The Delay Connect

Delays are almost always frustrating and the waiting time is...Well lets just say 'waste of time'. A few rare occasions where this delay was pleasant!

I recently called up my distant cousin, we were on the phone for like half an hour. At the time when the conversation was almost about to shut, he said that around a month back, he had become a father. The news took almost 1 month to reach me, I don't know how it lost in transit every-time, but I was so happy for him. 

He told me a story about another such pleasant delay. Back in August 1947 when India got independence, it was the monsoon season. So all the ships to Lakshwadeep Islands were disfunctional and the Island was basically isolated. After almost a month and half, the first ship reached Lakshwadeep passing the message that India had become independent. How important that message was!

This reminded me of another story. In 1987, my father was travelling to Kenya. At that time it was considered to be an 'unsafe' African country. He had no money to buy a camera back then and Instant photo was not an option in Kenya. So he approached a photographer in front of Jomo Kenyatta who said that in one month he would send the photograph to India through mail. My dad paid him a large sum of money and realized that he got duped! Six months gone and no photo. After one year and one month, he got a parcel delivered through post which had plethora of stamps on it which consisted of names of all seaports in Arabia, Africa and Mumbai. There was the photo and that's what you call snail mail. 

I like to call this 'The Delay Connect'...