How to tango with time

I don’t know about the others but I have a very fluid concept of time. That means I am late for any meeting that requires me to be punctual. Usually because I get confused looking at the many different times around me. Ever since I have acquired a cell phone, I have given up wearing a watch. And my cell phone runs on work time (as seen at my workplace) which is like 10 minutes ahead. But when it comes to meeting AquaM, I am early.

At home, it is a tradition to keep all the clocks about 5 minutes ahead so that we are on time. Except that I know it is 5 minutes ahead and do the necessary calculations. So invariably, I am late despite everyone’s best efforts. But it so happened that the 5 minutes which were meant to buffer the lateness got added so many times that at one point in time our main clock was running 20 minutes fast! Needless to say, I wasn’t the least bit affected. Why? I told you. I did the mental substraction. Whenever I looked at the clock and actually believed the time I saw, I would come to a realisation that it is 20 minutes fast within about the next 20 seconds. The other effects were that guests would leave early. “It’s already 9 o’clock!” they would exclaim and we have to tell them why it is not time yet. Of course, if the guests were unwanted, I don’t need to tell you what we did. Later, we changed the 20 minutes-ahead thing. Usually this is done by my 6-foot-plus brother who can reach up to the clock and when I am not there. So that when I do get to know through some accident, it is too late!

One would think that all this mental subractions would make me an expert in Math. You cannot be more wrong than that. I’m really bad at Math. A fallout of having chosen to graduate in English where everything is subjective. And reactions are all that count. I love the uncertainty of it especially when it comes to books and movies. But in day-today life, it is best that 2 plus 2 is 4 and not whatever you want it to be.

Of late, I have taken my concept of fluid time to the blogosphere as well. Each post – a you know- is accompanied by time, date, and day slot. But I cannot cannot let even a date go by without saying something. Skipped dates hamper continuity. Or so I think. So I backdate many of my entries to keep the flow. Anyways, what’s a day here or there? I’m sure many History professors would disagree. So today is Feb 6th according to the rest of the world but is Feb 2nd on my blog.

So as Bangaloreans love to say, Swalpa adjust madi (Please adjust)!