Directions & Punctuality......
All my life, there have been only two of the above things that bothered me the most. Let's start off with directions. In India we never looked at mapquest and yahoo for directions. When I had to get to someplace new that I have never been before, I used to ask people how do you get there, the typical directions was go straight, turn left, and then comes the climax, there will be a potti kadai , ask the fella there and he can direct you further. I have never gotten directions to the destination completely from a single person. So I normally end up stopping at a lot of potti kadais and my autowala has a field day as his meter is going up & up & he must be planning on what to get his wife that night after this lottery....
In the US, it is another story altogether. ...My husband will tell me, can you get the directions and there I am looking at either yahoo, mapquest or google and writing down on a piece of paper. Rajesh (my hubby) will then make a grand entry and then look at all three websites trying to find the shortest route and by the time we get to the destination with no help from the potti kadai we are late.......
That leads us to my next challenge....I have to be at the destination at the exact time specified. It might be the most joyous occasion, but if I was supposed to be there at 5:00, and I go there 10 minutes late I get worked up and very embarrased if there are people waiting for us. But , if you are going for an Indian party or get together, it is a whole different story. The assumption of the host is "if you say 5:00 on the card, guests start strolling in by 6: 30 ish..." So the host arrives only around 6:00 . There have been occassions when I drag my family way too early to be totally embarassed that we reached the venue earlier then the host.
I read somehere that when a Britisher invites you, he arrives on time, an American a little earlier then the scheduled time, an Indian always late and the only excuse hey we are Indians, you would be surprised if we turned up on time!!!!!
In the US, it is another story altogether. ...My husband will tell me, can you get the directions and there I am looking at either yahoo, mapquest or google and writing down on a piece of paper. Rajesh (my hubby) will then make a grand entry and then look at all three websites trying to find the shortest route and by the time we get to the destination with no help from the potti kadai we are late.......
That leads us to my next challenge....I have to be at the destination at the exact time specified. It might be the most joyous occasion, but if I was supposed to be there at 5:00, and I go there 10 minutes late I get worked up and very embarrased if there are people waiting for us. But , if you are going for an Indian party or get together, it is a whole different story. The assumption of the host is "if you say 5:00 on the card, guests start strolling in by 6: 30 ish..." So the host arrives only around 6:00 . There have been occassions when I drag my family way too early to be totally embarassed that we reached the venue earlier then the host.
I read somehere that when a Britisher invites you, he arrives on time, an American a little earlier then the scheduled time, an Indian always late and the only excuse hey we are Indians, you would be surprised if we turned up on time!!!!!
posted by Rajesh &Shankari at
2:32:00 PM
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