Some Timely Opportunities, I Do Not Need

Sometimes, when I am on the Bangalore road, minding my own business and going someplace where I can do my... er my own business, I get asked what time it is. At first, I thought I could at least be polite and give them what they asked for using my trusty Casio AW-80 (check out the pic on the left).

Imagine my surprise when this seemingly helpful gesture from my side lead to some surpisingly unpredictable results. Like when I give him the time and the person furrows his brows questioningly. I guess he doesn't understand english. So I thrust my watch to his face. Sometimes he asks me whether I know kannada and is offended when I don't. Some of them give me long lectures on the concerned topic. These sort of situations are easy to handle since I look elsewhere and pretend that I cannot hear what they are saying. And since they are preaching to me in kannada, this doesn't help their case anyway.

There has even been times when its the middle of the night and someone pops at my side to ask me the innocent question. Now, I am sensibly paranoid during such hours since we never know when some gang of thieves would want to jump me and take of with my valuables including my watch. When I keep quiet in such cases, they start getting verbally violent and ask me louder while vigorously pointing to my wrist watch.

That was the last straw and I vowed that I would not wear the damned gadget any more. Nowadays, you might catch me whipping my mobile like some old western cowboy when I want to know the time. Come to think of it, that might be the reason why dad doesn't wear one. I'll be damned...