Make the most of your downtime
My recent train journey to Delhi was an ordeal due to the rail blockade by protesters. As the train halted, I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from my old classmate, who is based in Japan. When I shared my experience of being stranded, he said, “When my train runs late even by five minutes, the railway staff issues a delay certificate (chien shoumei-sho in Japanese slang). I just have to submit this certificate to my boss as proof of the train delay. For certain trains, I just have to download it from the railway website.”
I was impressed by the respect the Japanese have for punctuality. He added, “Here, everyone is anxious not to be late for their appointments and generally arrive 10 or 15 minutes before the scheduled time.” In India, if one were to do back-of-the-envelope calculations for the time wasted in a day, it would make us recoil with guilt. Waiting endlessly in chaotic traffic or at times for public transport is the rule rather than the exception. Why go this far? Aren’t we all peeved when our better halves are on a window-shopping spree at their favourite mall? The choice is ours — whether we fret or turn idle time into opportunities.
Trained by the Army, I have discreetly catered to such contingencies. Whenever I step outside the house, I arm myself to the teeth, keeping the acronym ‘CLOWNS’ in my mind. Each letter signifies an entity — C for cellphone, L for laptop, O for organiser (containing wallet, debit card, visiting cards), W for writing material, N for newspaper of the day and S for spectacles. I have never been perturbed in situations when I have to wait. I simply have to turn on my laptop to type out my next piece for a newspaper, the way I did while being stuck in a traffic jam with my chauffeur.
By sticking to this mantra, the ‘to-do’ list gets knocked off by the end of the day. That perfect moment would inevitably remain elusive when one wistfully aspires for the right ambience or environment to execute a given task.
Even during power outages, we as a family move out of our respective work stations and indulge in ‘Wordle’ or an invigorating discussion on global events. As I enter the mall with my better half, I look for a seat to plonk myself and catch up on some reading on my ‘Kindle’.
I came across a very interesting ad by a mall in China that has innovatively installed ‘husband storage pods’ to attract female shoppers. Husbands can occupy a glass pod having a chair and a computer, where they can work or even play games. No wonder it has incentivised the majority of the husbands to take their wives out for shopping. Quite an innovative idea, which, I am sure, must have been the brainchild of a woman.
