When Google maps trumps the local
Driving directions from a sixteen year-old
Today, I had to pick up my daughter’s classmate from her home so they could all attend a school fest together.
I hadn’t seen this girl’s home before and didn’t know it. I’d lived in that area for eight years, but that was before this daughter was born.
My daughter’s friend gave me her address, but no directions or landmark. When I asked her for a landmark, a shop, a memorial, anything, she said vaguely,
“There’s a boundary wall. I’m standing in front of it.”
What she missed saying was that the boundary wall was that of Tata Motors Hospital, one of the biggest in the state.
I asked her, did you know that the boundary wall belonged to the hospital?
She said, “Yes, but I didn’t think of it.”
Boy, should she have led with that! Fortunately, she did give us her location over WhatsApp and Google Maps directed us there. We weren’t even late for school, though I had had a few tense moments wondering where the home might be.
