Give Time, time!

Prelude:

Humans are bound by time and space and if that limit is taken away, how will we all behave? In Indian mythology, Vaikunta or the abode of Maha Vishnu is where we all are destined to reach one day and is supposed to be devoid of time and space.

What if we do NOT follow the clock anymore?! How will it be if Time is not raced against or in simple terms, if all the clocks stopped working?!

One morning.

As I wake up from bed, I saw the Sun shining brightly and I found my mobile hasn’t rung the alarm, I rush as I don’t know what time it is and how late I am to send kids off to school! I don’t even know if I overslept so much that the school van had gone already! I rush the kids to get ready, keep the cooker and get their lunch bags ready! 

Suddenly, kids ask, Amma, why are you in such a hurry? What time is it? Only then I realize that I forgot to see the time. When I told them to check the wall clock, both said the clock has stopped working! I remember changing the batteries just last week! I said, it’s okay, come, let’s go down. The van never came. There was chaos in the street as all the school kids are waiting, for their vans too hadn’t come! When I checked my mobile, the clock had stopped working there too! The same was the case with everyone’s mobile!

So, we rush to drop the kids only to get caught in the traffic. It feels like a long time in the car, but finally when we make it to school, we neither could park the vehicle nor could send kids inside. Then we realize, the clocks all around us have stopped working! School had declared a holiday and we all come back home, what seemed like ages!

Mobiles ringing and WhatsApp messages pouring in about the time stopping, mysteriously with a previous time stamp and mobile has no use for time or clock or calendar apps! Kids were very happy, started jumping up and down and played to their heart’s content. Once they got tired, they ate, and all slept! In short, it was a holiday!

Soon, I went out to fetch veggies and there was a sudden demand for grocery, veggies, milk, petrol and other essentials! People thought it to be some event taking place and thought something huge is in the pipeline! I too got veggies until the shop keeper closed!

My refrigerator was full at home! When I was thinking about the next morning, strangely, it was never night! The day did not end! I just dozed off due to fatigue and too much excitement and again I didn’t know when I woke up. Unable to differentiate between day and night, even the animals and birds got tired. There was confusion everywhere! Small babies could not sleep and so were the elders. The friends and family from other parts of the world called up to enquire how it is there and for them too the clocks seem to have just stopped as I was wondering if we have started to have “Day light savings” too.

The media industry jolted in this time quake with no time stamp to shoot, edit and telecast and everywhere there was stagnation. They tried to make it interesting by making it live all the time globally but soon people were bored! Nobody knew how many days passed. All the 24 hours, the Sun was there all over the world and scientists could never arrive at a logical solution! Schools declared to work, but they couldn’t say “from when?!” Same was with offices! There were no deadlines at all!

Hospitals had huge number of patients with sleeplessness and an equal number of doctors with the same complaint! Books from the library never gathered a late fee as they couldn’t judge “how late”! All the ATMs ran out of cash as people started to pile up cash at home! Hubby was happy and when asked the reason, he said he need not worry about EMI if this is how it is going to be! I said, this can’t be! Sun working overtime, people became anxious, depressed and sweatier.

Everyone was having an aimless and directionless life, in short! This made all the people lazy! Kids started to get bored, enough of playing all the time, they now want to go to school to meet their friends and teachers. All play and no work made them bored!

Soon, people started to understand how time was important and how everyone was busy in their lives as they tied their goals to a deadline.

Scientists tried to explain saying this is a very rare phenomenon happening all over the world, but we don’t have any solutions yet. All the astrologers said they could not calculate anymore, and religious experts said there is no reference to this in the past other than one instance in Shrimad Bhagavatam when Lord Bhramma learnt his lesson by taking away all the cowherds and the cows and returned after an year! Then too, time on Earth never stopped!

Due to Sun’s over working, the other industries flourished. Agriculture, for example. Temples were open all the time and transport and restaurants worked in shift systems only that nobody could say when a shift ended and when the next started! Schools and offices soon opened again and people could go whenever they want because nobody tracked the time sheets! Work was also taken up in the same way. When one person was fatigued, the other will take over. Something was completely amiss in the system.

When everyone greeted each other, they could say nothing but Good morning all the time! People could walk bravely on the roads and thefts reduced on the positive side.

Everyone also remembered how they misused time by not being on time, by procrastinating, by taking advantage of other’s time and wasting it away. How, many people woke up in the nights depriving the body of its essential sleep requirements! This was deserved punishment for abusing time, experts were talking. They suggested to wear eye covers while feeling tired and sleepy, close the windows with thick black curtains when fatigued and so many other suggestions were given.

When people could take it no longer, everyone started to pray in their own methods and asked for forgiveness! Many realized the time and its value and no later than that thought collectively synced in, all the alarms started ringing! To everyone’s surprise, clocks resumed their work! It was dark outside, and the clock showed 9 pm. Everyone set their alarms for the next day and went to bed, peacefully but with a resolution to always respect time and to be on time, every time!

--Vishnupriya