| Sunday, 22 September 2024 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Good morning! What a wonderful few weeks of beautiful days we’ve had in Bengaluru, and I’m sure in other cities too. Did you notice how clear the skies were, how crisp the sunlight?
Because they were building up to today!
That’s right. Today marks the official end of summer and the beginning of autumn. It’s the Autumnal Equinox. It’s one of two days in the year when day and night are almost the same length. (I am speaking for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed.)
All of us are aware of the change of seasons. We notice it around us. But it’s only been six years since I consciously started to feel the onset of a change in season based on the way sunlight changes.
It was a costly lesson. I can even point you to the exact time and day.
5.36 pm, 20 June, 2018.
That’s when I took this nondescript-looking photo.
What the photo doesn’t truly capture was how beautiful the evening was. The sunlight, the fresh leaves of the Pongamia trees outside our office, the clear blue skies.
After taking the photo, I got into my car and left for home.
After a few minutes, the car sounded an alarm, “Key not in range!”
I ignored it, as I was driving. I mean, it must have been a bug. How could the key not be in range if I was driving the car?
A few minutes later, it sounded again. And then again.
Finally, a few kilometers from the office, I pulled over to the side of the road and checked. The keys were truly nowhere to be found.
And then, in slow motion and in detective-movie-style flashback, I realized what had happened.
I was about to enter the car when I got distracted by the beautiful evening and stopped to take a photo of it. I left my car key on the roof, as I took the photo, only to forget about it. Then, I got into the car and pressed the start button.
The car normally refuses to start if it doesn’t detect the key as being “inside”.
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