Do you know? Nothing changed last week. All that happened was, this time, time passed us by in the street and we didn’t even recognize it; it wore the same clothes it always wears; it shuffled by us, hands by its side, a second at a time! and more than just a second time. Just like we did what we always do with the insignificant in our lives – we didn’t even notice! Once the second one was past us, we looked up and saw another coming straight at us and it too passed us by; Even as its small hand tapped us on our shoulder we didn’t bother, did we? what’s there to recognise in this insignificant being – We just stamp on it like we do an ant don’t we? unrelenting in our fear and in our hate of its bite. In real time its equivalence is a second!
But then, someone had a birthday, someone had an anniversary, someone fell sick, someone committed a crime, someone was bombed, someone bombed another, someone cried, someone gave birth or was born, someone had an accident, or an elevation, someone had a promotion, someone fell in love, someone got married; that someone was significant, and it rubbed off on time! We timed it, even two timed it on some occasions.
It was the right time to launch a dialogue with the creator – we had found the time, but was it the right time? the auspicious time? Well only time decides that, though we think we do. Is it the right time to ask the question – do we have power of time or does time overpower us?
We presume to decide the right time to launch a dialogue with the creator of time, the one who has power over it, something that we believe we have, but do not? All we do is watch it – literally! At best, we keep track of it as it moves along, because it suits us to do so. We can’t halt its journey, with an offer of rest at any point. If we do, we might be slapped by its second hand, much like Will Smith did Chris Rock at the Oscars yesterday! Will come back to that after some time.
If we paid attention, we would notice, that this time, it did not change its clothes, or wear a designer suit or pass us by in a Mercedes Maybach; yet we noticed, we noted, we bowed our head, we fretted that it is passing us by, and we scrambled to keep up with it, sometimes not sleeping even, upending our internal clock, which is more dependable, than the fit bit we wear these days. Its fits us to the bit, but what keeps us fit is not it, but our internal shit! Don’t believe me? Wear it and sit and you’ll see. You’ll never ever be Brad Pitt!
At this point of time, I want to make a point. It is in the now, when things go awry, when we feel sorry, that we look up to it, around for it. “Where is my watch? I left it on the shelf – I had hoped to give it a rest! “
It is this moment in time that time was waiting for; it’s the moment that it finds us insignificant just as we did, it, last week. It don’t wait for nobody. It has no empathy, no sympathy. Just a typical Pati waiting and whetting for his Chapati. This, my dad told me at that point of time, when time, for me, was insignificant, and I just ignored it. And then me mum pitched in – “tomorrow never comes”, she said. This is the context of my procrastination on their expectations. Spouses time their entry into this dialogue very well.
There’s no if, even if Ronan Keating just added an ‘if’ to that famous line and sang, “If tomorrow never comes, Will she know how much I loved her?” It is then we rue the moment – the one that momentarily we didn’t notice, and now we do. We then try to play catch up and can’t.
Time is famous for what it does. It creates history with each moment, history that repeats every which way; because we live in a different time, we believe that the past is behind us! What we perhaps don’t realise is that what is behind us is what drives us forward! Take any event of the current era and look back – read the TIME Magazine and you will find a resemblance. Yes, time is so famous that it has a whole magazine named after it. It records Time like no other magazine does, so much so when it names a person, he is on time forever, and even above it!
Time may not mean much to us until we realise, we are running behind it in a never-ending race, and sometimes not even then. Just attend a public function, as a guest, and watch out for the Chief Guest and you will quickly but surely realize the difference of being on TIME and being on time!
When time and action are well coordinated, it’s called timing. It’s the sweetest space to be in for those without diabetes. “Was that an election speech or speech in ordinary time? If any speech is given during election, then it’s a different thing. If you’re giving a speech in the ordinary course, then it is instigating something,” said the judge, according to the Indian Express at a hearing on a first information report (FIR) for alleged hate speeches ahead of the February 2020 riots, adding, “If you’re saying something with a smile then there is no criminality, if you’re saying something offensively, then criminality.” Timing is of the essence we are told both in Cricket and Judicial Commentary!
Said a witness in a murder case, “But Sir, he was smiling when he plunged the knife into her! He obviously meant it as a joke. She too died smiling! She is still smiling” and another in a sexual assault case, he was smiling when he touched her, and there was no skin-to-skin contact!”
And then in contrast, there was that ill-timed slap – a slap without the hint of a smile when Oscar Winning actor Will Smith, climbed up on stage and gave a resounding slap to the host of the show Chris Rock over a joke he made about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair.
Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss, and had a closely cropped head at Sunday’s ceremony. The 94th Academy Awards was in its final hour when actor and comedian Rock quipped that Pinkett Smith appeared ready to star in “G.I. Jane 2” — a putative sequel to a film about a female soldier who has a shaved head.
Everybody was smiling except Will Smith. This happens too. And when you are not smiling – it is a crime remember? Will Smith take it lightly? Did he? No. But then he apologised even as the as the body that oversees the awards said it was launching a formal review of the incident. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line, and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be,” the “King Richard” star wrote on Instagram. “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behaviour at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable,” Smith said. If only Putin can bring himself to repeat these lines! But then he is not an actor. He acts; without a smile – so it is indeed a crime.
“Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” said Will Smith! If he had reacted with a smile, things might have been different! But timing of the smile was the key!
Likewise, the time, and timing of our birth is of immense importance, much like Rohit Sharma’s cover drive in a closely fought IPL match. It controls our lives, yet we have no control over it – else, maybe we could have controlled our life? Control over birth time is impossible, and patently different from birth control. But here too, timing is everything! And two-timing is a big no-no!
Time is relative, but maybe not yours. All you have to do is relate to it!. Time will stop in its tracks, and you will stop tracking time!
Disclaimer
This Article is written in the lighter vein. It hopes to bring a smile to your face, and you must not ascribe motives to its contents. There is no connection to events and characters in real life and if perchance you find a connect with any such real-life event or character, rest assured its purely coincidental.
Image by Michal Jarmoluk
