Albert Einstein is supposed to have drawn a parallel between a hot stove and a pretty girl while explaining this theory of relativity. There are no two opinions about what time means to each person and the repercussions it has on people at various point in time.
I recall a joke from yesteryear’s Reader’s Digest. A wife snaps at her impatient husband, “I have been telling you for the last 30 minutes that I would be ready in 5 minutes!” The flabbergasted husband must have done a goldfish at this amazing logic of his wife.
Like Mr. Einstein, I too have realized that 2 minutes is quite a long period particularly when I am doing a Baba Ramdev! This body of mine used to just about picking up a cup of tea with one hand and a book with the other is suddenly thrown into quite a tizzy with my sudden interest in yoga.
When the world celebrated the international yoga day and the following day’s newspaper and Facebook was full of people, not to leave out the neighbor-hood cat, religiously practicing yoga; I needed to shake of this lethargy and practice this amazing ‘art’ form and that is how I came to appreciate a full two minutes. It is not just 2 minutes but a whole 120 seconds!
I always used to feel that the school I studied in manipulated their clock to go slower than what it was during the Maths and Language classes and making up the lost time during recess! I also remember that time used to hang heavily in my hands when I wrote my Hindi II exam. We had two papers for Hindi.
Never one to get the hang of the language, 2 hours out of the 2 and half allotted for the examination was like an eternity. Despite an apparent lifetime after my schooling, the examination hall comes in my nightmare. My studious application to the paper whenever the teacher passed by and then the realization that I really have nothing more to add besides the multiple ways of writing the same sentence for the essay left me drained.
On the other hand, the time was never enough for Social Sciences. Besides the teacher, I think I was one of the very few who loved the subject dearly and hence I found the allotted time too less for all that I had to say in answer to the questions asked and beyond!
When the time comes to bid good bye to our loved ones at the railway station or the airport, the time seems to fly past; yet the darned clock drags when we want to be done with the good byes.
Einstein as usual hit it on the head with his theory of relativity though I feel he erred with his stove and pretty girl analogy. He could have said, “Spend five minutes with your wife of many years, and it would seem like an eternity. Sit with your newlywed bride for an hour; it would seem like a minute.” My husband would have vouched for the same for he starts snoring before my half a second into the conversation is done.
Published 31 July 2017, 17:51 IST