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I
read an amusing news item some time back. To
reduce the 'culture shock' experienced by MNC
executives when they move to India operations,
the companies are training the executives about
the concept of 'Indian Standard Time' (IST). The
training advises that in case an Indian invites
them for any social function, they should arrive
there around one and a half hour late!
Some years back, I went to attend an Indian
party in a community hall in the US. When I
reached the place on time (as per the invite),
all the Americans who were invited were there
and so was I but the host of the party himself
was missing! By default, everyone started
looking at me, pretty confidant that I have
telepathic powers and can read the mind of a
fellow desi and can explain as to why the host
was late for his own party (the irony here is
probably lost to many Indians).
I was left to explain this situation and
behavior of my fellow desis to the goras. I was
forced to explain to the Americans about the
Indian theory of time and space (which is quite
distinct from the quantum and relativity
theories). I revealed to the Americans the
concept of 'Indian Standard Time'!
For any social appointment: Indian Standard Time
= Time in your watch + A Constant (where
Constant = 1.5 hours).
What this means is that if you go to any Indian
social function please arrive there 1.5 hours
late. The Americans looked puzzled. Their
knowledge of physics must have been very poor!
They said in unison, "If you want to have a
party after 1.5 hours, just say so in the invite
in the first place". "Why publish the time as 11
AM and have the party at 12:30 PM?" I knew what
they were saying but I found myself in a
situation similar to Einstein defending the
quantum theory. How can you explain something
that you yourself don't believe in!
Now, with the American companies themselves
training people in the concept of 'Indian
Standard Time', I think we have come in full
circle. Instead of fighting and solving a
complex problem people have come to accept it as
a basic 'assumption' and move around it. Ah!
What a beautiful way to solve all the world's
problems.
Now coming back to India, my father always had
the habit of respecting his and other's time. I
unfortunately picked up this habit too! If we
had a train to catch, we will arrive at the
railway station quite early. We will see at
least three trains and thousands of people come
and go on the platform before 'our' train will
finally arrive after 2 hours (provided it was
not running late!). We will reach at the counter
of a government office much before it's official
opening time and will find the babu opening the
counter even late. We will observe people, the
surrounding wildlife and have quality father and
son time as we waited in our little queue of two
people! If there was a social function we will
reach there quite ahead of time (before every
one else) and will invariably find ourselves
helping the host with the arraignments. We will
become the hosts instead of the guests!
I hated this timeliness when I was a little kid
but as I grew older my hate got mutated to love.
The habit of respecting other's as well as my
own time has helped me immensely both personally
as well as professionally. Because of IT/ITES
sector, for the first time in India, a large
number of people are learning the basic
etiquette of timeliness. We are finally talking
about time bound-objectives, time-bound
milestones and so on and so fort. We are finally
releasing that when you respect someone's time,
you don't just respect the 'time of that person'
but you respect that 'person' himself. How
civilized is that!
I was eagerly waiting for this basic etiquette
to cross over from our professional to personal
lives. It looked like a logical step: from
office meetings to social functions. But alas!
The 1.5 hours time delay constant has become a
universal constant now and cannot be denied. It
looks like we people are giving up on respecting
social time too soon. We Indians are so brainy
that we have grasped the complicated concept of
time, space and universal constants and are
ready to teach the world about it!
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Comments: |
Thanks
to you, Mr. Som Vishwakarma, for
your beautifully written article
which should open the eyes of the
Indians who should learn a lesson
from experience, if not from
history.
IST has earned the notoriety of
being popularly known as 'Indian
Stretchable Time'. Let us hope that
better sense will prevail in us and
that we will soon change and change
the world too. - Omar Luther King
- Aug. 21, 2006
Great Article! We all have our
struggles with the timeliness issue.
It frustrates some of us who try and
fail to make it on the dot. If you
are trying, you are okay in my book.
Still, I want to take this
opportunity to tell every fellow
Bihari who reads this - If you are
running more than 15 minutes late,
PLEASE CALL your host and inform
that you will be a little late; and
APOLOGIZE profusely when you arrive
at your host's home.
Being late is not good, but it is
inexcusable if you do not call to
inform about your delay our fail to
apologize for being tardy upon
arrival. - Aarcee - Aug. 21, 2006
In India, people come late for
social occasions because being tardy
is a sign of that person belonging
to a very well to do and so called
cultured family. The more late they
are, the more important they feel.
It's skewed logic but that's how
most things work or don't work in
India. - Rajendra Kumar - Aug.
24, 2006
Thanks for posting this. We should
realise that TIME is a very
expensive commodity and others' time
should be respected at least equal
to ones own. - Saifuddin Ahmad -
Aug. 24, 2006 |
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