Missing Report: TIME

Today I want to file a missing report. I want to file this report for the entity “TIME”. ”I don’t have the time”. This phrase has become much more common than the common flu. Yes, we have advanced our self on technology, medical science etc but one thing that we have lost for sure is time. In this blog, I want to portrait how our lives have been affected due to this very common phrase.

Lets start the discussion from our home environments. Modern day parents are really part-time parents and full time employees. It is so common so see a child left at a baby sitting rather than his/her parents care. And the reason for this is, “No Time”. So many of men and women work all day, travel for a few hours each day and at the end, all that is left is “No Time”. Now, let us give a though on how the child and his/her thought process gets effected. As the child gets older, he/she gets habituated to being all by himself/herself. This is really not a good social trait that is being developed in modern day society. To pass this time, he starts to use a host of gadgets that are available in this era of technology. It is not uncommon for children as young as 10 years of age to be active on facebook. Then there are Ipads, Ipods and a host of i-stuff to keep the child occupied. Not to forget there are so many cartoons and games to enjoy with. But is this what really the childhood is about? I firmly believe our childhoods are the happiest days of our life, without any kind of tension and money is as good as a paper. The childhood is really meant to smell the roses, be pampered, explore the environment to name a few.

Now some people may disagree with me. They may have an opinion that the modern child is also enjoying himself/herself by being on facebook, by playing all sorts games, watching cartoons. To such people, I respect your opinion, but I am sorry to say I do not agree. Let me clarify further why I say so. Lets talk of the effect of games, tv, internet on children. One can go on and on discussing the effects of modern technology on children. But I would like to cut that discussion and just say, the child does not learn to interact, feel ignored and may become socially awkward and/or develop split personality.

Now lets move on to family relations in modern day society. Modern society has brought this new term “nuclear families” and “extended family”. Very innovative terminology, but lets dwell deeper. First lets talk about relations in general inside nuclear family. It is so many times seen, husband-wife have nothing to talk about. The love that was once there fades away. Children have not much to talk to parents. With ‘to talk’ I mean a real conversation. Sibling relations go cold on the pretext, “No Time”. Of-course, this can be generalized to all house holds but believe it or not this happens. Now lets go on to talk about the extended family. I am sure the reader must have guessed by now what I am going to say about these relations. To generalize, I have nothing more to say than we really have lost touch with our extended families. Of-course there are exceptions to this stereo-types. I have seen a few siblings which are like best buddies. Have seen people who are very much in touch on a regular basis with their uncles, aunts, maternal uncles and so on. But you see, this has become exceptions rather than norms. Such is the effect of the phrase “No Time” and the modern life style.

Recently, I happen to buy a new android phone. I was really amazed the way it helps to communicate with your friends and family. But in this modern day do we really communicate? Believe it or not but the answer is a blunt “NO”. In-spite of the technology offering so many ways to communicate we rather prefer let go our time than to find time for our friends and family. This is because we are too used to using “No Time” phrase.

I have some things in my mind of this issue. I cannot change the people around but this is what I have thought I can do. The foremost thing is to get rid of the phrase “No Time”. We really can make time for most of the stuff. Its more of a decision. After staying a while in Europe, the conclusion I have come to is, Europeans really have a good way of chilling out. They think of work strictly during work hours. ie. weekdays from 9 to 5. Be it a business person or an employee. Rest of the time they do activities they always wanted to do. Adventure sports, holidays, time for family. One thing about Indians I like is that, festivals are seen as a way to meet people. If it becomes possible, I want to fuse these two mind-sets together and live the moment without the phrase “No Time”.

Lastly I would like to say that I am fortunate enough to have people around me who would find time out of their schedules for me and try to keep in touch though phone, email, chats, facebook etc. Finally, I hope this article provokes a new thought process in the reader. Comments, opinions, critics are most welcome.

Manohar Kuse
Alumni, The LNMIIT