The real truth of how Christopher Columbus stumbled upon America

I discovered this truth recently myself. By a sheer stroke of serendipity. But for that a little background first.

So, the husband’s mobile suddenly developed a line on the screen display, just like that, overnight as it were. A nice pink vertical line. After a few weeks, the single pink line felt bored and lonely. So God … I mean Samsung, the Creator, created another line, a green one, and sent it down. All was hunky dory, with the husband quite smug that his mobile was the only one with this unique feature, until the service centre chap burst his bubble and assured him that my mobile would develop lines too. Something about a manufacturing defect affecting a particular series, or whatever.

Since then, the husband constantly looked over my shoulder, or rather at my phone screen for signs of any lines. And he was rewarded weeks later when I woke up one morning and saw the light, I mean, the line, on my phone. Eureka, I shouted, or words to that effect and brandished the phone beneath the husband’s nose triumphantly. There it was – a bright green line running vertically from north to south and cutting the screen into two equal halves. I had arrived finally! But … I was not quite there yet.

For, I had a single line. While he had two! Mogambo, oops sorry, the husband khush thay! And I went around with the faint stirrings of FOMO, while he strutted about and looked down upon me, as ‘she who had only one line’! But not for long. A visit to my parents’ house revealed sad news for both of us. As we chitchatted about this and that with the seniors, the topic veered towards mobiles and lines on them and my father’s ears perked up. Normally hard of hearing with things which are not his business, on this occasion, his eyes sparkled and he sprang up with all the alacrity of a sprightly 90-year-old and brandished his phone. It had 3 lines! Can you believe it!  3 bright fluorescent pink lines. Life is so not fair! Why this discrimination? We had all bought our phones from the same company. And paid a bomb for them! Shouldn’t Samsung at least ensure equality in screen display? Several trips to the show room, service centres, repair shops proved futile. Nobody had answers. Nor solutions!

The husband and I came home dejected and feeling left out of the line race. And the feeling has increased, since the day when the son booked an Uber, in Bangalore. The cab took its time arriving at destination. 5 minutes waiting time on the app jumped to 9, and 10 minutes later it further jumped to 15. Just when the son decided to cancel, the cab driver called asking for the location and directions how to get there.

“Follow the map,” advised my son tersely. But the vehicle blip crawled back and forth on the app display, like a tortoise without a radar.  When at last, the cab arrived, I felt like breaking a coconut in celebration. We got in and as we settled in the back seat of the cab, the son poked me in the ribs and indicated the driver’s mobile dangling on a holder on the dash board!

And whaddya know …. The man’s mobile screen had not one, not two, not even three, but several lines running all over. In multi colours. A veritable rainbow. The neon lines flashed forth boldly, covering almost the entire screen, including the map. No wonder the man was confused, and had gone round in circles like a drunken hen. If not for the calls in between, he would have been thoroughly lost and reached a different destination altogether. Can’t blame him, now, can we?

Even Christopher Columbus that great discoverer, had steered his ship off, in the wrong direction remember? The chap went off to the Americas instead of reaching India! Doubtless because of a faulty compass. With or without lines on it. History is silent on this salient fact.

Meanwhile, the cab driver has clearly won the battle of the lines!

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