The next train to arrive on platform 1 goes to...

My friend asked me, “What are you reading currently?”

I said, “The train timetable.”

“Ah. What do you think of it?”

“Well, I am not able to decide which category it falls in - fiction or mythology.”

“If you ask me, it is just false propaganda.”

Really, why do the trains behave like they have a different agenda altogether? It is with great reluctance that they carry us to our desired destinations. Every now and then I hear the disjointed computer announcements saying with an air of supreme indifference (Understandable. After all, even computers are entitled to some apathy), “The 8:23 service to Gordon is delayed by approximately 45 minutes” (Hooray! I’ll not be more than an hour late to work today!) or, “The 7:18 service to Mcarthur has been cancelled” (That means I will have to miss tonight’s dinner party. I will spend the rest of the day trying to find the bright side of this.)

A few Sundays back I was waiting at one of the smaller train stations for a train to town. It was too small to be blessed with regular arrival announcements or indicators. There was only an extremely complicated timetable with a system of colour coding and numbering, which, if you knew advanced calculus, told you which train came on what platform at what time. After about 15 minutes of figuring out the timetable, I concluded that my train was due at 10 minutes past the hour. Well alright, I was exaggerating. Maybe not 15 minutes. 13 at the outside.

A train had passed by already while I was calculating, but I tried to believe that it was not mine.

I waited. And waited. The 10 past was long past. A goods train rumbled by. An express train zipped past. Well, not zipped, exactly. Sydney trains go at a majestic pace. Bloody waste of precious time, but bloody majestic.

Every two minutes, the station master would play the message: “Please stand behind the yellow lines. Please mind the gap when boarding or alighting from a train.” Fine, but where is the train to board or alight from? Perhaps that express train was actually a regular train and the driver just forgot to stop. It has happened once, I swear.

I was in a western line train when I noticed that some passengers at the door got a bit flustered and then came the announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, the driver forgot to stop at Auburn station. We regret the mistake. But he WILL be stopping at Lidcombe station.” Thank God for small mercies. Everyone was too aghast to say anything.

Anyway, the train did come eventually. Perhaps the timetable is fiction loosely based on actual fact.

Did I forget something?

I haven’t used my credit card in ages and ages. Last month for the first time, I was shown an outstanding amount of $20 which was the annual fees for the card.

I forgot to pay because most of the times I don’t even remember that I own a credit card. Finally today I remembered and logged on only to find that the bank charged me $35 as late fees yesterday. How frustrating is that? Paying 175% (or whatever…do the maths) interest on the annual fees of a card I have not used more than 5 times in five years. All because I forgot about it one day more than I was allowed to.

When I got to thinking about it, I realized that I have been putting too many reminders in my phone of late. And most of the times I forget the task in spite of that.

That got me thinking about absent-mindedness. Now Mother is constantly reminding me how my memory is worse than that of a 90-year-old. But why? Then I remembered, a lot of the folks on my father’s side are that way. Does it run in the family? Can absent-mindedness be hereditary? I googled it. One of the search results was a site that said that absent-mindedness can be a cute trait. Obviously not the site I am looking for. Cute! Tell that to my mother and my aunts who have to deal with a bunch of forgetful men and children (I think it is hereditary).

Opened up a couple of websites (University websites, no less). Not helpful.

Then there was a US government website of medicine and health. Looked more promising. Opened the page and it listed a number of research articles. Did a ctrl-F to look for absent-mindedness. Ah, there it was!

The title read: “Absent-mindedness and shop-lifting - a case study”.

Umm…next.

The next one was: “Alleged shoplifters and psychiatric outpatients: drugs, absent-mindedness and mental state compared”.

Right…

If you think about it, I don’t think absent-mindedness is such a big deal anyway. I mean, if it was, surely there would be counselling centres for abused family members of affected people, or Absents Anonymous and things like that, isn’t it?