111. Camouflaged Pastime

A father and his daughter are talking at home. The daughter is attending the Time Management course at NILS. The father is not entirely convinced that the courses are actually teaching something useful.

Father: Your mother tells me that you are spending unusually long in the bathroom.

Daughter: How is that a problem for you? I have my own attached bathroom.

Father: I am talking to you about this only because your mother insists. You are also apparently taking very long to finish every meal.

Daughter: I am eating slowly.

Father: That is not what your mother says. She says that you begin normally, but halfway through you get up from the table and carry your plate to your room. Then you take nearly an hour to finish that.

Daughter: Where is the problem in that?

Father: You have also insisted that you will do the cleaning of your room and the maid will not sweep the floor. But then you are taking about forty five minutes to sweep and clean your floor.

Daughter: Once again, why do you have a problem with that? I am not asking you to sweep.

Father: This is something to do with that NILS course, isn’t it? 

Don’t shrug. I know it is some kind of homework or observation. What happened this time? Are they teaching you to waste time?

Daughter: It is my business, not yours.

Father: I know it is that course. You can’t hide it from me.

Daughter (upset): Hide? I don’t need to hide anything from you! Yes it is from NILS. I am doing some experiments on Camouflaged Pastime.

Father: Ahh, there it is. Another one. What is it this time? Camouflaged what?

Daughter: Pastime. Free time. Hobby time.

Father: And why camouflaged?

Daughter: Because people get jealous and irritated when they see that you have free time. One way to avoid that is to cover your pastime with a pretext of some work. Like going to the bathroom, eating, cleaning the room.

Father: What are you doing while you are in the bathroom, eating lunch or cleaning your room?

Daughter: I am watching Netfilx on phone in bathroom, taking a nap during eating and reading books during room cleaning. But you and mom never get to see that. So it is perfectly camouflaged.

Father: If it was so perfectly camouflaged, then how are we having this discussion?