Three Amigos and a memorable drive – Part – 1 -

So it was decided, we three (myself and my two cousins - Prasad and Prashanth) will be going to my native place Hulekal (another 16kms from Sirsi) in my car which would be marking my first night drive of my life. Mission: - To pick up my wife from her native place and get back to Bangalore. Well, problem was to convince the elder people now. Since Prasad had done night driving many times when he was in US, it was probably not difficult to convince my mom and grandma anyway. So that would mean our key to this night drive was to get my mom and grandma convinced. Another problem – this was in month of November-2008, and it was raining from last couple of days.

It was Friday night and we 3 met at my place with our bags packed. Slowly we had to talk to my mom and grandma somehow. We were looking at each other to see who is going to start first. So then, I began “Hmmm… so shall we leave at 12 am?” This was only to get my mom’s attention and it worked like a charm. Mom: “WHAT? Did I hear 12am? NO…NO…No… It is very risky. No night driving.” Me: “No its fine mom, We 3 are there and all of us know driving. Prasad has done it many times in US… right Prasad?” I turned to him. My Mom too turned to him and gave him a scary stare. Prasad was cornered now, he coolly started back “Yeah Maami, its ok. We will manage.” Mom: “What if it rains, no no… cannot allow. You guys can go early in morning around 3am or 4am.” Prasad: “Oh maami, that would be difficult. It would be like we all will be half-asleep. Instead we will not sleep for now if we have to leave at 3am.” Mom: (cooling down but half-convinced) “Hmmm ok, alright. That’s fine then. So you guys decided on route? Check with your uncle about the routes once.” I agreed and called up our elderly uncle who was always the first pick when we wanted to decide on some routes to take to our native place.

Me: “Hello uncle… We wanted to know which route to take”

Elder Uncle: “yes. There are two routes from spot1. First route has some shaky road and second route is a bit farther but it is good. I suggest you take that second route. So when are you guys leaving?”

Me: “At around 3am morning.”

Elder Uncle: (Sounding disturbed) “You 3 people leaving so early. Don’t be stupid guys, listen to me. Have a good sleep, get up at around 6 have a cup of tea and leave by 6-30.”

Me: “Ok Uncle. Thank you. We will do that. Bye.”

So kept the phone and we discussed about that and again stuck with our 3AM plan. My mom watched for another half hour, none of us were willing to take a nap fearing it will be difficult to wake up early. Realizing that it will be of no use, she tells us to leave by midnight itself. Atleast we would reach there early morning and can sleep peacefully. Overjoyed with our plans on track, we freshened up and got ready to begin our journey. Exactly at midnight, we started our journey.

I suggested taking a short-cut and we start off. 10mins into that short-cut route and we see a road-block (Road under construction). We have to get back all the way and half an hour after our journey started, we are still in front of our home. We silently take the longer route and re-start our journey again. Finally we are on the highway. The weather is also pleasant with small drizzle here and there. One and half hours into the journey and I am beginning to enjoy my first night drive when Prasad’s phone starts ringing. It is my mom on phone asking where we are. Prasad says: “Yeah Maami, going fine. Everything is good…. Yeah… No rain yet…. Ok bye” Then he keeps the phone. As soon as phone is kept, it starts raining heavily. For the next 4-5 hours, this repeats every hour - Mom calls, we tell “No rain” and once we keep phone, it starts raining heavily. Then we take our normal breaks for photographs at night somewhere on highway. Finally at around 6 in morning, we search for fuel, Fuel for our car as well as for ourselves. All 3 of us are feeling hungry now. We had never thought staying awake at night makes you feel hungry sooner and much before normal breakfast time. So first we stop at a petrol bunk but find nobody there to fill the petrol. We search for a while, shout for a while but nobody yet. So we again continue our journey looking out for petrol bunk as well as a hotel….

(To be continued… Click here)

Changing the light bulb

"Hello Listen, the light bulb is not working outside. Replace it now." Came the voice from my wife. I was watching highlights of a close cricket match which I had missed before. I ignored the first request (order) from my wife and continued to watch the match. "Replace it NOW". Universe just got cruel, it does not want me to watch the match peacefully. I reluctantly turn my face from the TV and look at my wife, she is staring me angrily and does not look like she has any plans to let me watch match peacefully.

I calculate to myself, the match is there for another half an hour and it will take me 5 minutes to change the light bulb especially when the new light bulb is already available in home. This means I do not have to go to shop and buy a new one. So it was a piece of cake. So I get up quickly, go outside. I see that the lightbulb to change is hanging on the roof which I cannot reach without a ladder. So I go inside the house again get the ladder and come out. My mom is talking to someone on phone sitting on the swing in the portico. I set up my ladder just behind her which she notices and points to me at something and continues to talk on the phone. I tend to ignore my mom's action, climb the ladder remove the bulb and fix the new bulb to the holder. Get down and my mom again points at something and continues to talk on phone. I again ignore and go inside the house and switch on the just fixed bulb. It lights up. Mission Accomplished.

Happy at completing the job within 4 minutes, I go back to my position and start watching the match. My wife goes out and checks and again calls me that bulb is not working. I think she must've checked the wrong one and continue to watch my match. She again comes to me and pulls me out again and shows me that the bulb. I am dumbstruck staring at the bulb which is not working and which is completely different from the one I replaced. It is the other bulb which is just at the reachable height in the portico and does not need the ladder. My wife started again - "Oh God, I told you to change that bulb and you have changed this one!!!", I retort back - "Well, you did not tell which bulb specifically!! Hence I assumed to be this bulb". Wife - "Ayyo... Rama". 

The complete scene just dawns on me that I just replaced the bulb which was already in the working condition. The whole 4 mins which I was proud of was now looking like a time-pass. Now I also realise that my mom was pointing to the bulb which was not working and I ignored. I just Feeling so stupid, I just replaced that non-working bulb with the previous one which I had removed from the roof. An extra 10mins wasted and my match over as well.

One more lesson for software engineers to properly understand requirements before jumping into the implementation.

--The End--