Episode 222 : Family relics

As children are wont to do, Edwina and I were careless about what was given to us. On an average, objects lasted just a little long before they were lost or broken or got lost.

'You know when I bought this comb?' Papa Hyde would ask sternly.

'Ten years ago!' He would finish the sentence even before either of us could think of a possible time frame like two months or three.

That was the legacy our father expected us to live up to. Anything we own, must last long. Much, much longer than the average life expectancy of that thing- whatever it was.

A pencil.

An eraser.

A pencil box.

A school bag.

School shoes.

I understood he wanted us to learn the importance to taking care of things. But at the ages of ten and seven, neither of us were too keen to learn. School subjects were a drag as they were.

Many years passed.

It was the summer of 1993. A road trip to Bangalore was our idea of a summer holiday. And we found ourselves at Unity Circle one evening. I needed a watch, so a simple Timex Lextra watch was purchased.

I used the watch for 5 years, only having to replace the battery and strap twice. But I wanted a digital watch. So I purchased a Timex Triathlon. I wore it everyday. The battery seemed to have come from an Duracell factory- it just went on an on! But the case of the watch kept breaking and I had to change it twice in 7 years.

Then I bought another Timex watch in 2006. I am using that one today. I switch between the other Timex watches randomly.

Now I have three Timex watches.

All of them work flawlessly.

All of them keep ticking- perhaps the batteries are still made by Duracell.

The strap, the battery and the case- changed in all three.

All three have the same problem. They are too durable for their own good.

'Do you know when I bought this Timex Lextra?'

Now I too can ask questions like Papa Hyde.