All the Time

‘Time is all I have’, is what certain people say.

‘I am always running against the time and have my hands full’ is the view of the other end.

We may oscillate between these two extremes but some people manage to remain static in one of these states! Time is one of the resources that are least valued at least by most of the people. Everyone is busy counting the money, the number of heads involved in doing a work, and material required to make certain things happen. We have so many examples in our day to day life that can illustrate this fact. Getting up from the bed in the morning on a winter day is a challenge. Who would not like to snuggle in the quilt or blanket for some more time even though a little investment of that time in an exercise or a pleasant walk may bring immense benefits! If you are driving to office the time spent in traffic jams is a cause of immense frustration besides no productivity and added cost of fuel spent. If you are in a shared taxi and one of the habitual latecomers delays everyone, it causes heartburn, besides racing to reach the destination on time!

I was undergoing summer training at Naini a small town near Allahabad while in pre final year of the college.  To reach the place we had to start very early and walk a distance of 4 km to reach the Allahabad railway station and take one local train leaving at 6.45 AM to traverse the distance of 18 km to Naini railway station. From there a distance of another 3 km either by walk or a horse drawn cart! The process would be repeated on return. On the third day I and three of my friends reached the gate almost half an hour late! The Security Manager gave us a dressing down and with his quivering mustaches told us,’ this is the last time you are reporting late! If you cannot walk, run or take a flight for all I care but you jolly well come in time’. During our remaining stay of four months we were never late again!

It is most annoying to see people walking in late for meetings, appointments and for every social event, invariably in India and blame the Indian Stretchable Time (IST)!

On my marriage the bus was to depart for my wife’s place and all people were assembled at our place. We left for the destination at the precise time only to hear a complaint later from a friend from Air force that hey missed the bus as they were just a few minutes late! My father in law was stickler for a time and would often reach the venues of social gatherings at the precise time to find even host has not reached there! These are the travails of being too particular with time!

Those who respect time are respected as a people and as a country! Rarely have I witnessed people reaching late for work or other appointments in US, Europe or most of the developed world! They understand the value of time! In countries like Switzerland every bus stop, railway station, or ferry station has a clock where the arrival time is indicated. One can see quality of life and the way the whole country is managed including whatever is produced there meets the highest standards. One of the major reasons for these achievements are they value time and no wonders they are the timekeepers of the world!

 Some nice quotes about time are as follows:

• “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ― Mother Teresa
• “Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
  ― Coco Chanel
• “You may delay, but time will not.” ― Benjamin Franklin
• “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” ― C.S. Lewis

All what is needed is the inclination to be a stickler for time. The Tower of Pisa was once quoted to have said’ if you have the time, I have the inclination’


PS: Image Kind courtesy Google