Samay ka pahiyya chalta hai

"All to-morrows are to-days with an addition of 24 hours" [Tagore, coincidentally it's his birthday] Or so it feels, whiling away time at home while I ponder about the luxuries - Time and Home. I struggle to come to terms with the game of Samay [not Raina, Sagar explains quite well]. Time. It is both so elusive and illusive. Flies like a migrant bird, so swiftly away yet leaving the impression of coming over again but, Kya apna time aayega? Well, if all the circumstances remain the same, the wind belts are convenient and the climate is conducive, sure! The birds will be back. Hordes of people await these migrant flocks. How many will witness the rare scenario? Will every dog have its day, can't say.

Can't help but address that, in the pandemic times the word migrant has been intertwined with agony and distress. Uncountable lives were lost, may it be due to the disease or its practical consequences. While the migrants who could, returned back to their nest, the Covid Virus as if imitating, also returned back, albeit with a deadlier wave. Lives spent indoors, lives not fully lived. All the ambitious plans pushed to the next year, and the next year turns out worse. What happens to these plans? What happens to the time lost? I wish we could make this period void of Covid. Or else, at least to call it null so that we can all act as if we never lost any time. Or is it just us? Did the others spend this year productively?

Any which way, coming back to the aspect of time, it leaves us every moment. Blink, left a moment of time. It's in fact amusing that, Time while taking our leave, leaves us feeling hopeful, despite having lost so much of Time. The false sense that time will heal your unfulfilled heart, time will bring better things/people, there's lots of time ahead to rejoice. It puts us in a passively complacent position and takes over the control of life. Life is after all, bits and pieces of time spent by Us or it could be Us using our time decidedly. 

What makes you think you have a lot of time? It is pretty evident in our system of functioning as an individual and as a country. We let the issues simmer in a cooker and when the cooker bursts open, it's a rude shock. It is a shame that I didn't imbibe the habit of putting on my glasses when I was recommended to. My eyes have deteriorated because I didn't. It was best to have listened to the doctor back then. The next best time is now. I can't delay this further and expect time to make things better saying, I'll eventually have to stick to thick glasses in old age anyway. Time will probably make my eyes more accustomed to widening the pupil. It will not solve the problem right now.

As a country, we hold very dear this tranquilizing drug of gradualism. There is a tacit collective acceptance of leaving burning issues on the simmering gas, expecting to delay the inevitable crisis. The cooker burst this time, leaving our Infrastructure - Health & Logistics, exposed. The ones with the power and the ones who allowed them this power, both felt the burn, losing their close ones. Time will heal their wounds, but time will not prevent another crisis. The best time to have taken action was yesteryears, the next best time is Now. Blink, left the moment.

Written to the tune of - Aiko "Time Machine"

世直しの人助け 気どってみたい                 I want to help people who are in the world.

ああタイムマシン 夢の中だよ                    Oh time machine in a dream.

ああタイムマシン 何でも出来る                Oh time machine can do anything.