Sunday, February 11, 2001		Article

A part of the famous lines by the poet W.H. Davies, ‘A poor life this, if full of care’ still very much holds good in life, in general. But the times have changed is obvious from the fact that these days you don’t find many people ruing. "We have no time to stand and stare"! Standing and staring are activities no longer considered happening. On the contrary they are passe and downright vegetating. In fact, people including in these vices are looked down upon as good for nothing, indolent idlers, whose lives definitely lack direction. Alas, how the times have changed!

Gone are the times of the easy-going, good natured ambling through the days! Days, stretched into a leisurely shimmering haze of magical, mystical timelessness have now become only a thing of imagination. And, for that too you need time! "Sorry, no time", shout the neon like hoardings on the lives of the people, who are in the race of reaching somewhere. I wonder what the world would have to say about the likes of Charles Lamb, who had such romantic dreams of naming his son (if he had one) ‘Nothing to do’!

It seems that we have moved from one zone of timelessness to another. In one we had ample time to shut our eyes and let the sun rays gently wash our face.

 We had time to sit back and look around, to dream, to love, to think to ponder, to day-dream, to dare, to move, to act, to pause, to take stock and then to move again. There was no hurrying through life and no ugly short-cuts. Haste did not mar the pleasure of loving and living. Life then presented a maze of interesting alleyways and one could meander through it in a leisurely manner. Love affairs were conducted with a loving care. One had the chance of enjoying ‘leisure with dignity’.

Whereas, now we find ourselves with zero time in our hands. There is hardly any time to do anything as life appears to be so short and we are always pressed for time. The panic button is pressed the moment one is born and our stay in life is highlighted by jerky, nervous acts. The very idea of taking a break makes us start and go red in face with guilt and shame.

Children today have such pitifully short childhoods as they are in too much of a hurry to grow up. Love has hardly any time to flower and flourish. In fact, love affairs are conducted with a crude haste to come to an abrupt end. Marriages are made in a jiffy to be broken easily. Ambition is pursued with a maniac frenzy. ‘Instant is the Mantra of today’s life. Instant food, instant love, instant pleasure, instant action and instant success. Cup of life is emptied by the time one is in one’s forties, wondering despondently — ‘where to now!’ We have no time to experience real happiness. We only make a pretence of joyfulness as — "But we are pressed by heavy laws; and often, glad no more, we wear a face of joy, because we have been glad of yore".

Life has become one mad rush of getting things done and a continuous challenge — the ‘little done, the undone vast!’ Everybody seems to have goals to achieve and destinations to reach. Only the old and the disabled sit back. But such is the pressure that in most cases even they do not.

The motto being if you wish to feel alive keep doing something. Inactivity is death. And you should begin early. The young pretty thing, I meet in the playground everyday while taking my walk, tells me emphatically, "I hate to be idle!". The trend is to ‘seize time by forelock’ and not to let even a single moment go waste. No wonder most of us would like to name all our born or unborn kids as ‘so much to do’!

So life is moving at a great speed. The adage that travelling is more fun than arriving, applies. Keep travelling. And, at what terrific speed. There is hardly anytime to admire the scenery on the way. Slow and steady do not now win the race. Life has become a race to be run and won. If you slow down to look around or merely to rest you can virtually feel the ‘waves of impatience’ emitting from the world around you. You can even be trampled underfoot or wiped out completely.

Sheer haste has not only robbed the joy out of living but also has led us quite simply into another region of timelessness where the action is mostly physical. The emphasis is on the ‘outside’. Inside is not important any more. Speed does not allow you to think or ponder. It is pure sensation which revves up the senses and adds that exhilarating touch to life. You merely hold on to something, to anything for a minute, catch your breath and let the speed take over!

To quote Milan Kundera, the Czech novelist, "Speed is the form of ecstasy, the technical revolution has bestowed on man". We revel in everything fast. Surely, it is the need of the time that has made us give up one kind of joy in favour of another kind of pleasure. One has to toe the line to be one in this ‘two minute noodle culture’ as ‘I took one draught of life, I’ll tell you what I paid, precisely an existence, the market price they said".