Time and Tide wait for no man

Time and Tide wait for no man

Ragini returned home all happy and excited as she was nominated for a coveted training program by her company – a token of appreciation. The training program itself being prestigious she wanted to absorb every bit of it. Despite being on Sunday, she hardly felt the pinch and was all upbeat to wake up early morning so that she could make it to the venue well in time.

Both Ragini and her husband Suresh always had their morning tea together, before Suresh left for the gym. As she pored over the morning newspaper with the morning cuppa, she   came across an article about life and death statistics. Fascinated, she turned to her husband and said, "Did you know that every time I breathe somebody dies?"

"Really," he said, "have you tried mouthwash?”

Although it was an innocent and spontaneous remark, as Suresh looked up from his newspaper, he realized his folly as he met Ragini’s red faced gaze. Not wanting the situation to get out of control, he quickly hastened to wrap up and leave for the gym. Ragini decided to keep her cool as she did not want anything to upset her on such an important day. She set on to do her yoga practice but the remark had left an indelible mark that did slow her down. She did not want to be delayed so she cut short her routine to a few practices  and then went for bath.

As luck would have it, there was no water for bath as the tap ran dry. She stepped out of the bath and asked her maid , about the problem. It seems that the watchman had made the tank full but someone in some other apartment had let the tap open and so all the water had drained out. Frustrating as it was, Ragini decided to make do with the little water from the bucket and got ready to go. She realized that she was getting late.

She came to the car park only to find that someone had parked his car at such an angle that Ragini just could not take her car out. She beckoned the watchman to go to the owner and request him to move the car. In this entire milieu, she lost another 20 minutes. Ragini drove off in a huff but the thought of the training soon brought her mood back. Listening to her favorite music, by and by she landed at the venue.

The training was housed in a conference facility in a huge multi storey mall and being a Sunday, the elevator and reception area near the car park were closed down for service maintenance. She had to take an alternative path to the venue only to find that the gutters were being cleaned. The stench was intolerable but time was ticking by. The training would start at 8.30 am and it was already 8.20 am now. She had planned to reach there by 8.15 am, she thought to herself. ‘Keep cool, keep cool’ she pacified her troubled mind….it’s ok ,I’m alright….a lot of self talk , she smiled to herself.

Finally she reached the venue and seated herself. As she was organizing herself, to her dismay, she figured out that she had left her Blackberry in the car. ‘Oh no’ she thought to herself. Again she had to go all the way to the car park and overcome the entire hurdle race , once again , as it would have been risky to leave the mobile in the car. Fatigued, she plonked herself in the seat and looked at the watch - it was 9 am already and the lecture had long started.

Despite her best efforts, she thought to herself, she was late. If destiny wills the other way, even with best intentions, one is helpless.

 A wise man has said : If you really want to worship something, worship TIME and keep him in your favor.  Cause once Time decides to turn against you, just no one can save you. 

Anagha Hunnurkar

12^th February,  2012.