HOW I WAS “APRIL-FOOLED” BY THE
CLOCK …. !
I’m going back
to my school days. And, it’s vacation time. Come April month, and we discuss
between us “ingenious” ways of fooling the ‘girls’ on the 1st. After all, that
was the time for everyone to entertain themselves at the expense of others…. 😂 There was no
Radio/TV, let alone WhatsApp, FB, Instagram, Telegram*,
Viber, Messenger, Skype etc.. etc. those days.
*
In olden times, you must have heard about people getting "April Fooled" through anonymous phone calls, false warnings, fake news, etc. etc. As I was mentioning, during our childhood days, we would devise new, novel ways to fool people that day, year after year. Some would receive them sportingly, some get annoyed, and angry. The Newspapers of April 2nd would be full of imaginative 'April-fooled' stories..... And we discuss and enjoy them all...
However, now a days, we look at April 1st as just any other day. Could be because the likes of 'home delivery' apps, grocers, banks, print / visual media, the so-called 'gurus', why even the political outfits, governments, opposition, and every other person or agency you come across, in short, anyone and everyone you deal with day in and day out, has been FOOLING you for a long time now. So, there should be why one more day of fooling !!!
But then yesterday was ‘different’. Tell me, have you ever been "April-fooled" by a digital alarm clock?
"Digital Clock"? Look at the alarm clock above - 'SONY' make, made in US, working on 110V - gifted by our son when we were at the US for his convocation in the year 2006 😍 - still 'active'. Only thing, I don't use it for FM/AM, or alarm (except when our 4-year old grandson is around, to take a break from the monotony of Bangalore life….
That is when both Alarm A and
Alarm B are activated by default! And, that is only one of his activities and
experiments he does with many other gadgets at home!) And I will have real tough time to reset the gadgets to original settings, especially because the fellow had experimented discreetly 🤭 Now, lets come back to the title.
Well I WAS fooled lock
stock and barrel, this morning. For knowing this, you should know
some history. Call it habit, 6th sense, or gut feel or whatever. Though I normally
set the alarm (5.15) every night, I wake
up exactly before it goes off (+ or - 5 minutes) - every time. And today was no exception. The mobile under the pillow
vibrates. (I've set it in such a way that the vibration comes first, and then,
the music in ascending format..... The icon at the centre like in most of the
smart phones, is for 'snoozing' and when you swipe upwards, the alarm is
switched off. Obviously, I swipe it while half asleep. And, after 5 minutes of
lazing about and rolling over, I look at the digital clock, and it shows 3.35.
What the hell ????
Considering the
plethora of dreams I was passing through over the night, I thought it must be
some 6 to 7 hours of slumber, and the start of another usual day, and I should
get ready for the walk after tea etc..... All the more so, because, I could see
feeble light behind the window curtains, indicating the dawn. How on earth can
it be 3.35?
To cut a
looooong story short, I must have slept off again, and this time, it showed
5.45. I clicked a snap from my mobile, thinking I would use it for sending
'Ugadi' wishes .... However, on closer examination the time of click in my
mobile showed 7.30 !!! And, the wall clock in the hall and digital clocks in
the other two bed rooms also showed more or less the same time... It was then,
it was then that it dawned on me that America has reset their clocks. (Power
saving exercise) And it is not the first time this was happening to me.
Now, you should know that USA practices something called “DST”,
or Day Light saving Time. Here is what Wikipedia tells us about DST as practiced
in the US
Daylight saving
time in the United States is the practice of
setting the clock forward by one hour when there is longer daylight during the
day, so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Most areas of
the United
States observe daylight saving time (DST), the exceptions being Arizona (except
for the Navajo, who do
observe daylight saving time in Navajo Nation),[1] Hawaii,[2] and the overseas territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and
the United States Virgin Islands. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established
the system of uniform daylight saving time throughout the US.[1]
In the U.S., daylight saving time starts on the
second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, with the time
changes taking place at 2:00 a.m. local time. With a mnemonic word
play referring to seasons, clocks "spring forward, fall back"—that
is, in springtime the clocks are moved forward from 2:00 a.m. to
3:00 a.m. and in fall they are moved back from 2:00 a.m. to
1:00 a.m. Daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks (238 days)
every year, about 65% of the entire year.
The following table lists near future starting
and ending dates of daylight saving time in the United States:
|
Year |
Start |
End |
|
2019 |
March 10 |
November 3 |
|
2020 |
March 8 |
November 1 |
|
2021 |
March 14 |
November 7 |
|
2022 |
March 13 |
November 6 |
|
2023 |
March 12 |
November 5 |
|
2024 |
March 10 |
November 3 |
|
2025 |
March 9 |
November 2 |
ALL clocks are
set in such way that the time changes automatically every time...... AND, THAT
WAS HOW AN INNOCENT-LOOKING ALARM CLOCK FOOLED ME ON THE "ALL-FOOLS
DAY"...........😉🤭😂
However, the
time should have got changed on March 13th. Perhaps it had chosen 1st April
night, purposely. Or, the 15 plus years old piece is becoming like me…..
“SELECTIVE AMNESIA” WITH AGEING… 🤭
For those who
have some of your relatives / friends in the US, or those who are interested to
know more about the topic, click the link below:
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/usa
That’s all for
now, guys… See you later with something different. Byeee.
for ever..........
It's about who come and never leave your side.
