As time flies by….

Harvinder Khetal

As the “It’s-more-than-365-days” films of friends, full of fun photos from this year, first file out of the Facebook fountain, the feeling that time is fleeting finds a fine perch in you, forcing you to figure out phenomena that flashed by. Reminiscences and remembrances take you on a nostalgic trip. More so, as you age. In childhood, you can’t wait to grow up and experience all that the big and beautiful world has to offer to you and you, in return, to it. A year seems to drag slowly, weighing one down with its as many as 365 days. Then the youth is marked, mostly, by a nonchalant, carefree approach. A decade or decennium (time period of 10 years) seems like an eon (an indefinitely long period of time; an age). But as you hit the half-century mark, with the various hits and misses of your life hitting you back and forth, the evanescent nature of time hits you. When you look back, an eon seems to have passed by in a jiffy.

The importance of the tiny wisp of time can best be captured by poetry as Sanober Khan does in this quatrain: 

“One clear moment, one of trance 

One missed step, one perfect dance 

One missed shot, one and only chance 

Life is all...but one fleeting glance.” 

Or, in a pithy line that encapsulates the philosophy of a lady who lived for more than a century (time period of 100 years). In her 104 years on Earth, the centenarian experienced a lot more than most of us. Rose Kennedy, the wife of a fabulously wealthy businessman-ambassador, had the fortune of being the mother of a US President — John F. Kennedy — and two US senators. And, she endured adversities and tragedies of losing four of her nine children in their prime period with poise. In her autobiography ‘Times to Remember’, the stoic lady says succinctly: 

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.

By the second week of December, every year, one is jolted into looking back and taking stock, and at times, rather belatedly, wonder at the ephemeral quality of it all. But this is momentary (for a brief time span, or an instant) wistfulness and you bounce back with renewed vigour, promising yourself to do better as the sand of time slips from your fingers. No more tardiness (the quality or fact of being late; lateness). Leave some prints on the sand of time as the hourglass sand runs. An hourglass is a timing device with two connected glass bulbs containing sand that takes an hour to pass from the upper to the lower bulb. Time is a tough teacher, but teach it does. As Machiavelli famously said:

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see it.

The hourglass reminds me of horology. Horology comes via Latin horologium from Greek h?ra "hour; time" and logy study. It is the study of time, and the art, science and technology of timekeeping and timekeepers (such as clocks, watches and sundials). A sundial is an instrument showing the time by the shadow of a pointer cast by the sun on to a plate marked with the hours of the day.

Horologists love to discuss how we have come a long way in the science of measuring time: from hourglass to sundial to clocks, watches timers, chronometers and atomic clocks. Chronometry refers to electronic devices that have replaced mechanical clocks for better accuracy and precision in time-keeping. By the way, a pico second is one-trillionth of a second.

And, did you know there are schools for those interested in making a career in horology. Aspiring watchmakers and clockmakers head to the West for degree courses since India does not have any such institute though Rolex has opened a training centre in Mumbai. Switzerland dominates in this field. Swiss watches, specially the handcrafted mechanical ones known for their precision and pedigree, spell luxury. 

Even as, with time, wrist watches have fallen behind the digital time provided by the technologically-driven smartphones, those wanting to signify a taste for style, class and tradition, flaunt that luxury watch. It does not cost a bomb for nothing. The mechanical movements of a timeless wristwatch are a result of a fascinating work of art, honed meticulously over years. In fact, it is an art that has been fine-tuned over centuries of passionate innovation and refined craftsmanship. A piece of art is timeless and priceless.

But do mind your purse and time when you are talking to a lawyer or buying a commercial. For, it costs is money. 

[email protected]