In management parlance, time is money. Does it mean you need to spend a fortune on a device that shows time? To me, a watch is a watch as long as it shows Indian Standard Time (IST), plus or minus a couple of minutes.
Glossy supplements may show watches costing literally a fortune, but why should any one spend say Rs 12 lakhs to know what time the sun rose or set, the flight to Delhi left or landed or a politician was late for a function? This is beyond me.
A watch that is worth, say, Rs 1200 gives a reading as accurate as the Rs 12 lakh contraption. But then there is something called ego that is beyond time, perhaps forcing even the have-nots to go for a jewel-bedecked marvel that adorns their wrists.
But no one will know what it cost till the owner announces its worth in rupees or dollars along with time. Once he does, the “Oh!”s and “Ah!”s last for a few fleeting moments. As the seconds tick on the expensive model, hacks like me will cynically conclude that it shows his ego more than time.
And can anyone price the ego, sir? Exactly. That’s why we have watches that cost a moon and not just Rs 12 lakhs. Even the fathers-in -law rolling in black wealth will be praying to the almighty that their prospective sons-in-law will not find time to add one such model to the dowry list.
Wise men say you may buy a cot but cannot be sure of sleeping. Likewise the chap who straps or chains the costliest watch to his wrist may not know the value of time. Either he does or not, one doesn't need a watch to be punctual. If a management guru falls for a diamond studded watch he will say time is watch.
Talking of time, someone asked the chap with the watch “What is the time?” And the reply was “You have asked me a profound question.” No wonder even Einstein struggled to find an answer to that.
Similarly, a computer was asked to choose between a watch that was dead and one that was one minute fast.
Its profound answer was: choose the former, it shows correct time at least twice a day! But the stark reality is: it is 24 hours a day in all watches, diamond studded or otherwise?!
