My Cautious Father

Right from my childhood, I always observed my father to be very watchful in almost every thing. I still remember how he used to fill our entrance examination forms. Once he filled the form, he used to cross-check it couple of times. Finally, he used to call me and asked to sit with him, so that we could have verified it together again for few more times. Quite often, I used to get irritate and wondered why he’s so damn cautious? Well, sometimes even I’m also little careful on certain things and particularly for any kind of payment related stuffs. I get little cautious whenever I do any online transaction and I’m extra careful, so that I don’t end up adding one extra zero while filling the amount. 

Unlike me, my elder brother was always very sincere and intelligent, right from his childhood. He always took his own decisions and never got influenced by others. He’s now settled out in Singapore since almost 15 years. Whenever he use to visit home with his family, they usually fly from Singapore to Kolkata and then take a flight to Guwahati. While returning also they take the same route. My brother always use to book an evening flight to Kolkata. Almost the entire night they have to wait at the airport and early morning they fly back to Singapore. Usually whenever they visit home, even we also plan our holidays accordingly. Few years ago we had a similar kind of wonderful family get-together. Our holidays were already over and we returned to Bangalore. In next few days my brother, sister in law and their cute daughter were also about to return to Singapore.

"What time is your flight tomorrow?" my father asked my brother.

"In the evening at around 7:30”

"Go and bring the ticket. I want to check" father asked.

"It’s OK. Now again please don’t start all these, I’m much more responsible. Any ways, I will check it after dinner"

After dinner everyone started to gossip in the hall. My brother went inside the bedroom. He opened his suitcase and picked up the ticket. He checked their departure time and returned to the hall.

"It’s at 7:40 in the evening" he said to my parents. 

The airport in Guwahati is quite far from the city. So next day they started little early by 4:30 PM. My parents also went along with them to the airport. They reached at around 6 PM and as usual, my parents were prepared to wait out there. Well, every time my parents go to drop them, they continue to wait till they view the particular flight, as it fly up towards the sky. 

But that day something quite unusual happened. The security didn’t allow them to go inside. They said that their flight already left in the morning. Only that moment my smart brother realized that their flight was actually at 7:40 in the morning. They always use 24 hour timing format and how could he be so stupid? My brother talked with the flight authorities and there’s no way they could have refunded his money. 

"Early morning we have our flight from Kolkata to Singapore" my brother said to them.

"The last flight for today to Kolkata will depart in an hour. If you want we can book your tickets"

The price for each ticket was almost 3 times higher as compared to the one he booked earlier. But they had to go and there was no other alternative. Somehow my brother digested all those praises and appreciations from his wife, as well as from our parents for his overconfidence. I think in certain situations, it’s always better to be cautious rather than being ignorant.