Varalotti in the US -2

As I told earlier I am not here to write a travellogue talking in detail about what I ate and what places I visited. I am just picking up those experiences which chastened me, which taught me and which made me a more responsible person.

One gadget that impressed me a lot was this TOM TOM. TOM TOM is just a brand name for a simple GPS device. It can be easily attached to a car. (Just place it on the dashboard and make sure it sits there). Then you just enter an address you want to go. Whether the address is just a few blocks away or a few thousands of miles away, TT leads you to the place step by step.

A sweet lady's voice tells you, "After 400 yards, turn left." Or, "Take the next exit from the highway and then keep right." The device is linked to a lot of satellites and it intelligently figures out the fastest route from the origin to the destination and then breaks into step-by-step directions for your convenience.

My host did an experiment with TOM TOM. We went out to a place far away. He wanted to know an alternative route to the same destination.

We set up that destination and asked TOM TOM to guide us. Then halfway through we ignored the lady's voice and did not obey her directions.

I was curious to know what TOM TOM was going to do. It was silent for a while. Then it urged us to take a U-Turn and go back. We did not listen to that either.

Then a miracle happened. After we drove for a few miles, TT reconfigured the problem, recalculated the route and started issuing directions for an alternative route. Our mission was accomplished.

How wonderful would it have been if we possess this quality of TOM TOM! Many of us have a grand mission in life. But then we make a wrong move or slip away a little or go in the wrong direction or commit a mistake. Then we think we have failed and stop travelling towards our goal.

Instead should we be not like TOM TOM, recalculating the route, reconfiguring the journey and ensuring that the journey continues on its onward path to the slated goal?

Electronic gadgets at times can be good teachers. But are we going to learn the lesson now?
Love,

Dear Sridhar Sir

How on earth did you learn something so important from a GPS..that too ,you linked life with a GPS..I am amazed.

This GPS has always amazed me too.That was one of the first things we bought after we landed in the U.S..Before that,we used to print the map on Yahoo or Mapquest and then I will keep reading out the directions while my husband drives.It was very cumbersome and with all that,we would always end up taking the wrong route.

But life has really changed with the GPS..now we are totally dependent on it while travelling to previously unknown places.

Hello Sridhar - loved reading your experiences with GPS - like Sunitha says, I would never have thought to connect life's challenges, twists and turns to GPS and its recalculation of routes! So very interesting! We too recently bought a GPS - I resisted buying this for a very long time - always relied on mapquest or google maps. My daughter got one for graduation (an extravagant gift by her chithappa!!). I got one for my husband for father's day - and he has it programmed to have an "Australian" accent! For people who do not like to stop and ask for directions or admit that they are lost, (you know who I am talking about!!) GPS is the solution!!

Dear Sridhar,

This is exactly what I wanted when I (amongst others) requested you to write about your experiences in this US visit ! You have not disappointed me

How like you to compare the GPS with life and one's goals! Me mandu has been exposed to GPS since long and never thought much beyond the fact that it has made my life easy . Like I have said before, that's what makes you the thinker-writer and me just me :)

BTW, GPS has made my life easy as otherwise, my hubby would eat up my head (or should it be my eyes?!) when we are travelling through unknown premises. See, my husband simply needs to know where exactly he is at any given time while travelling...he needs to know the next turn, the next fly over or what river or other highway crosses our path or how far away we are from our destination. I just used to sit next to him with my head buried in the map and my finger travelling along all the little jumbled up lines in there! Even the map quest print out would not quench his questions! Now I have this elegent voice taking over and I enjoy the scenery

Thanks for introducing a new facet to this gadget!

L, Kamla

You know Kamla - another thing that will keep husbands busy - tell them what average speed they are travelling in - the latitude, longitude, estimated time of arrival, etc, etc. My husband wants to know this kind of information while we are driving!!

Ha ha...good one Shobana.....Problem is..GPS doesn't tell that and I don't know east from west..leave alone the latitudes Maybe the next generation of gadgets will save us ?!
So, you too in the same boat as me ?

L, Kamla

Dear Sunitha,

May be because I have come here for training and have to be constantly in the learning mode, everything I see appear to be my teacher. I am sure all males would love GPS because it saves them from the embarrassment of asking for directions, for which task they are congenitally unsuitable.

I am still amazed at its ability to reconfigure itself. Even if you have travelled in the opposite direction for a hundred miles it tells you how to reform and how to go forward. This to me is an ability which we should have, if we want to succeed in life.

But Sunitha, GPS has its own problems. While it took us to a specific shopping mall in Seattle it could not locate a parking pace for us, which after an hour of search we found, was almost under our very nose.
regards,

Kamla - the GPS we have from Garmin gives us all kinds of info - that is what I was referring to! I was like you too - had my Rand McNally in my lap along with a printout from mapquest and trying to see what is coming up, etc!! Yes, honey, we just crossed the Missouri river (heading west) and we are in Kansas!! Yes, Dorothy, we are home!

Hello Shobana,
May be all day long I am and I have to be on a learning mode, this lesson struck me!
For people who do not like to stop and ask for directions or admit that they are lost, (you know who I am talking about!!) GPS is the solution!!

I know who you are talking about. It is us, the males. I remember reading a joke in Readers Digest. The man is driving his Ferrari and his wife is sitting by his side lost in maps. Finally the wife says, "I'm afraid, we're lost." To which the man replied, "That's all right honey. I am enjoying the drive."

The one my host has is programmed to have an American accent. It is a pleasant lady's voice. I love talking back to the lady in Tamil, "Amma Thaye, Kochikkathe... etc"


A lady had written in Motor Vikatan that she travelled all the way from her home in the US to Canada fully relying on the GPS. A distance of about a thousand miles plus. She never got lost on the way.

regards,

VOW SRIDHAR,
something wonderful with this gadget, but to think whether this will be applicable in bangalore the ever changing one way routes...sunkan