I was a reading an article on women and directions. It went on to say that women were very poor in finding directions and they easily get lost unlike men. Men always have a mental map. When asked directions they always reply ….go straight 25 mts and turn right, whereas women tend to say go straight…there will be a bakery, then shoe store and turn you can see a hotel etc.It reminded me of an incidence that took place some years ago. I was very poor in finding places and even if I had visited the place many times I was always puzzled whenever I was asked to take a bus as I always ended up taking the bus that traveled away from the place I had to reach and it was my husband who always had a nice entertainment and who would always comment that he was very surprised by my inability to find the direction. Actually I really started wondering if something was wrong with my reasoning, logics and my IQ (which I know very well is very less).I was really relieved when we visited my husbands cousin in Mumbai .When she was asked about some place she was baffled (she had been living there right from her birth) and her husband commented that she was very poor in finding places and always went the opposite direction. So I was very happy that I was not alone. Later I came to know many ladies had this problem (men have problem in identifying colors so…) when we were in Germany I always knew from the map which station came next and got down if it wasn’t and got the other side train. I always ended up that way. It was only once or twice that I had traveled in the right direction.
My husband had to go on an official trip to Kiel in Germany and we went with him. There was a beach nearby and we planned to take my daughter there .After our breakfast we started and we heard from his friend that it was only half an hour walk .So we started to walk .I just followed him with my daughter carrying a lot of things to make castle in the sand. We walked, walked and wallllllllked ………but not a trace of water. Another 40 mins nothing. I told my husband that I was very tired and I really doubted if we were moving in the right direction. He just stared at me ….”Of all people u talking about directions kind of look “and told me that he had checked the map. Next thing that was surprising was only few people were walking. Then at last we came to the dead end…I mean dead end truly…it was a graveyard .so after an hour walk we reached this graveyard. I was really wild on thinking that we had to walk another hour to go back .but I was very happy that even my husband got lost getting wrong direction. So whenever he commented I was ready…..” Even you got it wrong. You took us to a graveyard! Nice place to take us”.Eventhough we laughed after reaching home the whole stretch back home was full of arguments. Now when I went to Singapore I found that my daughter was also bad in directions. She always boarded the wrong train and switched direction in the next station….The article finally went to say that women were slower and lack the sense of direction. So at least now I am happy it wasn’t my fault that I always got places wrong.
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I may differ from what you say about giving directions especially in the Indian context. Men too give directions by using landmarks like the bakery etc. That is a much easier way of providing directions to people.
It is also a matter of thought how one could really tell you about 25 mts or 100 mts. After all one does not have a measuring tape along with him or her. I, for example, am very bad at estimating distances.
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