I was reading This Fish's post today, in which she writes that she has to sing the September days song to remember how many days each month has. And I realized that my way of figuring out how many days each month has is slightly different. And I'm not sure if it's something that most people are familiar with -- or if it's just a quirky thing that we do in my village or in Sri Lanka or South Asia.
I make a fist with my hand, and assign the bone of my index finger to January. Then the pit beside the bone is February. Then back up to the bone of the middle finger. That's March. . . and so on. When you get to the bone of the little finger, you return to the index finger and continue. All the months for the raised bones have 31 days, and all the months in the pits have 30 days (except for February, of course, but if you need a method to figure that out, you've got other problems). Anyway, you do it this way, and lo and behold, you get 31 days for both July and August, the only two consecutive months that have 31 days. Because of this, when I was little, I used to think that people who decided the days and months and all did it using their knuckles, and that's why they let July and August have 31 days -- because when you get to the last raised bone, you have to come back to the first raised one! It just made sense.
PS: I am annoyed -- I just called Nev to see if this is actually quite a common practice and I'm making a hoopla about something that everybody knows about. I asked him how he figures out how many days there are in each month, and he said he uses the September song. Then I asked him if he knew the other way, and he vehemently said no.
So I started trying to explain it to him, but every time I started talking, he'd interrupt me with a very abrupt "I don't know what you're talking about," the way he does when he thinks I'm being a "FOB" (that's "fresh off the boat" to anyone who doesn't know desi-talk, as in people who aren't cool or westernized enough).
Finally, exasperated, I said, "Well, that's why I'm trying to explain it to you."
To which, he replied, "Well, I know what it is."
"Then why did you keep saying that you didn't know what I was talking about?" I retorted.
"Well, I know what it is, but I use the September song," he said.
I hung up.
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6 comments:
Never heard of the knuckles approach but it does indeed work (My office-mate wondered for a moment why I was staring so intently at my hands).
I love being a FOB. I want to be a FOB for as long as the boat is still in the harbour.
Cave'oy.
What if there's no boat? And indeed, in today's day and age of technology, its all about the aeroplanes...what does that make us?
Well, you've always been a bit of a FOP Bart (Fresh off the plane).
Whether or not the boat is in the harbour is a matter of mind over matter.
I use the knuckles test, I use the knuckles test!! I'm so glad someone else does too.
FMP
I guess I should defend myself here although only God knows why I should care.
I felt like it was worth neither my time nor my effort to learn something that would accomplish the exact same end result that I already knew how to arrive at through another method. If the way you were trying to show me was in some way more elegant or superior to which I already knew, I would understand but it certainly wasn't (definitely not more elegant), so you can't fault me for ignoring your efforts to forcibly "teach" it to me.
As to your claim about your ability to divine whenever I am "thinking" you're being a 'FOB', I must say that it is pretty impressive but I still remain skeptical. I think it is more of a result of some deep seated fear on your part of being "thought" a FOB than my actually thinking it.
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