Alarm Clock
The small para on alarm clocks in the blog on Hari's new school has inspired me to write a bit more on this. I don't think I did justice to the status held by an alarm clock in every Indian household.
Every normal Indian household will have an alarm clock. The day starts with the alarm clock and ends with it. It is usually the chosen favourite of the head of the family. Whether he goes to work early in the morning or not is immaterial. If anybody has to be woken up early, he will keep an alarm and set the clock beside him before going to sleep. It is an unbroken tradition still followed in many homes.
My most wonderful encounter with alarm clocks was at my grandfather's place. Not a day would pass without my grandfather fiddling with the different keys in his new digital alarm clock. He used to have the traditional bedside clock - you know, the one without batteries. It was his duty to key the clock, to set the alarm and tap on its head when it rings. He did not trust anybody with this small no-nonsense ancient clock. When this was replaced by a digital one, he pored over the manual for days together. He kept saying he had lots of work. And what was that? Trying to figure out how to set an alarm! It was only when he got the hang of it did he even think of putting his ancient clock inside. So this is where my grandfather needed my help. I used to go daily to give him his insulin injection. I got a daily update about his day right from waking up with the alarm clock till the time I meet him at 7 am. He used to tell me that the alarm works fine and it rings at the correct time. I did not give much attention to the later half of his comment till it was the day to change its batteries for the first time. On that particular day, my grandfather was a bit upset that the alarm did not ring at the correct time. I was taken aback for a moment. The alarm, not ringing at the correct time!! How could that be?? A clock is a clock. And an alarm set is an alarm set. How could it not ring at the correct time? How would one know that? I slowly asked my grandfather, "Thatha, how did you know it was not the correct time?" He replied as a matter of fact, "Oh! The other clock rang out precisely at 4.45 am whereas this digital clock rang out a few minutes later." What? The other clock? "Tch Tch, my old manual one" he said with mild irritation. Ah! Now I get the picture. He did not trust the digital one. So he had kept an alarm on both his clocks to be sure he woke up on time. And for what? To sleep again at 6 am. Anyway, it was deduced that the batteries were drained and needed to be changed. I gladly changed it, set the time and said confidently, "now it will work fine". "We have to see", said my grandfather. Okay! I wanted to question his doubt but did not probe further. The next morning, my grandfather was beaming and said, "the alarm works fine. It rang at the correct time!" :-) :-)
When I got married I thought I had left my association with alarm clocks behind with my grandfather. I soon realised how wrong I was in thinking that. My father-in-law, I understood, was majorly into clocks and alarms in particular. I am not talking of some great clock-collecting hobby or something equivalent. Just that, he replaced my grandfather in some way or the other, by setting an alarm every night and waking up early enough to see if the alarm rang at the correct time or not. I don't understand this part - why keep an alarm when you can wake up early without it? Is it the remains of the initial distrust that men had of scientific advancement? Or is it some wierd research program or quality control dept set up at each and every household to check the working of alarm clocks? I will never know nor do I wish to know. All I know is I keep an alarm and wake up when it rings.
Every normal Indian household will have an alarm clock. The day starts with the alarm clock and ends with it. It is usually the chosen favourite of the head of the family. Whether he goes to work early in the morning or not is immaterial. If anybody has to be woken up early, he will keep an alarm and set the clock beside him before going to sleep. It is an unbroken tradition still followed in many homes.
My most wonderful encounter with alarm clocks was at my grandfather's place. Not a day would pass without my grandfather fiddling with the different keys in his new digital alarm clock. He used to have the traditional bedside clock - you know, the one without batteries. It was his duty to key the clock, to set the alarm and tap on its head when it rings. He did not trust anybody with this small no-nonsense ancient clock. When this was replaced by a digital one, he pored over the manual for days together. He kept saying he had lots of work. And what was that? Trying to figure out how to set an alarm! It was only when he got the hang of it did he even think of putting his ancient clock inside. So this is where my grandfather needed my help. I used to go daily to give him his insulin injection. I got a daily update about his day right from waking up with the alarm clock till the time I meet him at 7 am. He used to tell me that the alarm works fine and it rings at the correct time. I did not give much attention to the later half of his comment till it was the day to change its batteries for the first time. On that particular day, my grandfather was a bit upset that the alarm did not ring at the correct time. I was taken aback for a moment. The alarm, not ringing at the correct time!! How could that be?? A clock is a clock. And an alarm set is an alarm set. How could it not ring at the correct time? How would one know that? I slowly asked my grandfather, "Thatha, how did you know it was not the correct time?" He replied as a matter of fact, "Oh! The other clock rang out precisely at 4.45 am whereas this digital clock rang out a few minutes later." What? The other clock? "Tch Tch, my old manual one" he said with mild irritation. Ah! Now I get the picture. He did not trust the digital one. So he had kept an alarm on both his clocks to be sure he woke up on time. And for what? To sleep again at 6 am. Anyway, it was deduced that the batteries were drained and needed to be changed. I gladly changed it, set the time and said confidently, "now it will work fine". "We have to see", said my grandfather. Okay! I wanted to question his doubt but did not probe further. The next morning, my grandfather was beaming and said, "the alarm works fine. It rang at the correct time!" :-) :-)
When I got married I thought I had left my association with alarm clocks behind with my grandfather. I soon realised how wrong I was in thinking that. My father-in-law, I understood, was majorly into clocks and alarms in particular. I am not talking of some great clock-collecting hobby or something equivalent. Just that, he replaced my grandfather in some way or the other, by setting an alarm every night and waking up early enough to see if the alarm rang at the correct time or not. I don't understand this part - why keep an alarm when you can wake up early without it? Is it the remains of the initial distrust that men had of scientific advancement? Or is it some wierd research program or quality control dept set up at each and every household to check the working of alarm clocks? I will never know nor do I wish to know. All I know is I keep an alarm and wake up when it rings.
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aruna