her son has to suffer thru, his logic was as sound as it will ever get!!
Heaven help all Indian moms if and when India ever switches to day light savings!!!
I’m with your Mom! My feeble mind has enough problems dealing with what time my conference calls are in various timezones. Throw in DST and India being an additional 30 minutes different and I’m just lost…luckily there is an app for that 🙂
To accelerate the problems we have , some smart person in Arizona decided they will not Spring forward nor roll back. Try explaining it to our mothers! Mom, we change but our cousins in Phoenix do not change their time, since the sun shines really early in that state 🙂
I am not sure is DLS or time zone within a country is something that helps someone a lot? Ok, when I went to Jaisalmer, I was out at 5:30 to watch the sunrise. When it finally showed up at 8:20, it was a realization, but that was for just a day. The body clock also took about a day and half to get adjusted. Now about DLS, even in Kolkata, 6:00 is dark in Early Jan, has the sun rising by 6:15 in Feb and has a blazing sun in summer, but never had a issue with that as such.
So very cute
If all the Indian Moms get a daily call from their sons like yours does, they will be fine either way.
Indian government was seriously considering to implement DST this time(after some northeastern states like Assam demanding it vociferously when the drums of general elections drowned it for yet another time! And as for moms, well, I think they opt for the regular time feed schedules rather than the widely recommended ‘demand feed’ by doctors since our neonatal days! How could they ever wipe it off from their conditioned circuit?!