I have a humorous story the last time I decided to buy a book for myself which I’d like to share with you.
It’s strange, but it all started when I opted not to set my wristwatch to “spring forward DST” this year.
DST, the abbreviation of daylight saving time, is the practice of advancing clocks, typically by one hour, during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. The typical implementation of DST is to set clocks forward by one hour in the spring that called “spring forward” and set clocks back by one hour in autumn that called “fall back” to return to standard time.
Let me tell you the story.
On a summer weekend day that I went out around the city for taking a formal photograph when the photographer, who looked very serious woman, indicated it would almost one hour to prepare the photographs, I contacted my buddy to make up a meeting at the permanent coffee shop. Both of us try to be punctual always so we had a deal between us that anyone who fail his promises or arrived late next time would be punished. So he replied, “OK, can you see me there at 12?” I looked at my wristwatch and saw that it was 10:30 a.m., so I said, “Sure, 12 is great.” Such a mistake I did! In fact, it was 11:30 a.m. but I had completely forgotten the DST thing.
On that street, there was a huge bookstore which seduced me to use my waiting time for the photos to be ready, to wander in it and buy a good book for myself. I started to read some pages of the books and after 30 minutes around 11 according to my wristwatch and around 12 at reality I made my decision and walked to the vendor with a renowned novel titled “Blindness” in my hand. In Persian “Blindness” is translated into “Kuri” which if used with a question mark or sense, means “Are you blind” in a rude way.
A few people were talking to the saleswoman and there was no queue and turn, as usual, so I was searching for an opportunity to ask the saleswoman to do my job that suddenly I saw the wall clock behind the sell-section. For a moment, everything was frozen and I realized my mistake. I quickly called the photographic studio and read the receipt number to see if the photos were ready? Simultaneously put the book between lots of books on the vendor’s counter.
I was so disturbed because my friend was waiting in the coffee shop and I had not received the photos yet and I was definitely late. So all the factors came together to make a very weird conversation between the saleswoman at the bookstore and the Ms. rigid photographer at the photographic studio and me at the same time.
– Saleswoman: which book is yours, sir?
– Photographer: I can’t see it, are you sure about the number, sir?
– Me: Umm, Kuri.
– Photographer: Whaaaat?
– Saleswoman: Excuse me, which one?
– Me: Kuri.
– Photographer: How dare you?
– Me: No Ms, I did not say “Kuri?”
– Saleswoman: So which one?
– Me: Kuri, Miss. (To the saleswoman)
– Photographer: You yourself are blind. If you dare, come here and I will show you whether I am blind or you? (And she hanged up the phone)
Finally, I bought the book and went to the photographic studio. Fortunately, I was able to explain myself clearly especially by showing the book. Although when I arrived at the coffee shop with one hour delay and told the whole story to my friend, he was laughing for a while, still he had not given up punishing me. So not only did he force me to pay for lunch, but he also took the book as a gift from me.
We talk about this story sometimes and he says mischievously to me that “the book is fantastic buddy, you should read it as soon as possible, but don’t ask me to lend it to you; instead, try to purchase it again.”
