Excuse..

Work kept Arbitmind too busy & he could not put in the posts for a month. Pheww!!

Now that is a reason or an excuse? 

Prima Facie it seems that the same statement can be interpreted as a reason or an excuse depending on

the interpreter's perception.

For example the same response can actually lead to two very different kind of conversations depending on whether  your response is being perceived as a reason or an excuse:

Type-I:

 X: "I could not be on time for the meeting. The traffic is really bad on this road"

 Y: "Yeah. The traffic is really bad. Something should be done about it"

Type-II:

 X: "I could not be on time for the meeting. The traffic is really bad on this road"

 Y: "Well..you know pretty well that the traffic is bad on this road. 

You should have started a bit earlier than usual to make sure that you are on time"

Clearl,  in the second case,  Y has taken X's statement to be an excuse.

You cannot really blame Y for that. He has a point. Likewise X also has a point. 

X did not expect the worst case scenario & hence started on the normal time. After all, no one(at least a good majority) wants to start off his day by expecting the worst case scenario.

From Y's perspective it is not acceptable that X did not factor in the possibility of bad traffic wherein he

was fully aware of the prevailing situation.

Both have a point & the debate becomes a sort of "what came first..the egg or the chicken?"

However there are some cases where debate is totally lopsided. 

X believes he has a watertight case.

Y thinks that the response is preposterous.

like the following ones. All of them are real life stuff.

Location: School Chemistry lab.

Teacher :  "This is the third test tube you have broken in as many sessions. For God's sake why can't you be careful?"

Arbitmind(indignantly): "It just broke by itself, seriously, I barely touched it."

Location: BITS, Pilani

Prof-In-Charge: "You want a make up for this test of Lin AL? Why ?"

Arbitmind (bristling with confidence) : "I was sick"

Prof-In-Charge: "What happened?"

Arbitmind(merrily): "stomach ache, headache, dizziness, giddiness."

Prof-In-Charge: "Anything else?"

Arbitmind : "No, this is enough for a two day rest..right?" 

Location: Pune

Arbitmind : " Work kept me too busy and I could not put in the posts for a month. Pheww!!"