Take time!

I once visited a friend of mine who was a senior executive of a multinational company. He had a very elegant and well-appointed office. It was not one of those lavishly furnished eyesores but a simple and very aesthetically designed office. Of course there was this exceedingly glamorous secretary, an area where these multinationals always scored over their Indian counterparts. She distracted me so much that when she asked me who was the person that I was looking for, I was about to shout, “You!”

But the steely-willed person that I was, I quickly gathered myself and, with as much dignity I could muster as a renowned batsman walking back to the pavilion felled by the very first delivery, I mentioned my friend’s name. Her face brightened considerably when she heard his name thus giving me an uneasy feeling that there could be something there. Suppressing the stabbing pain of jealousy, I meekly followed her as she ushered me into my friend’s cabin.


It was an astonishingly simple room but the kind that really took your breath away. As this is not some article on Interior Decoration, I refrain from describing it in detail. I must, however, tell you about one item that was a piece-de- resistance. It was the picture of a man walking through a deep forest with his tiny kid perched on his hip and a Pomeranian trailing him. The caption underneath just read “ Take time”. This is an event that took place nearly a decade and half back but I still ponder over that picture from time to time.

Most of us have lost the art of taking time. We seem to be in some endless hurry in everything we do. We rush through our shower. We rush through our food and drinks. We rush through our reading. We jump through channels on our TV. We skip numbers on our musical albums. We don’t listen to any song in full and of course the disk jockies don’t play them in full either. We rush through the posts in IL without imbibing the spirit thereof! We drive at breakneck speed even when our destination is a quiet evening in the beach! We have no time for work and we have no time for our family either. We get irritated when Vajpayee takes a lot more time to utter the next sentence than his customary ten minutes. We rush and rush and rush.
We just don’t seem to realise that the key to our happiness is taking time and enjoying what we do. It is because we have this tendency to rush through everything that we don’t enjoy anything we do. Such mindless rushing also obliterates our goals. We drive six hours to participate in a function and when it extends 5 minutes beyond the listed 20 minutes, we become impatient! Let us stop acting as though we are racing against time. Only when you are on moderate speed that you are able to enjoy the beauty of scenery around but not when you are racing your car. Take time. In pursuing anything, the goal is more important than the pursuit.

In our relentless pursuit of happiness, let us pause for a while and just be happy.

Sri sir
Actually, this is what happening in this 21st century.
Everyone are rushing to office after getting up,that too lately,(coz of hurry, everything will become late), spending much time in traffic, become irritated, finally reach office, tired in the morning itself..... Again evening, the same situation repeats.... After that take food, sleep.... No talkings to the family member, no enjoy, nothing...
I hate such life. Early in the morning, as soon as I wake up, I'll look out from my bed room window... There will be sun or clouds everyday.Its really wonderful experince. Then get ready slowly, as so much time will be there. And I start 15 min early to the normal time, so that I will not caught in the traffic.... Everyone are missing simple beauties too to enjoy! I pity them... As u told, we must take our own time to do things.. Then that's called life... Otherwise, its mere waste...

Gayathri.

dear sri,
what u say is very true, but u think we who were in the rat race of trying to achieve so many things would had heeded what u say, from my experience let me tell u, i had no time to even think of soothe sayers which my friends frequented because i did not beleive in it, i could not even attend the weddings or funeral because i had my job, none would understand except for a few who were running around doing the bread winning meeting the target etc, yeah it has all taken its toll, on health, now when i see this post of urs, i wish i had taken it lightly and god knows all kind of stuff.. nice posting though as usual..regards sunkan

Dear Cheeniya,

Great story, really glimpse today's life. We have no time to see sunrise, no time for realx. Life is really become very complicated. We have more comforts but still we feel emptiness inside. I think Old days were the best days.

My mom used to say that our father always tells her "We'll visit the whole world after we free from responsibilities", but that day never come. After we grown up mom got arthritis & other health problems, she is unable even to visit me. So we should live at present & take a time to enjoy it now.

Thanx for nice post

We rush through our shower. We rush through our food and drinks. We rush through our reading. We jump through channels on our TV. We skip numbers on our musical albums. We don’t listen to any song in full and of course the disk jockies don’t play them in full either. We rush through the posts in IL without imbibing the spirit thereof!

Cheeniya.....you spy you! Have you installed bugs in our houses?:)
Jokes aside, how true. That is the life here today. And there are many more other rush through things I could mention, but you have been quite thorough. And this from our household where we are in the twilight zone of our life! I need to plan far ahead and take appointments from my own children and check my own calendar if we need to undertake even a family get together. I am often mystified...how did we come to this? How did I manage as a young housewife with small kids...I was able to read lovely novels, made three meals a day, entertained friends and had coffee get togethers with other young moms and managed to go for drives with hubby dear...and now, what happened?:( I keep thinking it is the life in US, but you are in Chennai! Did the time somehow shrink? There goes an idea of topic for your next middle:)
But but, time or no time, looks like our menfolk will not miss a pretty miss! Now what was all that about being distracted by a comely figure and jealousy...come one sir, pull up your socks;) You have not time for that.....

L, Kamla

Harried ways are becoming the ways of the day... simple pleasures have long been lost in this chaos. Sometimes when you watch kids enjoying their simple life you realize what you've forgotten.

Jus' thinking on a lighter note... may be we should start our lives 'retired' then we can visit all the places when we still have good health & lots of energy... then slowly as we age we should go to start earning for our next generation to enjoy the same!!! Ain't I really wishful?!

I love Toby Keith's song titled 'Next thing on my list'. Here goes the chorus...
"Go for a walk, say a little prayer
take a deep breath of the mountain air
put on my glove, play some catch.
It's time that I make time for that.
Wade to shore, cast a line,
look up an old lost friend of mine.
Sit on the porch, and give my girl a kiss.
Start living, that's the next thing on my list."

Dear Gayathri
Once the renownrd Tamil speaker and writer Lena Tamizhvanan said, "If any one tells you he has no time, give him a free ticket to Singapore, all expenses paid and you will see him leaving by the next flight!"
"No time" is a lame excuse. Time management is as essential to good living as financial manegement.
Time management essentially means finding time for what we really WANT to do and not need to do!
The irony is that when we are really able to find time for what we want to do, it may be too late.
Take time!
Sri

Dear Sunkan
When we lose money, we can always earn it again but not time! We spend so much time on fruitless pursuits that when we realise it and want to make amends, we find that our realisation has come a trifle too late and again it's rushing!
Like we earmark a percentage of our earnings for charity or religious pursuits or any other objecive close to our heart, we must set apart a percentage of out time for our pursuit of happiness. Whatever it may be! There is no point regretting much later!
sri

Dear Cheer
If you will closely observe , no other creation of God rushes through like a human being! It's man's constant fear that he is running out of time that makes him rush perhaps! In the bargain, we forget the purpose of our existence! What's the point in speeding at 100 miles an hour if we forget our destination?
Its a pity that the homing birds in their majestic flight against the backdrop of a brilliant rainbow go unnoticed in our mindless rushing.
It's time to take time!
Sri

Dear Kamla
India or US , the mindset is the same! Rushing has become the order of the day. If I pause for a while to admire the Nature's bounty, I am accused of a laid-back approach! I have seen men driving their wives nuts in the mornings to reach the office on time and make her believe that if they dont, the whole organisation will crumble on its foundation! If only the wives could see that their rushing husbands spend the best part of the day in the office in mindless yapping, imagine how let down the wives will feel!
But Kamla, read what I have written about what Lena Tamizhvanan once said. No man can ever be found wanting time if a pretty woman invites him for dinner!
Sri