I have a small hobby of doing my own needle repairs. Mostly because of my height, the pants and pajamas I buy from the market usually have to be shortened. So I cut them and hem them myself.
This time, I bought a new sleeping suit, and naturally, the pajama bottoms were too long. I asked Harvinder to help me cut them. Usually, I do the cutting and she stitches them, either with the sewing machine or the hemmer. But she was busy with something important and couldn’t help.
So I thought, why not finish my own job? I took out the needle and thread and began hemming. It hardly takes me 25 minutes. In between, I had to step out for lunch.
While I was out, a thought crossed my mind. What if someone else, with good intentions, decided to cut the pajamas further, maybe another two or three inches? That reminded me of a joke I had heard in my younger days.
An elderly grandfather once wanted his pajama shortened by two inches. He asked his daughter-in-law to do it. She was busy and asked her daughter to do it. The next day, nothing had been done. Then he asked another daughter-in-law. Again, everyone was busy. Finally, on the third day, the grandfather decided to cut and hem it himself and kept it aside.
Later, each family member remembered the request separately. Wanting to help, each one cut two inches and left it for him.
In the end, six extra inches had been cut!
So I smiled to myself and hurried back home, just to make sure my pajamas were safe. Otherwise, instead of a sleeping suit, I might have ended up with shorts!
Jokes are jokes, but they often carry quiet wisdom. In our busy lives, intentions are good, but coordination is rare. Sometimes the simplest solution is to quietly do your own small tasks and avoid unnecessary confusion. And at this age, it is better to lose a little time with a needle and thread than lose six inches of perfectly good cloth!
