Mistakes from memory loss

These days I often realize that I make the same mistakes that I made some years ago: deteriorating memory. Looking through my collection of novels, I saw that I have bought five different books for the second time from airport shops, without reading the earlier copy which I forgot I have already bought!
Yesterday evening I decided to go to the TM centre of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, located in the Sarkhej -Gandhinagar Highway, to attend a lecture on TM. I reached the place at 1830 Hrs and there was a small crowd of about fifty, waiting. Apparently some “Maharajah” in Holland, a successor of the Yogi, was supposed to bless us through the telephone and the first half hour was spent waiting for the connection. It turned out to be the Maharishi’s’ birthday, being celebrated in all countries including Holland, and the Maharajah would take some time off during his lunch hour and bless us in Ahmedabad. I remembered the call I received that morning from Dr Rajneesh Bhutani that his wife, Kuljeet Kaur, was blessed with a baby girl; this kid then shares her birthday with great men such as the Maharishi, also Swami Vivekananda and lesser mortals like our former colleague J R Trivedi!
After the blessings were duly received, there was ‘Ved path’; I could locate an Iyengar mama with thiruman, and it was pleasant listening to the Vedic chants, especially Sama veda. Then the speeches started. I got bored and by 2030 decided to leave. It is then that it struck me: several years ago when Yajnavalkya was visiting Ahmedabad in a winter, he took me to a similar function where we were expected to see levitating meditators. We sat for two hours hearing speeches, got bored and returned without seeing any levitation! I had made the same mistake again! But there was a saving grace this time. As I went out and tried to pick out my shoes, someone asked me if I was leaving. Answered in the affirmative, he said I should take prasad before I leave. I was taken to another room, where there were men waiting with a big Tava. They made nice masala dosa and uttappam for me! I could not eat the jahangiris because of my sugar problem! This was good, as Ranganathan’s wife is away to attend her father’s funeral in Bengal, because of which neither him nor me will get any poli for Bhogi or Pongal! (I also recall the words of Late Dr. N N Rao, who said that Tamilians are always worried about sappadu!).
I recall long back we went to Chennai for boarding the ship and no accommodation was available in the ISRO Guest House. I made the mistake of asking Dr. Venkatesan to book a hotel for us at Adayar. When I went to meet him, he did not tell me where the accommodation was; instead he started his Luna, asking us to follow him in our taxi. He went so fast that our driver lost him; we parked in a wrong place waiting for Dr. Venkatesan, ended up paying a fine!
Moral of the story: Never forget your past mistakes!