Hello,
Sometimes, a few things happen in our lives that give us a distinctive purview of life. Mahakumbh was one such event. In my last blog, where I mentioned Mahakumbh, since then there happened to be another observation, which I wanted to talk about, and it turned out that the topic is personally very close to me, so here we are after quite some time, talking about the “Time” itself.
There is one song, from a Bollywood Movie “Ghar Parivar”, called “Samay Bada Balwan”, which translates to “Time is mighty”. It goes on like this:
समय बड़ा बलवान।
समय के आगे हम तो क्या हैं,
झुक जाए भगवान रे भइय्या,
समय बड़ा बलवान।
…
(Time is strong, the mighty one,
Before its power, we are none.
Even gods must bend and sway,
When time decides to have its way.)
Contrasting reality, isn’t it? Time, which we all have in common and is equal, doesn’t wait for anyone. Not even God! A recent example, in Mahakumbh, where Millions of people came from different parts of the world to take the holy dip, everyone thought, observing the craze and faith people had in the festival, that it might get extended. But, as soon as the final dip took place on Mahashivratri, the city felt the difference right from the next day. From the emotions of the local people, it felt like a Thanos snap happened, and the busyness and the crowd just disappeared. The city turned empty again. To give you all an impression, this is what the Triveni Sangam (where the three rivers unite) looks like during Mahakumbh vs Normal Days.
The time didn’t stop, neither for the Devotee nor for the God, to wait a little so that a few more can be a part of the festival and have the blessings. Even if we take a look at all the mythological stories, each God was bound with time. The things that had to happen, happened. Even the Almighty couldn’t change it. Just like the schedule of Mahakumbh, even though how large mass wanted to have it extended, it didn’t happen. And during COVID, where there was concern about how it would happen in Haridwar, and should be canceled, it happened. Maybe, the time is so powerful that no one can cancel the course of events, nor delay or extend the good times.
Be it the cosmic universe, the motion of the galaxies, the creation and destruction of stars, to the length of the day and night and the seasons, or simply the ticking clock in the room, all that they have in common is time. How do birds know when to wake up and start twittering if they don’t understand time? How would the Orchestra sound if they were not in time-sync? How would the electricity have reached us if it didn’t hop onto a certain frequency and oscillate on it with the ever-constant time? Will our life be even possible if it weren’t the existence of time itself, or maybe it is the only string that is holding all of our lives together, unknowingly?
A friend of mine (who is currently angry with me and won’t talk to me) has a beautiful About section on his WhatsApp:
No amount of money bought “A Second of Time”
Isn’t it, no matter how much we earn or how rich a person is, can they create some extra hours out of the 24 hours that we all have in common? Or, can he stop the time for him, on the barter of his wealth? No, no one can. And, if we observe it rightly, all that we desire from our loved ones is their “time”. We want to spend time with family. We chase our friends to make time to meet and spend some time together. We look at each other’s calendars at the office just to book the time for a simple tea break, and send reminders to each other. All that we look for is time, because we know, once we have got the time of another person, everything else will sort out on its own. Sometimes all we want to do is to speak, express, and have someone else listen to it, by giving their time. However, time is the most expensive commodity. Everyone is busy, and everyone wants to speak, so if you have a listener who gives you that time out of his life, he is unknowingly giving you a favor, and you should be grateful to have that listener in your life. On that note, I want to express my deepest regards to each of you who are reading this, or have read any of my blogs in the past. Thank you for giving the time from your life, to read this. I will forever be grateful for having a reader, or a listener like you, Thank You!
Time, regardless of being the same and universally constant, is blamed and classified into good and bad. Our actions lead us to situations, and those situations can either be in our favor or against us. When they are in favor, we tend to feel lucky. We drive the roads safely, or miss the incidents by merely a second of time, or this one could be more relatable for Software Developers… the code never hits the race conditions and runs flawlessly. The time feels like to runs faster when everything is bright and sunny. But, there come the situations that might not be caused by you individually, but since you are part of that social group (be it the family, friends, or the team at the office), you have the face the challenges caused by that group’s actions. When such things happen, passing through every second of that time feels challenging. The same route that we take every day, we see all jammed up, the same coffee machine doesn’t work, the code hits the race condition, the software doesn’t scale, and ultimately leads to a crash, the stock market tumbles, and so on. When such things happen, all we need is a little time and patience, but eventually all the minor challenges unite until they form a cyclone, moving all in and out of every sphere of our lives. A beautiful quote came across, especially for such situations:
बुरे वक़्त में अपनों के ताने,
दोस्तों के बहाने,
और दुख भरे गाने ही सुनने पड़ते हैं।
…
(In troubled times, dear ones may blame,
Friends just leave, no one to name,
And sorrowful songs become our flame.)
Even-though, the time is itself constant, but it changes for everyone. All these challenges that makes our life unbearable, all of them slowly starts to resolve making us stronger. Eventually, everything again turn back to bright and sunny days, with more strength. But, how we treat with others, how we support each other, how we help each other, and how we give our time to others, matters. Protect people. Because in tough times, the numbers will never rush to save you.
Life is beautiful and messy and complicated and sometimes it doesn’t look
the way you think it’s supposed to look, and that is okay.
Keep going and always be brave.
– The Life List (Netflix)
Here is a beautiful message that should be spread as much as possible.
Time, as a subject, is very close to me. My whole idea behind this blog-site, is to express my views of being in the present, which eventually is understanding the importance of time, that is just moving.. Take a moment, count till 5 or simply hear the sound of a ticking clock (Some people already know that I have a wall clock that has a loud ticking sound, clearly audible on a call, and that is a reminder for me to be aware of the time, that is constantly moving, and a reminder for me to return to Vartamanah). The seconds that ticked are time. Can’t be seen, can’t be touched, but can be felt. And all we need to do is just accept the time, as is. Acknowledge the situation, ask for help if needed, believe in God, and always have a belief that it is just another time, that will tick away..
Some more beautiful lines from the same song:
जो हर हाल में हँसकर जी ले,
सुखी वही इंसान रे भइय्या।
समय बड़ा बलवान।
…
(The one who smiles through every test,
In every state, they live the best.
That soul is truly wise, my friend—
For time is strong, it won’t bend.)
Again, thank you for your time for reading this. It feels amazing to share that a couple of my friends have also joined me to write on Vartamanah, and soon you might get to read new views with interesting topics from them, wishing them all the best, and to you all, my deepest regards!
Take Care!
– Navneet
VARTAMANAH 
What’s your thought about it?