People in the IT industry use the term “TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday!” to depict the start of the weekend mode towards the second half of the day. Employees tend to keep Friday as light as possible and end the day quite sooner than other days. It was an unusual day for me. First time in this year, I had seven hours of continuous meetings for different topics from 12:30 pm to 7:45 pm. I was slightly upset about one of the projects and my last meeting. My mind was occupied by it’s thoughts. I boarded the cab and turned on the music as usual. Seeing the busy market on my way back home, I got reminded that it was the auspicious festival of Pongal the next day. “Oh my God! Am I lost?” I asked myself. I reached home at 9 pm. After dinner, I prepared a list of items to be bought for the festival. I then saw the calendar that the auspicious time for cooking Pongal was between 7:30 to 8:30 am, the next day. I retired to bed at 12 am.
I set my alarm to 5:30 am and I was sure I wouldn’t need it. My mind wakes me up everyday the time I want to wake up. Although I set the alarm every night, I wake up before the alarm and switch it off. That’s funny me all these years! Waking up at 5:30 am, I had my bath and got busy with kitchen tasks. I scrubbed the stove, cleaned the ritual (pooja) area and then woke up my little daughter. I wanted her to know the tradition and spoke to her on the importance of this festival. She was excited and wanted to perform little tasks as much as she could. I gave her some turmeric and asked her to apply it to the entrance of the house. I then asked her to place the Pongal vessel with rice and lentils on the stove. As we saw the bubbles rising, we both exclaimed “Pongalo Pongal! Pongalo Pongal!”. I then cooked the spicy Pongal, sambar and vada while telling my daughter how to make these.
We then made the ritual table ready. My daughter was offering God all the delicacies we prepared. After a long night at work, my man had a short sleep and woke up while we were ready. After our rituals of worship, we had our brunch. We tasted the delicacies and my little Cherry seemed to enjoy the sweet Pongal more. We clicked few pictures and spoke to our near and dear ones. It was 12 pm and I got reminded that I had enrolled for a Writers meetup that afternoon. “Do you think you have the time to go to this meetup on a festival?” my husband questioned. “I’d love to go. It’s just for 3-4 hours!” I exclaimed.
I took a cab and reached the venue on time. This was the first time at such a meetup for me. I was excited. While I entered, there were about 20 people and the floor was damn silent. A lady gently smiled and asked me to pick a sheet and start writing. It was an assignment sheet which said the theme for the week was fiction. They had 3 assignments timed for 10 minutes, 10 minutes and 40 minutes. I loved this challenge! “Again, a one shot writing” I told myself. I took out my notebook and pen and started putting my thoughts.
The host announced “time up” and new comers for the meetup were asked to read their writings. This was the first time I tried a fiction. I got positive feedback and areas of improvement too. After the meetup, the team proceeded for coffee where I had a chance to interact with all of them. It took longer than I thought and I left home at 7 pm. While returning back home, hundreds of thoughts crossed my mind as usual.
How many times had I told myself, “I do not have time for this and that?”. How many times had I heard “I do not have time” from others? How many times had I told others, “I do not have time”? How many times have I heard “I don’t have time for this meeting or task” from my colleagues and seen them at coffee! No wonder that I have done this at times too. What is time? Is that only about the sun rising and setting? Is that only about the clock ticking? Is that only about how busy you are?
“Wow! Activities from different dimensions – Official, personal, rituals, interests. I could do all of these in just 31 hours. I did not slip from any of my roles being an employee, wife, mother, home maker, and in fact had time for myself too. Don’t I have ample time in life to do what I want then?” as my mind questioned me, the cab driver asked “Madam, do I take a right here?”. I arrived home at 7:30 pm. As I climbed the stairs, I asked myself “Why don’t I write a post today? It’s just 7:30 and I still have atleast 2 hours to write before I start dinner preparation” I told myself. Here I complete my post at 8:50 pm much earlier than I predicted today. I still have time for other tasks now 😀 Something that I was upset about my project yesterday seems gone now. “I will do it and I will make it on time!”
Why do we hear people say “I don’t have time?” my mind was confused often earlier. Now I got the answer. “Time is willingness; time is priority; time is interest!” I could equate time now! “I’m never going to say ‘I don’t have time'” I told myself. If this simple concept is understood, none of us would use this sentence anymore!
1 thought on “Time is willingness”
That was a nice post to read Sudha. Yes, most of us just don’t ‘do’ enough things we would like to do. It’s so great to see how you do all these things and still managed to find time for the write club. But then most of us have the same thing, one way or the other. From students to working homemakers to company CEOs, everyone has enough excuses not to do what they say they would like to do, but then we still end up meeting every Saturday we can.
Hope to see you there again. 🙂